Behind the Scenes: Cuyahoga Valley National Park Superintendent Interview

HAPPY TUESDAY PARK PEOPLE! Today our conversation with Lisa Petit, Cuyahoga Valley National Park Superintendent, is LIVE. My whole mom’s side of the family is from Cleveland (which is where Cuyahoga Valley National Park is), so it was so awesome learning more about the park nestled next to where my mom grew up. You BET I’ll be visiting the park (& maybe meeting Lisa) next time I am in Ohio visiting family. Lisa’s lifelong dedication to the park is so inspiring and her knowledge and care for the park comes through in the episode. Listen NOW on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts 🪩🎉

Keep reading to hear my favorite moment from the interview, a new thing I learned and an interesting fact about Cuyahoga Valley National Park, all from my interview with Cuyahoga Valley Superintendent, Lisa Petit!

Favorite Moment from Interview with Lisa — Listen here 

• Environmental Comeback Story: Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and specifically the river, is a beautiful environmental comeback story. Back in the 1960s the Cuyahoga River caught of fire many, many times. As a result, mayor Carl Stokes drew attention to the plight of industrial cities and water quality, air quality and pollution. His story was picked up by Times Magazine and got a HUGE amount of public attention, creating a conversation around urban rivers and urban environmental quality. Carl’s work became one of the major catalysts for the passage of the Clean Water Act and the establishment of both the EPA and Clean Air Act - how cool! And over the past 50 years, Cuyahoga Valley has been a testament to the ability of a natural ecosystem to restore — people are even beginning to recreate and swim in the river. Listen to the episode to hear about it in Lisa’s own words.

One Thing I Learned Interviewing Lisa

• Bird’s Eye View: Lisa got a PhD in Zoology and studied migratory birds. We discuss the importance of a “bird’s eye view” from a conservation perspective. When birds are migrating from, for example, Ohio to the Amazon, their “bird’s eye view” determines how hospitable a place looks to rest, nest or spend their winter. We talk about how deforestation and urbanization affect the places migratory birds can land and how it has been proven, as more attention is going towards this and/or we are finally paying attention, that the indigenous way of growing crops is much more conducive to conservation and is often least invasive to the existing natural habitat. So awesome!

Interesting Fact About Cuyahoga Valley National Park

• Scenic Railroad: One of Cuyahoga Valley’s most unique features is the 26 mile long scenic railroad. People can not only enjoy a scenic ride throughout the park but can also use it as transportation for biking and kayaking, taking those items on the train then kayaking or biking back to their cars. Lisa talks about how one of the most challenging things she has dealt with thus far was ensuring the train could run safely in spite of serious erosion that was threatening the tracks and the safety of running the train.

Maddie’s Outdoor Obsessions

This section will always highlight my favorite picks from the past week in the outdoor & adventure world

• Rock Fight: Rock Fight is the way to keep up with the outdoor news from honest and candid conversations. They definitely aim to buck the tradition and keep the content real & a little bit spicy. As they say, “occasionally we agree to disagree”. Stay in the know with all that is happening in the outdoor world with their newsletter AND podcast!

• The Wild with Chris Morgan: The Wild is a podcast hosted by Chris Morgan, and he has recently started doing episodes on adventures in our national parks. I listened to one episode on Biscayne National Park about how they are transporting baby corals (almost like an ICU and organ transfer combined) to the park to help raise coral that is more resistant to increasing water temperatures and bleaching. The production value of his podcast is excellent; he told one story about grizzly bears with a crackling fire in the background, creating a camping story vibe.

• GoMacro Bars: I recently discovered these protein bars and am obsessed. They literally taste like cookie dough and are vegan and gluten free (I am not either but in the case that you are, you are welcome). I am going camping & hiking with my sister in Seattle this weekend so you BET I’ll be bringing some GoMacro Bars along 😄 

Love y’all — see you all for our next episode release July 16th!! (P.S video is coming for this next episode, so exciting!!!)

Maddie

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