Since August 2005, National Parks Traveler’s mission has been to educate the public, increase awareness, and build a strong advocacy for protection and stewardship of our national parks. That mission will be underscored in 2017 as we seek nonprofit 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service, a designation that will cement National Parks Traveler’s role far into the future.

The paperwork has been filed, the IRS is reviewing it, and now we’re waiting to hear back.

Why the change?

National Parks Traveler, founded by Kurt Repanshek in 2005, has applied to become a nonprofit media organization to bolster its coverage of national parks and the National Park Service/Patrick Cone

If there’s one thing the past 11 years have demonstrated, it’s that there’s a deep interest in national parks. During the Traveler’s first week in back in 2005, there were roughly 400 readers. Now, more than 1.5 million readers from around the world stop by the Traveler each year to learn how to enjoy the parks, where to go to spot wildlife, find a great hike, and yes, even follow both the management of the National Park Service and Congress’s oversight of the agency and the parks.

The website’s editorially independent coverage of breaking news and long-form journalism also attracts attention from media such as The New York Times, the Washington Post, Outside Magazine, and others that look to National Parks Traveler for story leads.

With just one full-time staffer, founder and Editor-in-Chief Kurt Repanshek, the Traveler has led the way on a number of issues, including:

• The 2013 sequestration’s impact on the National Park System
• The long-running snowmobile stand-off in Yellowstone National Park
• Oil and gas exploration at Big Cypress National Preserve
• The threat to national parks posed by oil trains
• The battle over the creation of a marine reserve at Biscayne National Park

We’ve also offered you countless travel-related stories, such as:

• Visiting Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve By Mothership
• Western Frontier: Early Forts Regale America’s Fur Trade Era
• Three Days in Big Bend National Park
• Kathadin Woods and Waters National Monument: A Pretty Magical Place
• Quiet Time On the C&O Canal

So great has the interest been in national parks coverage that the best way to ensure it endures after I unplug my keyboard is to place the Traveler in the hands of a board of directors and supporting editorial staff that embrace our mission:

…to educate the general public about the National Park System, increase awareness and understanding of issues affecting the national parks and the National Park Service, and build a stronger advocacy for protection and sound stewardship of the parks.

National Parks Traveler has evolved into the national leader for national park coverage that both enhances the visitors’ experience and nurtures tomorrow’s stewards for these wondrous destinations. Proof of the need for such an outlet can be seen in the greatly diminished mainstream media coverage of national parks now that the National Park Service centennial has passed.

We, though, see great value and interest in daily, editorially independent parks coverage. We also think you do, too. And we believe that you, and foundations and businesses that also share that belief, will support our mission.

As a nonprofit, we plan to grow the Traveler’s staff to provide more expansive coverage. We intend to provide deeper and broader coverage to include more frequent experiential stories of how you can get the most out of your national park adventures, articles on “the science” of the parks (think of our stories on wolves and moose at Isle Royale, sea turtles and shorebirds at Cape Hatteras, and Kittlitz's murrelets at Glacier Bay), pieces that examine how parks are being managed, and troubled areas that need public attention, such as the sexual harassment issue in the National Park Service and the threat development poses to park units.

It’s a wide, interesting range of subjects that one full-time person alone cannot adequately tackle, and which deserves a dedicated media organization to follow. Make no mistake, however, this will not be an easy lift. We'll need a groundswell of support to succeed.

With news that Google and Facebook control the lion’s share of media distribution and command a shocking majority of online advertising dollars (85 cents of every dollar spent during the first quarter of 2016), it’s even more challenging for independent media to survive. That said, we believe a move to a nonprofit operation will ensure that we will.

As soon as we hear from the IRS on our application, we’ll share the news with you and better outline Traveler’s continued evolution. We hope you’ll embrace our mission and support our continuing coverage of America’s Best Idea. -- Kurt Repanshek