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‘America’s Best Idea’

PBS re-airing acclaimed parks series

Filmmaker Ken Burns at Yosemite National Park. Image: PBS
Filmmaker Ken Burns at Yosemite National Park. Image: PBS

Now that you’ve seen all of this year’s National Park Service stamps, would you like to learn more about the parks themselves?

If so, PBS has you covered.

The public television network is showing its acclaimed 2009 documentary series “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” this week. Ken Burns directed the 12-hour, six-part series, which won two Emmys.

“Just as the parks themselves represent a geographic timelessness, the story of the parks and the ideas on which they were founded are equally timeless,” Dayton Duncan, who co-produced the series with Burns, said in a statement.

“The debates that were going on a hundred years ago about private enterprise in the parks, how we maximize access to parks without harming them and how we use federal land are still going on today.”

The series traces the history of the parks, including many of the locations that will be seen on the 16 stamps that the Postal Service will issue June 2.

Most PBS stations are broadcasting “The National Parks” each night from April 25-30.

The show’s site has more information, including airdates, video clips and lesson plans for students.

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