National Parks Traveler Podcast | Kansas Road Trip
National Parks Traveler Podcast
Release Date: 10/12/2025
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Year in Review
National Parks Traveler Podcast
This year, 2025, likely will go down as the most transitional for the National Park Service. We’ve seen the loss of nearly a quarter of the permanent workforce, efforts to whitewash history in some parks, and the loss of a grand lodge to wildfire. The past 12 months have been full of news impacting the National Park Service and national parks, not all of it good. It’s been a somewhat tumultuous year, leaving many wondering what the new year will bring for the parks and their employees. To help us look back over the past 12 months, we've invited Kristen Brengel, the senior vice president...
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National Parks Traveler Podcast | Historic Preservation in the Parks
National Parks Traveler Podcast
A century of seasons has worn the appearance of the log cabin Roy Fure built in present-day Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, but his care of the small cabin, and later National Park Service restoration efforts, have enabled it to stand the test of time. Dovetail-notched spruce logs still sit tightly together, the corrugated metal roof Fure replaced his sod roof with in 1930 and painted red could use a new coat of paint, but otherwise looks rainproof, and the windmill he erected to generate electricity still stands tall. Across the 85+ million-acre National Park System there are...
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National Parks Traveler Podcast | Threatened and Endangered Species Intro
National Parks Traveler Podcast
After more than 50 years as one of the country’s landmark environmental laws, the Endangered Species Act has gone from one of the most popular measures before Congress to one fueling demands that it be revised, if not discarded. The National Parks Traveler is reviewing the Endangered Species Act's work and its record, spotlighting individual species that it's protected, those that it failed, and those that it recovered. The monthslong series comes as ESA champions worry that the push to weaken the law could consign countless animals and plants to the growing list of flora and fauna that,...
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National Parks Traveler Podcast | Endemic Haleakalā
National Parks Traveler Podcast
is deceptively wonderful and rich in biodiversity. But if we're not careful, we could lose some of that biodiversity. Located on the island of Maui in Hawaii, the first thing you notice about this national park is its towering dormant volcano, Haleakalā, which rises from sea level to more than 10,000 feet. While many visitors simply want to head to the top of the volcano to peer into its crater or enjoy a colorful sunrise or sunset, if you take a little time to get to know this park you'll be amazed by what doesn't first come into sight. For instance, there are more than 300 plant and...
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National Parks Traveler Podcast | Staffing and Funding the Park Service
National Parks Traveler Podcast
It’s Thanksgiving Weekend, usually interpreted as a bountiful time of year when we can all sit back and be thankful. But can many who work for the National Park Service feel thankful in the wake of the staff reductions this year? This year has been hard on the Park Service, what with the loss of roughly a quarter of the full-time workforce and questions around how the agency has long interpreted history. But the Park Service has long struggled with its operations. Funding and staffing never seem to have met the needs of the Park Service to manage its far-flung collection...
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National Parks Traveler Podcast | Shrinking Mount Rainier
National Parks Traveler Podcast
Gazing up at mountains from their valleys down below, it’s hard, if not impossible, to detect any change on the top of the mountains. But change is ongoing, especially in recent history as the climate continues to warm. From Tacoma or Seattle in Washington state, the snowy summit of Mount Rainier National Park appears unchanged from how it’s always looked. Snowy. But is that truly the case? What would you think if someone told you the top of the summit no longer is 14,410 feet high, that the high point of the park has actually shrunk? Our guests today are Eric Gilbertson, a mechanical...
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National Parks Traveler Podcast | Park Friends Under Pressure
National Parks Traveler Podcast
The government shutdown has been record-setting in terms of its length. So, too, has been the time that many employees of the National Park Service have been furloughed without pay. How has the shutdown affected the parks, and how have the friends groups that support the parks responded? We’re going to discuss that today with Chris Lenhertz from the Golden Gate Conservancy, Jacki Harp from Smokies Life, Eric Stiles from Friends of Acadia, and Cassius Cash from the Yosemite Conservancy.
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National Parks Traveler Podcast | November NewsMatch Fundraiser
National Parks Traveler Podcast
What is a "typical" day at the National Parks Traveler like? When you surf over to the website there's always content there, ready to update you on news from around the National Park System. How is it generated, and who generates it? Editor Kurt Repanshek and Contributing Editor Kim O'Connell dive into the logistics of running a news operation that's focused on national parks and protected areas.
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National Parks Traveler Podcast | The Battle of Saratoga
National Parks Traveler Podcast
Though the Revolutionary War didn’t officially end until September 1783 with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, a key turning point in the war for independence occurred six years earlier in a small corner of today’s New York state. The Battle of Saratoga stretched out from September 19 until October 7, 1777, and marked the first time the British Empire had been forced to surrender. British General John Burgoyne had stretched his forces too thin in marching down from Canada with the intent of capturing Albany and wound up with huge losses in his army of nearly 7,000. His defeat at the...
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National Parks Traveler Podcast | Government Shutdown Blues
National Parks Traveler Podcast
The federal government is shut down, but the national parks – most of them, anyway – are open. Back during his first term in office President Donald Trump also kept the parks open during the government shutdown that stretched from the end of 2018 into early 2019. That led to some vandalism to the parks and damage to some park resources. How are things going this shutdown? To explore that question, our guest today is Kristen Brengel, the senior vice president of government affairs with the National Parks Conservation Association.
info_outlineKansas is a big place, and not one particularly well-known for national park destinations. But that doesn’t mean you should overlook the Sunflower State.
In the closing days of September, as the country seemed destined for a government shutdown, the Traveler's Kurt Repanshek and Patrick Cone headed into Kansas to visit some of the parks there to better understand their role in the National Park System.
And we were not disappointed. Back in 2022 Kurt made a similar trip, and stopped at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills of central Kansas. During that stop Ranger Eric Patterson gave Kurt a wonderful tour of the preserve and explained its history.
Eric has moved on, but during Kurt and Patrick's recent visit Heather Brown, the preserve’s chief of interpretation, sat down with them to discuss the preserve in general and the tallgrass prairie specifically.
During their swing through Kansas, Kurt and Patrick also headed to Nicodemus, a well-off-the-beaten path destination in the National Park System, one so far off the beaten path that the state of Kansas does Nicodemus National Historic Site a tremendous disservice by providing very little signage showing you how to get to Nicodemus.
But stay determined and you can find the site. While the Park Service only claims five buildings at Nicodemus, and only two are open, the history of how the townsite was founded in post-Civil War America by more than 300 previously enslaved peoples is an uplifting history of self-determination, grit, and perseverance.
What follows are two conversations they had with rangers – before they were furloughed when the government shut down – at the two sites, LueCreasea Horne Horn at Nicodemus National Historic Site and Heather Brown at Tallgrass prairie.