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In this week’s show, we question whether national parks can serve as a barrier to slow the sixth mass extinction. 

Certainly, the large landscape parks such as Yellowstone and Yosemite and Grand Canyon offer the habitat many species require. But parks are slowly being hemmed in by development, making it harder and harder for species to follow their natural paths across the landscape. 

So can they slow the sixth mass extinction? We’re going to be taking a look at that in the coming weeks and months, and today we’ll lay out that proposal in an essay.

But first, what can turn a five-day trip to Yosemite National Park into a one-day trip to Assateague Island National Seashore? Covid can. In this lighthearted and informative story of their trip to the beach, the Traveler’s Lynn Riddick and her friend Michele Hogan demonstrate that it’s all about flexibility when trying to find some outdoor space in the age of a global pandemic.

:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
:12 Episode introduction with Kurt Repanshek
1:10 Beyond the Reef - Tim Heintz and Grant Geissman - Seascapes: A Musical Journey
1:45 North Cascades Institute promotion
2:03 Grand Teton National Park Foundation promotion
2:41 When Covid Turns A Yosemite National Park Vacation Into A Visit To Assateague Island National Seashore
35:52 Caribbean Song - Tim Heintz - The Sounds of the Everglades
36:17 National Parks Traveler promotion
36:31 Washington’s National Park Fund promotion
37:04 Friends of Acadia promotion
37:32 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation promotion
38:03 Essay| Can National Parks Slow The Sixth Mass Extinction
45:22 The Offering - Bill Mize - The Sounds of the Great Smoky Mountains
45:45 Episode Closing
46:10 Orange Tree Productions promotion
46:45 Splitbeard Productions
46:56 National Parks Traveler footer

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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.

March 9th, 2025 Read More

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.

February 16th, 2025 Read More

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.

February 9th, 2025 Read More

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