What does a park on fire look like? Or a river reclaiming its floodplain after a century of dams? Or a glacier you could touch in 2010 that's now out of sight up the mountain? In this episode of the Ranger PamPaw Podcast, host Mark Tezel talks about fire, flood, and ecological change the way a ranger who lived it would — through direct field experience, specific stories, and the long view that only a career in the parks can give you. You'll hear the story of a sand hill in Boquillas Canyon that was there in 2005 and mostly gone twenty years later, why Smokey Bear's motto overachieved and what it cost the science, how the Elwha River reclaimed its floodplain after two dams came out, what a ranger notices about cherry blossoms over a decade of trips to Washington, and why "unimpaired for future generations" doesn't mean what most people think it means. This isn't a doom episode. It's not cheerful denial either. It's the informed calm of someone who has watched these places change — and still believes they're worth protecting. Ranger PamPaw Podcast is hosted by Mark Tezel — known to his grandkids as Ranger PamPaw — after nearly four decades with the National Park Service. New episodes drop every other Wednesday. Part of the Tezels on the Road family.

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Thanks for walking the trail with me.

I’ll see you in the park.