Over the years there have been more than a few units of the national park system that have been head-scratchers. Why were they added? What redeeming value did they bring to the park system?
James Ridenour who was Director of the National Park Service from 1989 through 1993, was well familiar with these units. As he once put it, “I’m in complete agreement that the National Park Service has units that are unworthy of National Park Service status. That was my motive for coining the term ‘thinning of the blood’.” Members of Congress trade votes to get their local favorite on the NPS teat, usually to attract tourists. Then they don’t add money to the budget to run these units. So you have two things - you thin the quality of the system, and you thin the ability of the National Park Service to run the system.
We’re going to explore some of these units, at least some of the ones that were pushed out of the National Park System with none-other than Traveler professor emeritus Dr. Robert Janiskee. Bob was the one who quite some years ago started the “Pruning the Parks” series on the Traveler, and we’ve momentarily pried him out of his retirement to discuss some of these parks with us.
By Jess Repanshek - April 9th, 2023
:02 National Parks Traveler introduction
:12 Episode Intro with Kurt Repanshek
1:25 Beyond the Reef - Tim Heintz & Grant Geissman - Seascapes: A Musical Journey
1:33 Interior Federal Credit Union
1:56 Washington’s National Park Fund
2:30 Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
2:58 Pruning the Parks with Dr. Janiskee
16:35 Amaranth - Bill Mize - The Sounds of the Great Smoky Mountains
16:59 Traveler Promo
17:10 Yosemite Conservancy
17:32 Friends of Acadia
17:58 Great Smoky Mountains Association
18:22 Pruning the Parks with Dr. Janiskee Continues
30:25 Wabanaki - Nature’s Symphony - The Sounds of Acadia
30:47 Potrero Group
31:13 The Everglades Foundation
31:24 Grand Teton National Park Foundation
32:00 Pruning the Parks with Dr. Janiskee Continues
46:12 Sieur De Monts - Nature’s Symphony - The Sounds of Acadia
46:25 Episode Closing
47:00 Orange Tree Productions
47:33 Splitbeard Productions
47:43 National Parks Traveler footer
Summer is almost here. The upcoming Memorial Day weekend is the official kickoff to the summer travel season, and I’m happy to say that the National Parks Traveler will be continuing to bring you news about the parks and how you can enjoy them.
As much as Editor-in-Chief Kurt Repanshek was looking forward to retiring, listener and reader support has enabled the news organization to continue on with its editorially independent coverage of National Parks and protected areas.
With the summer vacation season not too far off, no doubt many National Park Service Superintendents are trying to figure out how to manage the crowds and avoid impacts to natural resources in the park system.
Smokies Life, which most of you who closely follow Great Smoky Mountains National Park know was previously known as the Great Smoky Mountains Association, produces educational and informational materials for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This week we’re joined by Laurel Rematore, the chief executive officer of Smokies Life, to discuss the name change as well as how her organization lends a big hand to the Park Service staff at Great Smoky.
Have you ever closely inspected the landscape when you’re touring the National Park System, particularly in the West? You never know what you might find.
Back in 2010 a 7-year-old attending a Junior Ranger program at Badlands National Park spied a partially exposed fossil that turned out to be the skull of a 32-million-year-old saber-toothed cat.
If you’ve ever visited Petrified Forest National Park you’ve no doubt marveled over the colorful fossilized tree trunks. There are also fossilized trees on the northern range of Yellowstone National Park, but nowhere near as colorful.
Wolverines, the largest land-dwelling members of the weasel family, once roamed across the northern tier of the United States, and as far south as New Mexico in the Rockies and southern California in the Sierra Nevada range. But after more than a century of trapping and habitat loss, wolverines in the lower 48 today exist only as small, fragmented populations in Idaho, Montana, Washington, Wyoming, and northeast Oregon.
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The Essential RVing Guide
The National Parks RVing Guide, aka the Essential RVing Guide To The National Parks, is the definitive guide for RVers seeking information on campgrounds in the National Park System where they can park their rigs. It's available for free for both iPhones and Android models.
This app is packed with RVing specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 parks.
You'll also find stories about RVing in the parks, some tips if you've just recently turned into an RVer, and some planning suggestions. A bonus that wasn't in the previous eBook or PDF versions of this guide are feeds of Traveler content: you'll find our latest stories as well as our most recent podcasts just a click away.
So whether you have an iPhone or an Android, download this app and start exploring the campgrounds in the National Park System where you can park your rig.
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