The National Park Service is faced with a $12 billion deferred maintenance backlog.  How did we get here and what can we do about it?

John Garder from the National Parks Conservation Association joins the Park Leaders Show to discuss how the maintenance backlog grew so large and what we can do about it. 

The maintenance backlog in the National Park Service is a reflection of what is happening with most park system throughout the United States. The discussion on the impact of a maintenance backlog is relevant for any park and any park system that struggles with deferred maintenance. 

To find out more about the deferred maintenance backlog, please visit NPCA.org. 

You can connect to Park Leaders on Twitter and Facebook. 

One of the things I learned at the World Ranger Congress is that parks all over the world have the same problems. 

Teemu Laine and Vesa-Matti Hillberg, both park rangers from Finland, join the Park Leaders Show to share their experience at the World Ranger Congress and what they have learned as park rangers. 

This is the first episode of the show where "Reindeer herders" were mentioned as a problem for a park ranger. Even when the details are different, most of the problems we face are similar. This is why it is valuable for park professionals to be exposed to other rangers from around the country and world. 

You can find out more about Finland National Parks HERE. 

Brent Leisure, Director of Texas State Parks, returns for another episode of the Park Leaders Show. 

This episode is short enough it could have easily been included on the first episode with Director Leisure. This conversation is a separate episode because it needs to be a separate conversation. 

We need to support parks at all levels. City and County Parks are an important gateway for exposure to greenspace and the outdoors. For most of us, our first encounters with the outdoors are with an urban park. Parks enhance neighborhoods and lead people to visit larger State and National Parks. 

The experience of visiting a National Park lead us to support our local parks as well. All parks are connected. It is a natural progression to begin with your local park and then move up to something bigger and perhaps more adventurous. 

Director Leisure explains what Texas State Parks is doing to work with local communities and local parks. 

In this episode, Director Leisure recommends the books Sand County Almanac and Leadership on the Line. 

Texas is big. If you haven't been to Texas you have seen it on a map. No matter how you look at the state, it is big.

The enormous geographic size creates a challenge when it comes to communicating to staff if they are spread across the state. Brent Leisure, Director of Texas State Parks

Brent Leisure, Director of Texas Parks and Wildlife, joins the Park Leaders Show to discuss how to communicate when parks and staff are spread out. Communicating with a large staff in difficult. It becomes more delicate when the large staff is spread out in such a large state.

Director Leisure also discusses the challenge of inviting more diverse users to parks. 

It is not enough to open the gates and say everyone is welcome to come. You have to reach out. Texas State Parks has implemented programs to engage a diverse population. They make an effort to attract urban visitors, visitors with little outdoor experience, visitors from diverse racial backgrounds. The lands and water the state has set aside are places where all demographics can  come together to share experiences.