National Parks Traveler Podcast

Why expand the National Park System? That can be a controversial question. There are many folks who would love to see additional units added, and there are just as many who say the National Park Service does not have the staff or funding to adequately maintain the existing park system.

We’ve been exploring that question in recent weeks and months, and an argument can be made that since national parks carry the highest protection of natural resources in the country, we should expand the park system to better protect biodiversity and, if possible, help it grow.

There are seemingly endless guides to exploring the national parks — Moon, National Geographic, Lonely Planet, and various other corporate publishers. Indeed, it’s rare these days that you find a writer who takes on the role of both guidebook author and publisher.

Most of these guidebooks take the same approach: a nice overview of the park in question, followed by a breakdown of places to stay, where to eat, things to do, nearby attractions. Mike Oswald is swimming against the current with his park guidebooks.

Once upon a time, there might have been 60 million bison on the North American continent. The herds were so large that they covered prairies like immense horizon-stretching black cloaks, and their annual migrations carved such wide paths into the landscape that some were turned into roads by human travelers.