Following World War II, the parks are overwhelmed as visitation reaches 62 million people a year. A new billion-dollar campaign – Mission 66 – is created to build facilities and infrastructure that can accommodate the flood of visitors. A biologist named Adolph Murie introduces the revolutionary notion that predatory animals, which are still hunted, deserve the same protection as other wildlife. In Florida, Lancelot Jones, the grandson of a slave,...

The National Parks: America's Best Idea is the story of an idea as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical: that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone. As such, it follows in the tradition of Burns's exploration of other American inventions, such as baseball and jazz. The narrative traces the birth of the national park idea in the mid-1800s and follows...

"E.O. Wilson, one of the most celebrated scientists in the United States, shows why biodiversity is vital to the future of Earth and to our own species through the story of an African national park that may be the most diverse place on earth, in a gorgeously illustrated book"-- Provided by publisher. "The remarkable story of how one of the most biologically diverse habitats in the world was destroyed, restored, and continues to evolve--with stunning,...

The American Buffalo delves into over 10,000 years of North American history, exploring the evolution and significance of buffalo to Native American people on the Great Plains and highlighting the near-extinction of the American buffalo, driven by factors such as the buffalo robe trade, westward expansion, diseases, and drought. The second episode follows a diverse group, including Theodore Roosevelt and Charles Goodnight, in their efforts to rescue...