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Road Trip! Short Wave Explores U.S. Public Lands Short Wave goes from deep echoing caves to one of Earth's quietest places - all found in United States public lands. Join us on the road trip to see what cool research is happening within them.
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Road Trip! Short Wave Explores U.S. Public Lands

Saving The Pacific Lamprey

A tribal fisherman holds a lamprey after it was caught along the Willamette River at the Willamette Falls during the annual Lamprey harvest Friday, June 17, 2016, south of Portland, Ore. Rick Bowmer/AP hide caption

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Rick Bowmer/AP

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Saving The Pacific Lamprey

Pacific lamprey have lived on Earth for about 450 million years. When humans came along, a deep relationship formed between Pacific lamprey and Native American tribes across the western United States. But in the last few decades, tribal elders noticed that pacific lamprey populations have plummeted, due in part to habitat loss and dams built along the Columbia River. So today, an introduction to Pacific lamprey: its unique biology, cultural legacy in the Pacific Northwest and the people who are fighting to save it. (Encore)

Saving The Pacific Lamprey

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Working With Tribes To Co-Steward National Parks

Charles F. "Chuck" Sams III is the first Native American director of the National Park Service. He's working to facilitate US government collaboration with tribes on managing public lands. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag hide caption

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Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag

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Working With Tribes To Co-Steward National Parks

In the final episode of Short Wave's Summer Road Trip series exploring the science happening in national parks and public lands, Aaron talks to National Park Service Director Charles Sams, who recently issued new policy guidance to strengthen the ways the park service collaborates with American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes, the Native Hawaiian Community, and other indigenous peoples. It's part of a push across the federal government to increase the level of tribal co-stewardship over public lands. Aaron talks with Sams, the first Tribal citizen to head the agency, about how he hopes this will change the way parks are managed, how the parks are already incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge, and what national parkland meant to him growing up as a member of the Cayuse and Walla Walla tribes on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in eastern Oregon.

Working With Tribes To Co-Steward National Parks

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The Race To Rescue The Guadalupe Fescue

Big Bend National Park is home to a range of habitats: desert, mountains and river. The Chisos Mountains are at the heart of the park. At their heights, cooler forest ecosystems with pinyon pines, junipers and the endangered Guadalupe fescue emerge. Carolyn Whiting hide caption

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Carolyn Whiting

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The Race To Rescue The Guadalupe Fescue

Big Bend National Park in Texas is home to the only remaining Guadalupe fescue in the United States. The grass is tucked away in the Chisos Mountains, high above the Chihuahuan Desert. These mountaintops form a string of relatively wet, cool oases called "sky islands" — unique, isolated habitats. But as the planet warms, species that depend on "sky island" habitats tend to get pushed even higher up the mountain — until they eventually run out. Carolyn Whiting, Park Botanist at Big Bend, talks to host Aaron Scott about why the little things are worth preserving.

The Race To Rescue The Guadalupe Fescue

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Worm Blobs From The Bowels Of The Earth

Darshan Chudasama, a graduate student in the Bhamla Lab at Georgia Tech, emerges from Sulphur Cave in Steamboat Springs, Colo. with a vial containing toxic spring water and the worms who live in it. City of Steamboat Springs hide caption

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City of Steamboat Springs

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Worm Blobs From The Bowels Of The Earth

In the toxic waters of Sulphur Cave in Steamboat Springs, Colo. lives blood-red worm blobs that have attracted scientific interest from around the world. We don special breathing gear and go into the cave with David Steinmann, the spelunking scientist who first documented the worms, along with a trio of science students from Georgia Tech, to collect worms and marvel at the unique crystals and cave formations (ever heard of snottites??) that earned Sulphur Cave a designation as a National Natural Landmark in 2021. Then we learn about how extremophiles like these worms are helping scientists search for new antibiotics, medicines, or in the case of the Georgia Tech team, models for worm blob robots that can explore uneven, dangerous terrain, like caves on other planets.

Worm Blobs From The Bowels Of The Earth

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Experience The Quietest Place On Earth

The crater at Haleakalā National Park has been nicknamed the "quietest place on Earth." Nick McMahan/Quiet Parks International hide caption

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Nick McMahan/Quiet Parks International

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Experience The Quietest Place On Earth

In a crater at the top of a dormant volcano lies a place so quiet, the ambient sound is right near the threshold of human hearing. Visitors to the crater say they can hear their own heartbeats. This spot, in Haleakalā National Park, has been nicknamed the "quietest place on Earth."

Experience The Quietest Place On Earth

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Eavesdropping On A Volcano

There are five active volcanoes in Washington State. Of the five, Glacier Peak is the most remote. U.S. Geological Survey hide caption

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U.S. Geological Survey

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Eavesdropping On A Volcano

Volcanoes are "talking" to us all the time. Scientists say the sooner we learn to interpret their normal chatter, the quicker we'll know when something unusual — and potentially dangerous — is happening. But volcanoes often sit on protected land, so that detection work sometimes brings scientists into conflict with conservationists. Today, the tug-of-war over a sleeping giant in the Pacific Northwest.

Eavesdropping On A Volcano

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Tick Check! The Tiny Bloodsuckers In Our Backyards

This photo provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a blacklegged tick, also known as a deer tick, a carrier of Lyme disease. James Gathany/AP hide caption

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James Gathany/AP

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Tick Check! The Tiny Bloodsuckers In Our Backyards

Short Wave is going outside every Friday this summer! In this second episode of our series on the National Park system, we head to Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas. Among the trees and trails, researchers like Adela Oliva Chavez search for blacklegged ticks that could carry Lyme disease. She's looking for answers as to why tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease are spreading in some parts of the country and not others. Today: What Adela's research tells us about ticks and the diseases they carry, and why she's dedicated her career to understanding what makes these little critters... tick.

Tick Check! The Tiny Bloodsuckers In Our Backyards

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A Tale Of Two Parks And The Bats Within Them

A researcher holds a Northern long eared bat in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Nick Kalen / Virginia Tech hide caption

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Nick Kalen / Virginia Tech

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A Tale Of Two Parks And The Bats Within Them

Buckle up! Short Wave is going on a road trip every Friday this summer. In this first episode of our series on the research happening in the National Park system, we head to Shenandoah National Park and the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Some bats there are faring better than others against white-nose syndrome, a fungus that has killed more than 7 million bats in the last decade. Today — what researchers like Jesse De La Cruz think is enabling some bat species to survive.

A Tale Of Two Parks And The Bats Within Them

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