Study after study has shown that time in nature enriches us mentally and physically. Just a couple of hours outdoors each week can improve our mood, reduce our stress, boost our immune systems and deepen our sleep, among many other benefits. But life has a way of distracting us from simple pleasures like hiking and camping. The demands of work, school and family can overtake our best intentions and our waking hours.

Award-winning journalist Nicolas Brulliard devised a plan to get himself into nature on four camping trips on the same trail, all taken on work nights over the course of a year — one in each season. He wrote about his experiences in a National Parks magazine article, then returned to the trail and reflected on his adventures with host Jennifer Errick. He shares some of his main takeaways, including the value of attention, the significance of sitting instead of walking, and how to hike like a kid instead of an adult.

The Secret Lives of Parks is a production of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Episode 47, Parks and the Art of Paying Attention, was produced by Jennifer Errick, with help from Todd Christopher, Bev Stanton and Linda Coutant.

Original theme music by Chad Fischer. Sound effects from Rocky Mountain National Park by Nicolas Brulliard.

Read Nicolas’ award-winning National Parks magazine story, “Four Walks in the Park,” at npca.org/fourwalks

Learn about the book that inspired the journey, “A Year in the Woods: Twelve Small Journeys into Nature” by Torbjørn Ekelund, at goodreads.com/book/show/57731687-a-year-in-the-woods

Learn more about this podcast and listen to the rest of our stories at thesecretlivesofparks.org

For more than a century, the National Parks Conservation Association has been protecting and enhancing America’s national parks for present and future generations. With more than 1.6 million members and supporters, NPCA is the nation’s only independent, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to protecting national parks.

You can join the fight to preserve our national parks. Learn more and join us at npca.org

Neotropical migratory songbirds spend the winter in Central and South America and travel each spring to their breeding grounds in the U.S. and Canada. These species are teeny creatures on average, often weighing under two ounces each, yet their travel plans are bold — some make roundtrips of more than 10,000 miles in a single year. But this colorful cohort of birds, from warblers to thrushes to tanagers, face habitat loss from climate change and development at both ends of their range.

But the Big Ivy region of the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina is a rare intact forest that provides a welcoming breeding ground for many of these birds, including species whose outlook has been especially bleak. This episode, host Jennifer Errick speaks with NPCA Southern Appalachian Director Jeff Hunter and Wildlife Research Program Coordinator Steve Goodman on the 415,000 birdsongs they’ve captured in the Big Ivy and how they’re using the beautiful recordings to protect this rare and beautiful Appalachian forest.

The Secret Lives of Parks is a production of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Episode 46, The Bird Nerds of Big Ivy, was produced by Jennifer Errick, with help from Todd Christopher, Bev Stanton and Linda Coutant.

Original theme music by Chad Fischer.

Learn more about the campaign to create a Craggy National Scenic Area at IHeartPisgah.org.

Learn more about NPCA’s Day of Action at npca.org/everypark

Learn more about this podcast and listen to the rest of our stories at thesecretlivesofparks.org

For more than a century, the National Parks Conservation Association has been protecting and enhancing America’s national parks for present and future generations. With more than 1.6 million members and supporters, NPCA is the nation’s only independent, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to protecting national parks.

You can join the fight to preserve our national parks. Learn more and join us at npca.org

In late June, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that the state was moving forward on plans — negotiated without public or Tribal input — to build a tent-based immigration enforcement facility in the Western Everglades. This facility is designed to hold between 3,000 and 5,000 detainees on an isolated airstrip on the border of Big Cypress National Preserve at an estimated cost of $450 million a year. By July 2, just days after the public first learned about these plans, the facility was already open and holding several hundred people.

Ironically, the isolated jetport is the exact site where the National Parks Conservation Association once stood side by side with Marjory Stoneman Douglas and many others to defeat the development of a massive airport in 1968. This effort led directly to the creation of Big Cypress National Preserve. Two key stakeholders were part of that effort and have lived in and protected this landscape for millennia — the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes who continue to speak out against the misuse of their homelands.

This episode, host Jennifer Errick speaks with Curtis Osceola, senior executive policy advisor to the chairman of the Miccosukee Business Council; William “Popeye” Osceola, secretary of the Miccosukee Business Council; Dr. Melissa Abdo, NPCA Sun Coast regional director; and Marisa Carrozzo, NPCA senior coastal and wildlife program manager.

The Secret Lives of Parks is a production of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Episode 45, Florida’s Untenable Alcatraz, was produced by Jennifer Errick, with help from Todd Christopher, Bev Stanton and Linda Coutant.

Special thanks to Edward Ornstein, Deputy General Counsel and Tallahassee Embassy Director for the Miccosukee Tribe. Special thanks also to John Adornado, Cara Capp, Kristin Gladd and Kyle Groetzinger.

Original theme music by Chad Fischer.

Learn more about NPCA’s opposition to Alligator Alcatraz and speak out at npca.org/alligatoralcatraz

Learn more about this podcast and listen to the rest of our stories at thesecretlivesofparks.org

For more than a century, the National Parks Conservation Association has been protecting and enhancing America’s national parks for present and future generations. With more than 1.6 million members and supporters, NPCA is the nation’s only independent, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to protecting national parks.

And we’re proud of it, too.

You can join the fight to preserve our national parks. Learn more and join us at npca.org