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It’s mid-October, the visitation season is slowing down for the northern tier of the United States, but that doesn’t mean news from the National Park System is ebbing. 

In the past handful of weeks we’ve seen an incident with a black bear along the Blue Ridge Parkway, a woman who got too close to a grizzly sow and her cubs at Yellowstone was sentenced to four days in jail, and President Biden has restored – at least for now – the original boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Esclante national monuments in Utah and returned the original protections for Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monument some 130 miles or so off the coast of Cape Cod.

To discuss and dissect these and other stories, Traveler Editor-in-Chief Kurt Repanshek is joined by Contributing Editor Kim O’Connell. 

:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
:12 Episode introduction with Kurt Repanshek
:56 Whispering Winds - Grant Geissman - Sounds of the Caribbean
1:08 Potrero Group
1:36 Western National Parks Association
1:57 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
2:20 Washington’s National Park Fund
2:54 Nova Scotia Tourism
3:30 Editor-in-Chief Kurt Repanshek and Contributing Editor Kim O'Connell discuss latest news from around the National Park System
17:53 Escalante - Tim Heintz - The Sounds of Peaks, Plateaus and Canyons
18:09 North Cascades Institute
18:27 Interior Federal Credit Union
18:49 Grand Teton National Park Foundation
19:18 Friends of Acadia
19:44 Yosemite Conservancy
20:10 News from around the park system with Kim and Kurt continues
39:58 Bass Harbor - Nature’s Symphony - The Sounds of Acadia
40:17 Episode Closing
41:09 Orange Tree Productions
41:40 Splitbeard Productions
41:52 National Parks Traveler footer

National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 324 | North American Bird Declines

True birders are some of the most determined and persistent hobbyists out there. If you want to call bird watching a hobby. For many, it’s more like a passion. Many look forward to “Big Day” competitions, where individuals and teams strive to see how many different bird species they can spot in a 24-hour period.

May 11th, 2025 Read More

National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 323 | Walt Dabney and Public Lands

It’s fair to say that the nation’s public lands, those managed by the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and other federal land-management agencies are at risk under the Trump administration.

There’s no hyperbole in that statement if you pay attention to what the administration already has done in terms of downsizing those agencies’ workforces, and when you listen to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum say he wants to open more public lands to energy development and mining.

May 4th, 2025 Read More

National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 322 | Congressman Jared Huffman

The first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term might be the most tumultuous first 100 days of any president. He certainly came in prepared to move his agenda forward, no matter what barriers to it existed.

We don’t usually discuss presidential politics, but President Trump has released a blizzard of executive orders and directives touching all corners of the federal government, including the National Park Service.

April 27th, 2025 Read More

National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 321 | National Park Science At Risk

There has been much upheaval in the National Park Service this year, with firings, then rehires, and staff deciding to retire now rather than risk sticking around and being fired. There have been fears that more Park Service personnel are about to be let go through a reduction in force.

While Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has ordered the Park Service to ensure that parks are properly to support the operating hours and needs of each park unit,” that message said nothing about protecting park resources.

April 20th, 2025 Read More

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.

April 6th, 2025 Read More

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