This week we sit down with Becky Lomax, author of Moon’s USA National Parks, to discuss news stories that arose around the National Park System during May. And we bring you an interesting story about efforts to recover populations of endangered black-footed ferrets in the West. Two places where they’re working on that are Wind Cave and Badlands national parks in South Dakota.

In this week’s show, we talk with Toby O’Rourke, the president and CEO of Kampgrounds of America, about a study KOA commissioned to gauge Americans’ interests in returning to campgrounds on and near public lands as the fight with the coronavirus pandemic continues. The findings are quite interesting and point to renewed interest in camping as a recreational pursuit. After that conversation, we tempt you to explore the dark side of the National Park System.

In this week’s show, we sat down with Emily Hoff and Maygen Keller to discuss their upcoming book, Scenic Science of the National Parks, an Explorer's Guide to Wildlife, Geology, and Botany. The book, scheduled to be available March 31, is a wonderfully new guidebook to help you get the most out of your national park adventures. We also talk with Tanya Shenk, a National Park Service scientist who helped develop a draft framework for bison stewardship in the Midwest Region of the park system. It’s a region where you can find bison at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas, Badlands National Park and Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, and Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.