The Secret Lives of Parks

Rosalie Edge may be the greatest environmentalist you’ve never heard of. In the early 20th century, she fought fiercely to protect raptors and old-growth forests and establish national parks like Olympic and Kings Canyon. So why is her story seldom told? In this episode, we’ll find out why.

North American bird populations have been in steep decline for decades, in part due to habitat loss. In one forest near the Blue Ridge Parkway, researchers have been putting special recording units in the trees to monitor the birds that find refuge there. Can a coalition of wildlife conservationists and outdoor enthusiasts protect this rare old growth habitat for the animals — and people — who depend on it?

What does it take to care for a nation’s history, piece by piece? In a little-known building off a country road in West Virginia, a small team of experts restores and preserves some of America’s most precious objects and papers. Who are these trained specialists, and why were these priceless artifacts at risk?

A series of staffing crises are squeezing a national park workforce that was already spread thin through years of underfunding. Now, a new reduction in force could put even more pressure on employees as we head into the busy spring and summer seasons.

Taking a year to visit all the national parks is the stuff of bucket lists. It’s also a logistical puzzle and a lot of hard work, especially if you’re reporting stories for an Emmy-winning news magazine and capturing the entire experience in a bestselling book. Conor Knighton did all of that, and today he shares his insights from a year on the road in the national parks.

Dinosaur National Monument preserves one of the richest collections of late Jurassic remains on Earth. But where there are fossils, there are often fossil fuels. Could a push for new drilling and mining threaten this beloved park and its prehistoric reptiles?

A proposed Chuckwalla National Monument near Joshua Tree National Park would protect the threatened Mojave Desert tortoise and help many other species thrive, including people.

The home of trailblazer Frances Perkins could soon become our newest national park site, making it just the thirteenth devoted to women’s history. Yet few people know much about the first female U.S. cabinet secretary, who established many of the workplace protections we take for granted.

A new guide to dog accessibility at national parks can help people traveling with pets know what to expect at sites across the country. In this episode, we explore concerns, best practices — and a few horror stories to keep in mind — when visiting parks with our furry best friends.

On the remote Sea Islands of South Carolina, golf courses and gated developments are changing the rural character of some of the first African American-owned lands in the country. The Gullah/Geechee, direct descendants of the enslaved people who once worked the area’s plantations, are now fighting a new threat to their land and culture, which are central to the history of the nearby Reconstruction Era National Historical Site.

What does life on the front lines of climate change look like? For the residents of the tiny island of Aunu’u in American Samoa, it means watching the ocean wash away more of their land each year. As temperatures and sea levels continue to rise, could the struggle to preserve the Samoan way of life hold a lesson for the rest of the world?

What happens when a really important place doesn’t seem important to the people in charge? In 1978, Judy Hart was driven to create a new national park, even though people told her the places she wanted to save didn’t look like a national park. By recognizing the need to interpret women’s history, Hart changed the way the Park Service approaches the concept of national significance.

A significant new fossil discovery at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area could deepen our understanding of ancient mammal-like reptiles that lived among some of the earliest dinosaurs. A team of scientists shares how they found this unprecedented trove of ancient remains and what it could teach us — including corollaries to our own modern experience of climate change.