Tom Smith, a professor of wildlife sciences at Brigham Young University and a member of the National Rifle Association, discusses how effective guns in backcountry locations are in defending against bear attacks. What he says might surprise you. This episode also looks at the Volcanic Legacy Highway that ties Lassen Volcanic National Park and Crater Lake National Park together.

:02 Welcome to National Parks Traveler
:12 Episode introduction with Kurt Repanshek
1:48 Introduction to Thomas Smith's discussion on protecting yourself from bear attacks with guns
2:36 Thomas Smith interview
14:34 National Parks Traveler promotion
14:48 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation promotion
15:14 Yankee Freedom promotion
15:49 Thomas Smith interview continues
38:54 RVShare.com promotion
39:28 Friends of Acadia promotion
39:57 North Cascades Institute promotion
40:21 Volcanic Legacy Highway
44:32 Washington's National Park Fund promotion
45:07 Yosemite Conservancy promotion
45:43 Commentary: Close The Parks
51:07 Orange Tree Productions promotion
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National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 320 | George Wright Society
George Melendez Wright was a brilliant young scientist with the National Park Service back in the 1920s and 1930s. You could say he was ahead of his time, in that he wanted the Park Service to take a holistic role in how wildlife in the parks was managed.
National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 319 | Kilauea's Unrest
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There are more stories to be found in the National Park System than one could write in a lifetime. Or several lifetimes.
Sometimes those stories can be hard to spot. How many were aware of the factoid from Great Smoky Mountains National Park that Jennifer Bain dug up, that if you stacked up all of the park’s salamanders against its roughly 1,900 black bears, the salamanders would weigh more?
Talk about national park trivia.
National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 317 | A Little Volcanic Levity
In this week’s podcast we thought we’d take a break from the unsettling news happening in and around our national parks and federal lands regarding park staff reductions and threats of reducing park boundaries to make way for mining.
National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 316 | National Park Service Upheaval
There is, across the country, some upheaval going on as the Trump administration works to reduce the size of the federal government. Whether you support that effort or oppose it, you can’t deny there’s not upheaval going on.
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Comments
Great podcast, it not only addresses guns and bears but includes a lot of information on keeping yourself safe in a backcountry bear encounter. I had not been a big podcast fan but after listening to this one I have gone back and listened to several others from Nat Parks Traveler. Keep up the good work.