National Parks Traveler Podcast | Polluting Parks With Light

National Parks Traveler Podcast | Polluting Parks With Light

Author: Kurt Repanshek April 12, 2026 Duration: 41:35

You might not entirely appreciate the wonders and majesty of national parks unless you venture out after dark and gaze up at what often is referred to as the other half of the national park system. The view can be quite dazzling, with planets, stars, the Milky Way, and for the lucky, a comet or shooting star.

Sadly, not every park offers such dazzling views. Light pollution reaches more than a few national parks, and can really infringe on your nighttime enjoyment of the parks.

Gavin Heffernan is among those park travelers who are troubled by light pollution. He's a California-based photographer with a unique long-form time lapse style. And he's hoping this approach brings a fresh awareness to the wonders of night skies in the national parks and creates advocacy to fight light pollution and the damage it wreaks on natural habitats. 


There's a world of stories waiting beyond the park entrance sign, and the National Parks Traveler Podcast is your audio guide to them. Led by Kurt Repanshek, this series goes deeper than trail maps and visitor statistics. It connects the natural wonder you experience firsthand with the crucial, often unseen work happening behind the scenes-the science informing conservation, the cultural histories embedded in the landscape, and the policy decisions that will shape these places for future generations. As the audio companion to the editorially independent nonprofit media organization, this podcast delivers a thoughtful blend of on-the-ground reports, interviews with researchers and park staff, and nuanced discussions about the challenges and triumphs in managing protected areas. You'll hear the sounds of the parks and the voices of the people dedicated to them. Each episode is an invitation to better understand the complex tapestry of ecology, history, and society that makes every national park far more than a scenic destination. Tune in for a regular dose of insight that will deepen your appreciation and perhaps even shape your next journey into America's most treasured public lands.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

National Parks Traveler Podcast
Podcast Episodes
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Managing Yellowstone Bison [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 41:10
As the National Mammal and a symbol closely tied to the National Park Service and the national parks, bison are highly revered in the United States. But that doesn't mean they're free of controversy. Recently the staff a…
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Letters from the Smokies [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:59
There is so much rich history across the National Park System, from chapters of the Revolutionary War held in parks in the eastern half of the country to stories from the gold rush that stampeded through Alaska during th…
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Parks as Founts of Wildlife [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:37
Recently I read "The Wolverine Way", by Douglas Chadwick. It's a book from 2012 that really dives into the lives of wolverines, a small mammal with a cantankerous reputation that the US Fish and Wildlife Service late las…
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Traveler's Summer Outlook [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:16
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…
National Parks Traveler Podcast | NPS Budgetary Blues [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:10
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. With Memor…
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Smokies Life [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:36
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…
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Fossilized Parks [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:35
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 Bad…
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Wolverine Recovery in Colorado [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:15
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 ra…

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