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National Parks podcast, National Parks Traveler

John Garder, the senior director of budget and appropriations for the National Parks Conservation Association, discusses congressional action on legislation to address the roughly $12 billion in backlogged maintenance needs across the National Park System. Becky Lomax, author of Moon USA National Parks, talks about what she's seeing in the parks in terms of that maintenance backlog, and we share thoughts about efforts to build a commercial spaceport just west of Cumberland Island National Seashore.

:12 Episode introduction with Kurt Repanshek
1:36 Introduction to John Garder's discussion of the Restore Our Parks Act
2:50 Interview with John Garder
11:00 National Parks Traveler promotion
11:17 Washington's National Park Fund promotion
11:55 Friends of Acadia promotion
12:28 Interview with John Garder continues
20:29 Grand Teton National Park Foundation promotion
21:05 Yankee Freedom promotion
21:45 Interview with Becky Lomax, author of Mooon USA National Parks
49:47 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation promotion
50:15 North Cascades Institute promotion
50:41 Commentary: Secrecy surrounding Camden Spaceport
53:45 Orange Tree Productions

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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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National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 315 | Threatened Lands

Across the United States there are hundreds of millions of acres of public lands. Indeed, there are more than 500 million acres of federal lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the National Park Service, just to name the three largest land managers in federal government.

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National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 314 | NPS Cast Aside

It was just over a week ago, on Valentine’s Day, that the Trump administration wiped 1,000 employees off the National Park Service staff without any apparent strategy other than that they were dispensable staff still on probation and so lacking any real protection for being fired without cause.

February 26th, 2025 Read More

National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 313 | National Parks in Crisis

The Trump administration’s determination to reduce the size of government regardless of the cost is having a hard impact on the National Park Service.

Last month the agency was forced to rescind job offers to seasonal workers, saw a hold placed on millions of dollars distributed through the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act to address climate change, been told to prepare a reduction-in-force list of employees, and ordered to "hire no more than one employee for every four" let go.

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National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 312 | The Ghost Forest

National parks are home to many iconic trees. Bristlecones pines, Whitebark pines, Sequoias, even mangroves. And, of course, redwoods.

These trees hold many stories. The size alone of redwoods and sequoias are enough to hold your attention. But there are backstories, as well. In the case of redwoods along the Northern California coast, the backstory can be heart-breaking. There are chapters of logging fever, of course, as well as of political machinations, and stories of loss.

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