.
National Geographic/John Shier
Let your armchair traveler’s imagination soar while diving into the new gorgeously filmed, five-episode series National Parks: USA, which is Nat Geo’s latest behind-the-scenes swoop into America’s spectacular wild places. Premiering September 8 on National Geographic TV and streaming the next day on Hulu, our nation’s natural beauty and bounty are intimately illuminated and interlaced with intriguing stories and cultural touchstones. It’s narrated by Indigenous actor Michael Spears (movie and TV credits include Dances with Wolves, Year of the Dog, Into the West, Reservation Dogs and 1923), who is a member of the Kul Wičaša Lakota from the Lower Brulé Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. Spears talked with me about the show’s strengths, sagacity and surprises. Plus, peek at episode highlights below. Discover pleasures in these far-flung outdoor treasures.
Laura Manske: Of this series’ five spotlit national parks—Katmai, Everglades, Yellowstone, Olympic and Zion—which one most captures your heart?
Michael Spears
Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Michael Spears: I have a special relationship with Yellowstone, not only because I currently live near the park but also because it is an area where my people, the Lakota, often camped in the days when we followed the bison herds, when bison numbered in the tens of millions. Like our tribal nations, bison also endured a colonial genocide. Today they live and make do in parks and ranches, much like our people do on federally allotted reservations. There is an ancient bond between bison and Indigenous people. I am reminded of that when I see the herds in the park today.
Yellowstone National Park: Bison roam free in this impressive oasis.
National Geographic/Thomas Winston
Manske: What would you like Forbes readers to best understand about our national parks?
Spears: I hope the series not only inspires viewers to patronize these parks but also to stay informed about and involved with the policies and activism that are shaping these critical habitats. Many species featured in these episodes are vulnerable to factors like climate change and pollution. If we value these spaces, we should see it as our responsibility to keep them protected.
Manske: How has leadership of our national parks pivoted for the better?
Spears: Some viewers may be surprised to learn that ecological abuses, such as poaching, were the impetus for the creation of many parks. Some statistics from the 19th century are especially alarming. [In the late 1880s] five-million birds were poached each year from the Everglades to make hat plumes. This series also makes note of how early management of parks could be somewhat misguided but has since been corrected. Two examples of such corrections would be the removal of dams in Olympic National Park that disrupted salmon runs and the restoration of wolves to Yellowstone, which were once routinely culled by park managers in the early 20th century. It is heartening to see how the management of the parks continues to evolve.
Everglades National Park: Roseate Spoonbills draw awe with bright pink feathers and red eyes.
National Geographic/Jake Hewitt
Manske: What did you discover about the national parks that you didn’t know?
Spears: It was encouraging to learn, in the Zion episode, about the Southern Paiute’s collaboration with the park service in combating light pollution and preserving the tribe’s traditional star knowledge. As we see through the commentary from Indigenous people in the series, the park service is making strides in collaborating with tribal nations who have been the primary stewards of the North American continent for millennia, to achieve conservation goals and to acknowledge that these now-parks are ancient, sacred spaces for tribes. In some cases, tribes who were originally displaced from their homelands, in order to establish those spaces as parks, are now being granted more agency as to the use and curation of those now-federal lands.
Zion National Park: Navajo sandstone mesas formed 180 million years ago via windblown sand dunes.
National Geographic/Rick Smith
Manske: As a Lakota, tell us about the unique insight that you bring to narration of this series.
Spears: It has been a privilege to add my voice to this series. I believe that the footage that nature documentaries provide to viewers helps us reconnect with our plant and animal relatives, to see these beings as relatives rather than resources. The land, plants and animals in these parks aren’t just interesting components of our recreational spaces. They’re part of the fabric of who we are as living organisms on this planet. My hope is that, by observing the interconnectivity of these ecosystems, we will eventually come to realize what a keystone species that we humans are and understand that our desire to nurture and preserve the earth should outweigh our drive to consume and seek convenience at all costs. These are the values that my people, and many other tribal nations, lived by for millennia. These are the values that kept the rivers clean and the plant and animal populations healthy in precolonial times.
Katmai National Park
Katmai National Park and Preserve: Flying over Mount Martin, a stratovolcano.
National Geographic/Jeff Reed
Katmai National Park and Preserve—on a peninsula in southern Alaska—was established in 1918 to care for the area of Novarupta and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes after a cataclysmic volcanic eruption showered the region with ash. Now regenerated, the landscape is breathtaking. Its 4-million acres offer the world’s choicest brown bear sightings. Behold the annual journeys and life cycles of brown bears, salmon and wolves. Forests, lakes, mountains and tundra are unveiled. This rich visual foray into a destination that few of us will ever be able to visit in person makes the Katmai episode a horizon-broadening jewel.
Katmai National Park and Preserve: A brown bear looks at migrating salmon.
National Geographic/Dawson Dunning
Everglades National Park
Everglades National Park: Will the young alligator eat a poisonous lubber grasshopper?
National Geographic/Jeff Reed
The 1.5-million-acre Everglades National Park in Florida is awash in kaleidoscopic bio-diversity, encompassing nine distinctive ecosystems. A tapestry of forests and wetlands fed by a river, this biggest subtropical wilderness reserve in North America is home to bottlenose dolphins and black bears. The Florida panther, one of the most endangered species in the world, is also the state animal. Everglades is a remarkable getaway for birders, too. Binoculars abound.
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park: Aerial view of Grand Prismatic Spring—a vibrant wonder.
National Geographic
Yellowstone, the world’s first national park, is a 2.2-million-acre trailblazing head-turner, showcasing the largest geysers on Earth, as well as half of all geysers on our planet. Situated mostly in the Northwest corner of Wyoming with slender acreage in Idaho and Montana, its terrain is unparalleled. Witness Wapiti wolves search for food and how matriarchal alpha females lead their packs. Understand family dynamics of bison, as well as glimpse endearing grizzly bear cubs with their mothers.
Olympic National Park
Olympic National Park: A Roosevelt elk bull calls out to females in a mating display.
National Geographic/Jake Hewitt
On a peninsula, stretching along Washington State’s magnificently rugged coast, the nearly 1-million-acre Olympic National Park accentuates manifold habitats. Particularly picturesque are its swirlingly dreamy fog-hugging shores, glacier-topped mountains and temperate rainforests. Ready your attention for one of the last Pacific salmon runs into the lower 48 states, the gregarious Olympic marmot and the elusive bobcat—a skillful hunter.
Zion National Park
Zion National Park: A bighorn ram expertly navigates an undulating sandstone formation.
National Geographic/Jake Hewitt
In Utah, the almost 147,000-acre Zion National Park is famous for iconic landscapes of striking geology: tall red spires, dramatic cliffs and a painterly narrow slot canyon (popular with Instagrammers) that dazzles with colors and curves. Its Virgin River, too, has mightily shaped this exceptional expanse, as it has done for millennia, supporting extraordinary life. Gaze at bighorn sheep and wild turkeys. Spy exclusive-pollinating Globe Mallow bees. Open your eyes to the Nat Geo buzz.
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=66d5c32359594885a4fa97e3cc3ed991&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Flauramanske%2F2024%2F09%2F02%2Fnat-geos-new-tv-series-national-parks-usa-and-actor-michael-spears%2F&c=5023151695345098122&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-09-02 02:16:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.