Will I Ever Get to Yosemite?

Summary

Summary of "Will I Ever Get to Yosemite?" Episode of How Is This Better?

Released on May 30, 2025 by Courier

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Introduction

In the episode titled "Will I Ever Get to Yosemite?" hosted by Akilah Hughes, the discussion centers around the alarming threats facing the United States' national parks. Akilah delves into the political maneuvers aimed at privatizing these treasured public lands, the ensuing impact on conservation efforts, and the broader implications of climate change. Through insightful interviews and expert opinions, the episode paints a comprehensive picture of the current state and future of America's natural heritage.

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The Threat to National Parks

Kristen Bringle opens the conversation by expressing disillusionment with the current administration's approach to national parks. At [00:30], she reflects:

“Maybe it's on me. You know, I should have known better. I should have assumed that the thing I paid for my whole working life, that my family, and likely yours, has funded for generations. Beautiful places that don't bully you into spending endless money to experience glorious, unfettered nature. National parks."

She laments the administration's moves to privatize these lands, questioning the rationale behind such actions:

“Our current administration seems content to simply take away this greater good, or at least greatly diminish it, by opening it up for logging and drilling... But I have to ask, how is this better?” ([00:30])

Akilah Hughes sets the stage by emphasizing the importance of scrutinizing changes to national parks, promising an in-depth exploration of the motivations and consequences behind privatization efforts.

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Impact on AmeriCorps and Future Park Stewards

The episode highlights the detrimental effects these policies have on AmeriCorps and the pipeline of future park stewards. Kristen Bringle provides historical context, explaining how the Antiquities Act of 1906 has long protected public lands. She contrasts this with current threats posed by the Trump administration's policies.

Steve Bisinger, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, shares his frustrations:

"Most of my job is communicating with the administration and Congress to get them to do the right thing. Fund parks. Protect them. Make more of them." ([05:16])

The "Valentine's Day Massacre" is cited as a pivotal moment when the administration attempted to dismantle the National Park Service by abruptly laying off employees ([06:10]). This move not only jeopardizes current conservation efforts but also undermines the training and development of future park rangers.

Adam Auerbach, an environmental policy student and former park ranger, conveys the personal impact of these policies:

“It's really devastating... So much of my identity and my personhood has been in public lands management. And I found that through AmeriCorps.” ([08:31])

He underscores the loss of opportunities for young individuals who rely on AmeriCorps for professional development and a sense of purpose.

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Climate Change and Its Effects on National Parks

Climate change emerges as a central theme, with expert Steve Bisinger discussing its tangible impacts on various national parks:

“In some national parks, the climate has changed such that the plants and animals there are no longer able to survive... for example, in the Mojave Desert, Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park... we found a large decline in the bird species that are living there.” ([14:58])

Bisinger explains how warming and drying trends are pushing species to higher altitudes, leading to ecosystem imbalances. The increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires, exacerbated by climate change, pose severe threats to these natural landscapes:

“Intensities of fires as a result of climate change... it's only going to get worse unless we work a lot harder to try and reverse these processes.” ([16:56])

Kristen Bringle ties these environmental challenges back to policy, criticizing the administration's denial of climate science and its push for fossil fuel exploitation:

“Add to that the complete climate denial and the commitment to catastrophic carbon emissions, and it's not looking good for the parks.” ([13:17])

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Economic Implications

The episode also delves into the economic aspects of maintaining versus privatizing public lands. Adam Auerbach provides compelling statistics:

“3.1% of employment in this country is dependent on our outdoor recreation economy, and that's 2.3% of our GDP annually. And you know what? That's bigger than is the entire net sum of oil and gas and mining combined.” ([11:22])

He argues that public lands not only offer ecological and recreational benefits but also significantly contribute to the economy, outweighing the profits from extractive industries.

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Public Response and Call to Action

Throughout the episode, there's a strong emphasis on the need for public awareness and activism. Kristen Bringle and Adam Auerbach stress the importance of preserving the entire network of public lands, not just the iconic national parks. They call on listeners to recognize the interconnectedness of these lands and the critical role they play in environmental stewardship and economic stability.

Adam Auerbach warns of the potential slippery slope starting with agencies like the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, eventually threatening national parks:

“If we're not doing research, if we're not supporting wildlife, all of the research that goes into effective governance of parks... we're not facing like really irreparable harm to our parks for generations to come.” ([20:33])

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Conclusion

Akilah Hughes wraps up the episode by sharing her personal frustration and resolve to visit Yosemite despite the obstacles posed by ongoing policies and climate change. She poignantly states:

“No, this wasn't even a Coachella weekend so I probably needed to make a more thought out plan for me and my dog... But surely drilling for oil and the inevitable disasters and oil spills that will follow isn't some better solution.” ([20:31])

The episode closes with a heartfelt plea to listeners to value and protect America's national parks, emphasizing their irreplaceable beauty and significance for future generations.

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Key Takeaways

• Privatization Threats: The Trump administration's efforts to privatize national parks jeopardize conservation and public access.
• Impact on Youth and Future Stewards: Policies affecting AmeriCorps disrupt the training and development of future park rangers and conservationists.
• Climate Change: Significant environmental changes are already affecting biodiversity and the integrity of national parks.
• Economic Value: Public lands contribute substantially to the economy, surpassing the profits from extractive industries.
• Public Responsibility: Collective awareness and activism are crucial in preserving national parks and combating climate change.

Notable Quotes

• Kristen Bringle ([00:30]): “But I have to ask, how is this better?”
• Steve Bisinger ([05:16]): “Most of my job is communicating with the administration and Congress to get them to do the right thing. Fund parks. Protect them. Make more of them.”
• Adam Auerbach ([08:31]): “So much of my identity and my personhood has been in public lands management. And I found that through AmeriCorps.”
• Steve Bisinger ([14:58]): “In some national parks, the climate has changed such that the plants and animals there are no longer able to survive.”
• Adam Auerbach ([11:22]): “3.1% of employment in this country is dependent on our outdoor recreation economy, and that's 2.3% of our GDP annually.”

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This episode of How Is This Better? serves as a crucial wake-up call, urging listeners to recognize the value of national parks and the urgent need to protect them from privatization and environmental degradation.

Transcript

[Akilah Hughes]

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[Kristen Bringle]

Maybe it's on me. You know, I should have known better. I should have assumed that the thing I paid for my whole working life, that my family, and likely yours, has funded for generations. Beautiful places that don't bully you into spending endless money to experience glorious, unfettered nature. National parks. Yeah, I should have figured that one day they'd be gone. Or threatened, rather. I just always thought I'd have more time, you know, I thought that I could spend my older retired years driving all across this beautiful country and discover all the good air, good water, and good vibes. I took these landmarks for granted. I assumed they'd always be there. I'm a full adult, and the closest I've gotten to Yosemite is that Mac update from a few years back. Our current administration seems content to simply take away this greater good, or at least greatly diminish it, by opening it up for logging and drilling. Generally, things that Mother Nature isn't down with. But I have to ask, how is this better? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes. You may know me as the founding host of Crooked Media's what a Day podcast, the host of rebel spirit with iHeart, or as that lady who's been posting funny stuff on the Internet for nearly 20 years. And this is How Is this Better? A new show from Courier, where I'm asking the only question that matters about changes being made and suggested about the world around us. Our topics range from politics to tech, to art to. To science, to infinity, maybe beyond. Anyway, today I'm asking, how is it better to privatize these lands? It's a good question that needs an answer, so let's find out, shall we? We shall. After the break.

[Adam Auerbach]

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[Akilah Hughes]

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[Kristen Bringle]

If Project 2025 is to be believed and so far they've stuck to the letter the plans for the national parks really hinge on a rep of the 1906 landmark legislation, the Antiquities act, which grants the President the authority to protect public lands of historic or scientific value. For more than 100 years, this bipartisan act has been protecting 164 important locations. Here's a little more backstory on the parks. Up until the mid-1800s, the US generally saw nature as something to overcome, trees to be chopped, animals to be eaten. You get the gist. That was until George Catlin, a lawyer, painter, author, traveler. Okay, it's giving millennial levels of side hustles, started urging the government to come up with more specific policies protecting the land between him, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson heard of him. The idea began to catch on and in 1864 Senator John Conness of California sought to protect Mariposa, Big Tree Grove and Yosemite Valley. And that same year, Republican President Abraham Lincoln, who to be honest seemed pretty busy with that whole Civil War slavery situation, signed it into law, giving California the land for public use, resort and recreation inalienable for all time. Republican President Teddy Roosevelt expanded on the idea, doubling the number of national parks from 5 to 10 using the Antiquities act we just talked about to create national monuments, little places like the Grand Canyon and Devil's Tower, and crucially, established the National Forest Service. Fast forward to now and Republican President Donald Trump is trying to privatize the land that everyone fought so hard to protect for basically the opposite of conservation. Since we're in an all out assault on science and history in favor of pseudoscience and whitewashed history. No doubt this is going to be an issue sooner than later. So to get a better sense of what's going on, I asked a few people whose job it is to know.

[Steve Bisinger]

Most of my job is communicating with the administration and Congress to get them to do the right thing. Fund parks. Protect them. Make more of them.

[Kristen Bringle]

This is Kristen Bringle, the senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association. The NPCA is a dope nonprofit dedicated to supporting our national parks, from defending wildlife to preserving the natural sounds and clarity of the night sky over these lands. What is their plan?

[Steve Bisinger]

I think we knew that they were going to come after the federal workforce generally, and so it's not a total surprise that they came after the Park Service. But what they found was that when you actually look at studies about which federal employees are the most popular, national park rangers are the highest on the list of the most loved and respected. I think what they found out was that they really attacked the wrong agency and the wrong federal employees. And so there was an incredible amount of backlash.

[Kristen Bringle]

Just a quick refresher. The Valentine's day massacre was February 14, 2025, when the Trump administration's Department of Government efficienc, then run by Elon Musk, who moved fast, broke things, and left as peculiarly as he came. I think I've done enough, if that can be believed, decided that it was inefficient to, you know, have any National Park Service maintaining the 85 million acres of public lands. He unceremoniously sent around a thousand probationary employees an email and gave them the boot.

[Steve Bisinger]

Wildly unpopular. And they ended up, because of a court order, having to reinstate all of them. But they weren't even going to fully reinstate them. Wow. It took them still four hours to decide to reinstate all of them.

[Kristen Bringle]

Hearing about the park rangers who are just getting started and are having their dreams of taking care of this land dashed against the rocks by someone with the screen name Big Balls. Yeah, that sucks. Because Doge isn't just targeting national parks directly. They're also targeting AmeriCorps, which is a program that feeds directly into the national parks employment pipeline. I tried to read more about AmeriCorps, but the website is already leading to a bunch of dead links.

[Adam Auerbach]

How I came to parks is through AmeriCorps, which is a federal service program that leverages the power of young people to support a number of kind of public services across the country. So there are AmeriCorps service programs and fields as diverse as, you know, public health, education, food security, environmental work, certainly disaster relief.

[Kristen Bringle]

This is Adam Auerbach. He is currently finishing his degree in environmental policy at CU Boulder while also working part time for public lands nonprofits. He recently pinned an op ed for National Parks Traveler and was quoted in the New York Times as the fallout from the Trump administration's attacks on the parks made headlines.

[Adam Auerbach]

I'm formerly a park ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park. I spent three seasons there doing what we call interpretation, working in the visitor centers to help people, you know, plan safe and rewarding trips. Your ranger led hike, your talk at the visitor center about bears or whatever it is. You're talking to campgrounds, helping keep people safe and keeping people educated.

[Kristen Bringle]

How does it make you feel now knowing what they're doing to AmeriCorps? You know, I visited their website. They've gutted all the links. I'm assuming that means that the program is no longer. What would it have meant for you to have that opportunity ripped away?

[Adam Auerbach]

It's really devastating. I don't think we're quite at the place where AmeriCorps totally no longer, but I think it's very much under threat. And I'm deeply concerned as so many alums in my network and more broadly who have been really profoundly impacted by this program. I was 20, I was without away. I'd done two years of college, but I hadn't found myself. I hadn't found my path, the opportunity to travel and the opportunity to find purpose, purpose alongside other young people, like serving the country through, in my case, doing like, you know, habitat restoration, wildfire fuels, protection for the public. It's such a hard counterfactual question to even know where I would be without this program because my. So much of my identity and my personhood has been in public lands management. And I found that through AmeriCorps. So many people have found their path through, through this program that offers, like, you know, professional development, but also belonging. My heart breaks for the young people who are deprived of the chance to serve and just also the cruelty of it all.

[Kristen Bringle]

This kind of cruelty is something that came up in my conversation with Kristen Brink.

[Steve Bisinger]

One of the things I got welled up in tears over in the last few weeks was killing a generation of park stewards, people who are going to take care of these places next after we're gone. That is painful.

[Kristen Bringle]

Painful and undignified.

[Adam Auerbach]

One of the programs that has been fully disbanded was a program called nccc, which is a residential program for young people. So people who are 18 to 24, they might not have somewhere else to live when they get kicked out with no expectation, right? Like day of, they're told this program is canceled. Like, you know, not only is AmeriCorps service, you know, great for the country because people are doing, in the case of that program, like disaster relief, literally responding to, like, hurricanes and floods and tornadoes. You know, like, we need that support as a society, but we're also supporting these young people and giving them a path and in many cases, giving them, like, literally a roof over the head while they serve their country. So it's like, okay, not only can you not serve, not only can you not do professional development, like, you don't have a place to live tonight. It'd be one thing to dismantle this program, but, like, there are ways to do it with less unnecessary, airy cruelty to the young people who just, like, want to serve their country and advance their own law in life.

[Kristen Bringle]

I mean, another problem with the privatization of land, besides the devastation, you know, it would cause the environment, is that the land belongs to US citizens. Did you think much about that before, you know, this current administration came into power, like, about the possibility that it might not actually be ours forever?

[Adam Auerbach]

There's always been fringe interests throughout my lifetime of knowledge around public lands, this. This movement towards privatization of public lands, but it's never felt like it was actually going to happen potentially until the current moment. Right. Like, those voices have always been there, but in this moment, this administration is really deeply signaling that they intend to privatize our public lands. That's the thing that I think is so asinine about all this is like, they say it's good for the economy, but it's like, public lands are already great for the right.

[Kristen Bringle]

Being able to breathe is great.

[Adam Auerbach]

Well, right. But 3.1% of employment in this country is dependent on our outdoor recreation economy, and that's 2.3% of our GDP annually. And you know what? That's bigger than is the entire net sum of oil and gas and mining combined. So when they say they want to privatize our public lands, they want to do it for oil and gas and mining, but actually our public lands are already better for the economy.

[Kristen Bringle]

That's right.

[Adam Auerbach]

You can't make it make sense. And like you said, all the other benefits to, like, public health and wellness and the environment and the air that we breathe and the water that we drink.

[Kristen Bringle]

Yeah, pretty bleak. I know. But still, there's that selfish question I've been harboring. That selfish question I've been harboring after the break.

[Akilah Hughes]

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[Kristen Bringle]

This is a selfish question, but do you think I'll ever get to see Yosemite or any national park? Considering how quickly they seem hell bent on closing them?

[Steve Bisinger]

Yes. And you'll be able to go and love and appreciate them, of course. Yeah. Our national parks have stood the test of time in many administrations. We just want to make sure that we're not the generation that ruins things. You know, climate change is probably the biggest existential threat of the national parks. We need to address that as soon as we have more political fight in us to do that.

[Kristen Bringle]

Ah yes, the elephant in the room, the climate. Look, I'm all for wishful thinking, but this administration isn't just any old administration. They're gutting our government like a fish, all in the name of so called efficiency. So if I want to see it, it looks like there's no time like the present. In the meantime, let's unpack. See what I did there? This whole climate change thing seems like a pretty big deal, which is why it's great that we have this administration that believes in climate change and is fighting so hard to slow it down. It's bad enough that the Trump administration wants to cut down the national forests, drill for oil, and gut the Endangered Species act to literally build where endangered species live. Sorry, bears. But add to that the complete climate denial and the commitment to catastrophic carbon emissions, and it's not looking good for the parks.

[Steve Bisinger]

Hi, my name is Steve Bisinger. I'm a professor emeritus of Ecology and Conservation Biology at University of California, Berkeley.

[Kristen Bringle]

Steve, along with the students and collaborators, has published over 175 articles towards the goal of understanding the influence of climate change. So climate change is not a small thing. What are the most significant ways that climate change is currently impacting the national parks.

[Steve Bisinger]

In some national parks, the climate has changed such that the plants and animals there are no longer able to survive. So there have been species that have disappeared from those parks or are starting to disappear. They're sort of hollowing out. So, for example, in the Mojave Desert, Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave National Preserve, we found a large decline in the bird species that are living there. They don't occupy nearly as many places as they did a century ago before the climate change. And it's due to heating and drying in Yosemite National Park. That warming and drying has actually pushed some species further upslope.

[Kristen Bringle]

Steve, know about my plans to hopefully maybe someday soon visit Yosemite.

[Steve Bisinger]

You're hoping to go to Yosemite? Yeah, Yosemite Valley, it's fairly fragile. It's fragile enough that the numbers of tourists that wish to visit there are more than the facilities in the valley can sustain. And so they have to use a system to limit tourism moving into that area, limit cars going in there. So I could imagine, should one wish to privatize that part of the park, perhaps sell it off, I could imagine a big conflict between maintaining the beauty of Yosemite Valley and selling it off, maximizing the profits that would happen.

[Kristen Bringle]

There's no question what Trump's plan will be. On his very first day in office this go round, Trump promised to, quote, unleash America's affordable and reliable energy and natural resources. Ugh.

[Steve Bisinger]

If those plans are to drill, baby, drill, then I think. I think we're obviously going to be accelerating climate change just from that production.

[Kristen Bringle]

One obvious bit of climate change we've experienced on the west coast is fires. They're bigger, hotter, less predictable, and affecting land near national parks. Even up in Northern California, the frequency.

[Steve Bisinger]

And intensities of fires as a result of climate change, you know, has become a major problem for us in our. In our lifetime and in the lifetime of our children. It's only going to get worse unless we work a lot harder to try and reverse these processes. In addition, you know, we're seeing stronger and more lasting drought conditions that influences water available for agriculture, water available for our urban areas, and fires are part of that recipe as well. And then it's also led to drying conditions in our rivers and streams that have caused the loss of salmon populations and other threatened fishes. Our national parks, you know, we are seeing these kinds of impacts.

[Kristen Bringle]

It's clear that in an increasingly hot and changing world, now is really not the time to cede ground to an indifferent at best and greedy at worst presidential administration. What do you wish the general public understood about the changes to the national parks that are being proposed by the Trump administration? Because I think that you're right. Obviously people like the national parks. They like the idea of national monuments. They, they use them. You know, hundreds of millions of people go and experience them every year. But this is an issue that I think is kind of in the flood of issues. So what do you hope that people start paying attention to when it comes to this issue?

[Adam Auerbach]

People don't very often understand that our public lands are not just national parks. Right. Like you said, we have national monuments, we have U.S. forest Service land, we have the Bureau of Land Management. All these agencies have recreation as a part of their mission. And you and I can go visit these lands. We need to not just keep our parks, but we need to keep the whole network because our parks actually depend on the whole network. I used to work at Rocky Mountain national park, which is surrounded 360 degrees by US Forest Service land. And your experience there is dependent on a healthy public, not private extractive. Forest Service. Right. Wildlife. No, no political boundaries. A lot of the trails weave in and out. The Forest Service is, you know, world class expertise in wildland fire management. We should all be really worried about that. What we're seeing with the dismantling of these agencies around our ability to stay safe from fire. I think it's important that the public knows that like, like undoubtedly they're going to start with the push to sell off, not our parks. Right. They would never start there. That would be totally.

[Kristen Bringle]

It's not going to be Mark Zuckerberg's Yosemite yet.

[Adam Auerbach]

Right. So, but then we need to nip the problem in the bud and we need to really figure out how to show up against the movement to sell off. At first it'll probably be our Bureau of Land Management land and our Forest Service land. But you know, they might as they find that they can subsidize tax cuts for the billionaire class by selling off public lands, they're not going to want to stop at Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service. And my concern is that eventually will make it to parks. And the other thing that I think it's really important for people to understand, the visitor experience in parks is not only down to like the most frontline visitor services. Even if you visit a park this summer and the visitor center is still open and the trail is still open and maybe you have a good bathroom experience like that's coming at a really extreme cost. And the Park Service has this mission and we need to provide for public enjoyment today, but also preserve and protect for all generations into the future. If we're not doing research, if we're not supporting wildlife, all of the research that goes into effective governance of parks, you might be able to hobble through a season or two in it to look okay to the outside. But like, that doesn't mean what's actually happening behind the scenes is okay and we're not facing like really irreparable harm to our parks for generations to come.

[Kristen Bringle]

That's an incredible point and very much mirrors what's happening with the rest of the country anyway, right?

[Adam Auerbach]

Yeah, well said.

[Kristen Bringle]

Armed with all this history and context, I packed my car and tried to make my way to Yosemite. It was a beautiful drive. You know, can definitely say that, but you know what they say if they about best laid plans. Turns out paper maps don't tell you that it's a nine hour drive. And no, this wasn't even a Coachella weekend so I probably needed to make a more thought out plan for me and my dog. Total honesty. I hate that I'm being burdened with this. That's the whole point of maintaining them. And I'm gonna go soon. But let me know in the comments how long you think I actually have till the Grand Canyon is a Tesla cop robot dealership. And I know climate change in a bum economy was already making my retirement plan to see all that natural beauty harder by the minute. But surely drilling for oil and the inevitable disasters and oil spills that will follow isn't some better solution. And none of us should have to worry if this, this president or the next is going to sell it off to the highest bidder. Because it's our land and because we deserve nice things. And the National Parks might be the nicest thing this country has going for it. How Is this Better? Is written and hosted by me, Akilah Hughes. It is produced by Devin Maroney and edited by Shane Verkus. Kevin Dreyfus is the Managing Director and Executive Director Producer at Courier. RC Demezzo is VP of Brand and Social and Charlotte Robertson is Deputy Director of Brand and Social. Tracy Kaplan is VP of Distribution and Sales. If you want to reach out about sponsoring or advertising, reach out to infocuriernewsroom.com Marianne Kuga is Director of Marketing and the original music is by Used People in Artwork by Danielle Deplato Sam.