Latest / In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson / Earth Day with Renee - TPR's In Focus - April 22, 2026

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Earth Day with Renee - TPR's In Focus - April 22, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Rosa Parks Museum on Troy University's Montgomery campus,
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  located on the spot of Mrs. Parks' historic 1955 arrest and featuring
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  exhibits that chronicle the history of the Montgomery bus boycott.
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  More information at Troy.edu slash Rosa Parks.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In Focus and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  Today we're celebrating Earth Day with Renee, that's Renee Rainey, chief
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  naturalist at the Alabama State Parks, in our Back to Nature series. She joins us
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  to preview an exciting new program for children and tells us what's ahead for
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  spring. Renee Rainey, welcome back to Troy Public Radio. Oh, I'm thrilled to be here
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  with you all today. We are calling today not only Earth Day, but Earth Day with
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  Renee. How about that? Rhymes, it's a beautiful poem. What can you tell the
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  listeners about spring in the Alabama State Parks? Spring, it transforms Alabama
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  State Parks into a vibrant landscape of color and life. There are wildflowers
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  blooming and the wildlife is awakening and every single trail in our state
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  parks tell a story of renewal. You have a program called the Junior Rangers and
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  this group has adventures. What do they do with the Alabama State Parks at a
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  time like this? Well, Junior Rangers is our new national initiative and we were
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  so happy to launch that just last month in March. But Junior Ranger programs are
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  for everybody and the Alabama State Parks invite explorers of all ages to
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  learn and discover and protect our natural world through all of these
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  wonderful hands-on adventures. We have a Junior Ranger adventure guide that's
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  available for free at any state park facility. You can ask a state park staff
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  for this guide. It's a color guide and has all types of activities and it's got
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  passport pages so that they can visit all 21 of our state parks and they work
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  through different activities like how to respect wildlife, how to leave no trace,
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  how to stay safe when you're doing outdoor recreation and these little
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  Junior Rangers become our stewards of Alabama State Parks and there's so much
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  to do in our parks. They can visit the website which is alapark.com forward
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  slash junior park ranger and download and print their own guide or they can
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  visit any state park and receive an already printed color guide on site. Once
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  they finish their activities in the guide, they find a park ranger and the
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  park ranger will pledge them into the program and that Junior Ranger gets
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  their own badge and they are such cute little badges. They say Alabama State
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  Parks Junior Rangers. And what age group are we targeting? For this phase of Junior
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  Rangers, we're targeting ages 5 through 12 but we've had some younger and some
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  older participate and it's very exciting for the whole family to see their Junior
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  Ranger pledged in and Carolyn even the guests are all smiling and excited about
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  this ceremony and I think phase two we're going to reach out to youth and
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  teen but that's to come. What does their badge actually look like? It looks just
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  like a park ranger badge. It's a gold badge and it's shaped like a law
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  enforcement badge and it says Alabama State Parks Junior Ranger. They can hook
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  it onto their shirt pockets or onto their backpack and the children are so
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  proud that Junior Ranger badge is their golden ticket to state parks. So there
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  really can't be a better Earth Day program than our Junior Ranger
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  initiative and it almost feels like every day is Earth Day in Alabama State
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  Parks. What do you think a visit to an Alabama State Park does to us
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  psychologically? Well Carolyn, being outside even for three minutes to three
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  hours resets my mental state. I can breathe better and all of the stress of
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  whatever goes away and when I've talked to thousands of State Park visitors they
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  feel the very same. I've had so many of our park guests say I didn't realize how
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  much I needed this and I always express that time spent in nature it's
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  absolutely essential for our mental emotional and physical well-being. So
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  many of our programs in state parks are from sunrise through sunset and into the
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  night. Sunrises and sunsets provide us with the red and infrared light that we
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  need for our healthy bodies. Three minutes of that sunset or sunrise can do
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  the same thing as 30 minutes of exercise. It resets all of your body organs and
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  makes you feel so good. Renee, let me ask you about some of the
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  interpretive programs at the Alabama State Parks. There are so many offerings.
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  Right now we have more than 65 programs just being offered for the Earth Day
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  timeframe. We've got everything from what we've talked about with junior ranger
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  programs to biodiversity and crafting with nature. Outdoor recreation programs
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  like archery, bird-watching, guided hikes where you can look at waterfalls and see
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  wildflowers. We've got guided kayak trips and this is a really cool one because I
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  have done this with many children. Plushie Safari where we go ahead of the
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  children and we hide these adorable stuffed animals that look realistic and
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  the children walk with us and we identify those animals and we talk about
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  the ecology of the creatures. It's just an adorable program Carolyn. Are there
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  any special parks you'd like to highlight for the spring? Spring is just
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  beautiful from the north to the south to the east to the west but when I was
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  growing up I used to want to travel around the world and I have and what I
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  discovered is that every beautiful thing I saw on this little blue spinning
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  planet that we call Earth could be found in Alabama. If you dreamed of visiting
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  the Appalachian Highlands or the Blue Ridge Mountains, visit Chiao State Park.
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  Chiao rises like an island in the sky and the wildflowers are popping in the
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  spring or if you've longed to explore the waterfalls of the Pacific Northwest
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  or the misty forests of the Smokies, go to DeSoto State Park. It's filled with
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  waterfalls and springs, flowers and birdsong. Down south, some folks say I
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  would really like to go into the Louisiana Bayous or even maybe visit the
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  Amazon but Mayer State Park offers that same winding water world wonder. It's
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  quiet, mysterious and alive. It's kind of Alabama's Amazon. And what about
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  southeast Alabama? What's offered there? Southeast Alabama, that's one of my
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  favorite places to visit. Lake Point State Park is amazing. It's this huge
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  lake near Eufaula and you can kayak and fish. Plus we have these amazing
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  alligators and water birds and our park naturalist there offers plenty of
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  programs for everybody ranging from deep science to plain air art painting
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  activities. People come from all over the world. We've had people from Japan,
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  the Philippines and Australia and they stand in our state parks and every
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  single one of them says, you know, this feels like home. And since Earth is our
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  home, when did Earth Day start? This is the 63rd annual Earth Day. It started in
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  1970. And with Artemis' commission recently, I began to think about how
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  Alabama State Parks compare to the earth and how phenomenal our planet is
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  and seeing that little blue marble in space. We've got this one planet Earth,
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  the only planet known to maintain life. And then I thought about Earth as this
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  blue speck in space, holding our past, present and future. And then I thought
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  about Alabama State Parks and how we preserve Alabama's natural and cultural
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  heritage and create these meaningful experiences that connect generations.
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  This planet is close enough to the sun to be warm, but not so close to burn. And
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  our state parks offer the perfect balance of adventure and accessibility.
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  It's wild enough to inspire, but it's welcoming for everybody to enjoy.
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  Renee, that is poetic and you've inspired us. Before I let you go, how can people
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  connect?
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  It's very easy to connect with Alabama State Parks. Our website is
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  alapark.com. And if you go to that main site, that will guide you into maps into
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  what our parks offer. You can check out individual parks, you can visit the
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  Junior Ranger page, or you can look at all of the many events and programs that
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  we are offering.
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  Earth Day with Renee. Thank you so much.
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  Happy Earth Day.
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  That was Renee Rainey, Chief Naturalist at the Alabama State Parks, joining us
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  for Earth Day with Renee. More information about the state parks across
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  Alabama and the new Junior Ranger program can be found at the alapark.com
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  website. Thanks for joining us for our Back to Nature series on In Focus, which
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  is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this
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  is listener-supported Troy Public Radio.