Welcome to the Moth Podcast.
I'm Tim Lopez.
I'm an educator, a moth storyteller, and an interpretive park ranger at Channel Islands National Park.
On this episode, in honor of National Parks Week,
we're celebrating our national parks, from iconic landscapes like Yosemite and Yellowstone,
to sites that showcase American history, like Harper's Ferry and Manzanar,
with three stories, all about our national parks and why they matter.
So, I've spent the last two summers working as a ranger at Channel Islands National Park,
which is off the coast of Southern California,
and one of the things I hear from a lot of visitors is,
I've lived my whole life around here, and I never knew this existed.
Now, I have to admit that that was also me.
Growing up in Los Angeles, I'd heard of the islands, but I'd never got around to visiting until I started working there.
But once you've been out to the islands yourself, you can't help but feel a connection to this wild, undeveloped place.
You could really feel the energy of the people who have called it home and been visiting for thousands of years,
and you become a part of that.
And it's guiding people into making that discovery for themselves that makes working at the Channel Islands so special.
There's something wonderful about places that belong to each and every one of us,
places that we have chosen to honor and protect and to share.
Our first story is all about the lessons and strength you can take away from a place like that.