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Episode 09 : Recreate Responsibly with Taldi Harrison and Chip Jenkins of the Recreate Responsibly Coalition!
What does responsible re-entry look like as parks begin re-opening? Where can I go? Do I have to wear a mask every moment? What do I need to plan ahead for? What does “close to home” really mean?
You’re going to want to listen to this before your next outdoor adventure!
On this episode, I spoke with Taldi Harrison, a Government and Communities Affairs manager at REI, and Chip Jenkins, superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park. They are both members of the Recreate Responsibly Coalition, a newly formed coalition of nonprofits, outdoor businesses, and land managers developing and sharing best practices to protect each other and our natural landscapes during COVID-19.
Unofficial title of this episode: The Mountain is Closed
Taldi Harrison is REI’s community & government affairs manager. She oversees REI’s federal government affairs work and policy related philanthropy. Her work focuses on fostering collaborative partnerships with a number of national non-profits and decision makers at the federal level to ensure access to and infrastructure for inspiring outdoor recreation opportunities. Taldi was raised in the Flathead Valley in Montana and she is an avid outdoors woman who enjoys hiking, mountain biking, climbing, camping, mountaineering, and skiing.
Chip Jenkins is a 33-year veteran of the National Park Service and currently serves as superintendent of Mount Rainier National Park in Washington. He also served as a superintendent at North Cascades National Park also in Washington, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park in Oregon as well as parks in Southern California, Colorado and Indiana. Chip understands the importance of making our public lands more accessible to all people.
This episode is sponsored by REI, who has awesomely helped me make the connections to bring this to life. A life outdoors, is a live well lived, amiright?
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Show notes
Recreate Responsibly Coalition
Map of state-by-state reopenings – NYT will try to trick you into getting a subscription, be sure to opt for the free one even though you have to provide your email address. This guide is amazing!)
Find out what is open near you: Stateparks.org, Trust for Public Lands, U.S. Forest Service, National Park System (NPS)
Our Public Lands by, Nicole Brown of Women Who Hike – a complete & comprehensive guide to understanding the U.S.’s many land management systems. Includes many resources for finding out about where to recreate responsibly.
Find your next trail and info about closures: AllTrails, Hiking Project, Washington Trails Association – Use these via the web or app.
CDC Guidelines – stay up to date!
What We Know About Your Chances of Catching the Virus Outdoors – concise, informative, reassuring. Read this!
Sustain the podcast – Join my Patreon!
Creating a podcast takes an extraordinary amount of time and we are currently unsponsored. Please consider making a donation. Sharing goes a long way, too xo
Podcast drawing by, Olivia Winokur
A note about the music change even though no one cares: I had technical difficulties with my usual track and because adding music is my very last step, I didn’t have time to thoughtfully find something perfect. We’ll have this sorted out by the next episode.
Jenny Bruso 