How might the 2020 presidential election impact the National Park Service? Former National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis, Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, and Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, discuss that question.
By Kurt Repanshek - November 1st, 2020
:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
:12 Episode introduction with Kurt Repanshek
1:58 A round table discussion of the presidential election and its possible impacts on national parks with Jon Jarvis, Phil Francis, and Kristen Brengel.
24:16 Amaranth - Bill Mize - The Sounds of the Great Smoky Mountains
24:33 National Parks Traveler promotion
24:47 Western National Parks Association promotion
25:15 Wild Tribute promotion
25:43 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation promotion
26:06 Washington’s National Park Fund promotion
26:41 Grand Teton National Park Foundation promotion
27:13 Friends of Acadia promotion
27:40 North Cascades Institute promotion
28:02 The round table discussion with Jon Jarvis, Phil Francis, and Kristen Brengel resumes.
48:16 Long Pond - Nature’s Symphony - The Sounds of Acadia
49:03 Episode Closing
49:21 Orange Tree Productions promotion
49:58 Splitbeard Productions
50:10 National Parks Traveler footer
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Spur a discussion about traveling to a national park for a vacation and odds are that it will revolve around getting out into nature, looking for wildlife, perhaps honing your photography skills, or marveling at incredible vistas.
Will the discussion include destinations that portray aspects of the country’s history, or cultural melting pot?
Tens of millions of people in the United States will be able to witness a Total Solar Eclipse on Monday as the rare astronomical event cuts a path from Texas to Maine, up to 122 miles wide in some spots. This is a great opportunity to see the exact moment when the moon fully blocks the sun, creating a blazing corona visible to those observing from the center line of totality.
With March madness down to the Sweet 16, and Opening Day of Major League Baseball having arrived, we’re going to take a break this week and dive into our podcast archives for this week’s show.
This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at the National Parks Traveler. My NCAA bracket was busted the very first day, and while the Yankees won their opening day game against the Houston Astros, I don’t think they’ll go undefeated this year.
One of the most popular public events in the National Park System was the release of sea turtle hatchlings, shuffling off into the Gulf of Mexico at Padre Island National Seashore. I say was, because the number of those public events has been drastically scaled back in recent years.
Air pollution and climate change impacts can have outsized effects on the National Park System, as well as lesser noticed but just as concerning effects. But are those impacts spread across the entire park system, or clustered around a few?
Back in 2019 the National Parks Conservation Association looked at how air pollution and climate change were impacting parks. They have updated that study with the latest data from the National Park Service, and the current state of affairs remains concerning.
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Comments
Your guests are not knowledeable on why the GAOA was enacted. It was ONLY because Corey Gardner convinced Mitch McConnel that he needed something positive to use in his reelection campaign. If your guests were in Colorado, as I am, they would understand how inundated we have been with Gardner claiming he supported the parks by getting the GAOA passed while his previous 5 years in the Senate and 4 years in the House he did NOTHING to support the parks.
Garner's hypocrasy was was seen last Friday. After nearly 30,000 acres of Rocky Mountain National Park had been burned by the East Troublesome and Cameron Peak Fires Colorado's Senator Michael Bennett and Representative Joe Neguse met with RMNP's superintendent, the leadership of Estes Park and the fire districts around RMNP who have been fighting the fire -- but NO Corey Gardiner.
I find it unlikely that the OMB will release anything about the GAOA projects as it won't help the current administration's reelection efforts.
You need to have guests from outside the beltway who can represenot what is happening outside the beltway. You should contact the Rocky Mountain Conservancy to get an accurate appraisal of what is happening in RMNP not those in the beltway who have no idea.
Thanks for hearing me out.
Interesting podcast. While I respect your guests they have no clue on the current efforts underway in the NPS (and that have been underway in the NPS for the past several years) to keep the mission moving forward. The NPS is alive and well -- just a matter of where you want to look. The NPS EVS scores were not great under either of these NPS leaders who were on this podcast.
The election is over and there will be better days ahead -- these former career folks on this podcast should remember that their hyperpartisan rhetoric and leanings is detrimental to the career people left behind. Think about it - not everyone in the agency is a hyperpartisan and because career folks like this appear to be -- all NPS staff get painted with the same broad brush. Pragmatism over purity is where real change happens in government -- and where career staff make the difference.
There are plenty of NPS staff and partners who have kep the fire burning over the past few years - maybe these folks don't know how to find them.
This podcast is like listening to Statler and Waldorf in the balcony of the Muppets show. Maybe these guys should listen to what some of President Elect Biden's messages have been about coming together. Thinking everything is some dark conspiracy makes this no better than right wing propaganda. Dan Wenk being taken out was a sign of things to come? Give me a break. Can we stop with the martyrdom! Wenk left a disaster of a housing program at the park and everyone knows it. Thank goodness that mess and embarrasment is being addressed with the current replacement of employee housing.
I am glad there will be change. But if we think a career NPS employee will bring about the change needed as a Director - we are in for a big surprise. We need non-agency centric perspectives to be mixed in with the career folks. It is a winning combination that works elsewhere in the government.