Parks Stewardship Forum

In this "Letter from Woodstock," our columnist looks at the acute shortage of affordable housing for National Park Service employees — a problem that is affecting recruitment and retention of agency staff, both permanent and seasonal.

Human-caused climate change has caused the extinction of two animal species and threatens numerous other species. Conservation of potential refugia can reduce risks. Energy conservation and efficiency solutions contribute to halting climate change and saving animal species.

The International Workshop on Indigenous Communities and Government Partnerships for Protected Area Management was held on September 2022 on the homelands of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. This event, hosted by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, gathered approximately 55 Indigenous and government representatives from the U.S., Chile, Canada, and Mexico. The Participants represented Indigenous communities, organizations, and Tribal governments involved with marine, coastal, and terrestrial protected areas, as well as federal government representatives selected for their existing relationships with the Indigenous communities and the associated protected areas. The workshop, the first of its kind, was organized to facilitate dialogue among the Indigenous community and government representatives to share their unique experiences, identify and address concerns, and collectively develop recommendations to advance shared governance and collaborative management of protected areas with their respective federal government agencies.

El Taller Internacional sobre Alianzas entre Comunidades Indígenas y Gobiernos para la Gestión de las Áreas Protegidas fue llevado a cabo en septiembre del 2022 en las tierras ancestrales de la Tribu Bajo Elwha Klallam. Este evento, auspiciadopor la Tribu Bajo Elwha Klallam, reunió aproximadamente a 55 representantes indígenas y de los gobiernos de los Estados Unidos, Chile, Canadá y México. Los participantes fueron representantes de comunidades y organizaciones indígenas ygobiernos tribales1 involucrados en la gestión de áreas protegidas marinas, costeras y terrestres. También, representantes del gobierno federal elegidos por su relación con las comunidades indígenas y las áreas protegidas con las que se asocian. El taller, el primero de su índole, fue organizado para facilitar el diálogo entre los mismos representantes para compartir sus experiencias únicas, identificar y articular sus preocupaciones y de modo colectivo elaborar recomendaciones para promover la gobernanza compartida y gestión colaborativa de áreas protegidas con sus respectivas agencias de gobierno.

This year marks 200 years of diplomatic relations between the United States and Argentina, which has involved cooperation across a wide range of fields, including tourism. In the interest of finding new approaches to improve the capacity of nation­al parks for public use planning and management and develop mutually beneficial ways to deliver higher-quality visitor experiences, the United States of America Embassy in Buenos Aires, the George Wright Society, the US National Park Service, and the Administration of National Parks in Argentina proposed the “Binational Exchange Program to Enhance Visitor Experiences in National Parks” as a co-learning exchange between the two countries. Through a critical review, this article focuses on the application and adaptation of the US Interagency Visitor Use Management Framework for public use management in five national parks in Argentina. The article offers an overview of the framework, summarizes the project developed with the parks, and, more importantly, discusses lessons learned and recommendations for future implementation of the model in Argentina and, possibly, other countries in Latin America.

Este año se cumplen 200 años de relaciones diplomáticas entre Estados Unidos y Argentina, que han implicado la cooperación en una amplia gama de campos, incluido el turismo. En procura de identificar nuevos enfoques para mejorar la capacidad de los parques nacionales para la planificación y gestión del uso público que sean de mutuo beneficio y desarrollar otras formas de ofrecer experiencias de mayor calidad a los visitantes, la Embajada de los Estados Unidos de América en Buenos Aires, la Sociedad George Wright, el Servicio de Parques Nacionales de los Estados Unidos y la Administración de Parques Nacionales de la Argentina propusieron el “Programa Binacional de Intercambio para Mejorar las Experiencias de los Visitantes en los Parques Nacionales” como un intercambio de aprendizaje conjunto entre los dos países. Este artículo presenta la sistematización de la experiencia de la aplicación y adaptación del Modelo Interinstitucional de Manejo de Visitantes de los Estados Unidos de América para la gestión del uso público en cinco parques nacionales de la Argentina. Ofrece una visión general del marco, resume el proyecto desarrollado con los parques y, lo que es más importante, discute las lecciones aprendidas y las recomendaciones para la futura implementación del modelo en Argentina, y posiblemente, en otros países de América Latina.

Drawing on the rich body of literature on the history, philosophy, and practice of walking, the author finds strong connections to the US national parks that he explores in this essay. The piece begins with a brief summary of the walking literature illustrated with photos the author has taken along trails in the national parks, accompanied by extended photo captions that reference some of the intersections between walking and the national parks. The essay concludes with some thoughts about the implications of all this for park management.

An excerpt from the opening chapter Transformative Politics of Nature: Overcoming Barriers to Conservation in Canada, edited by Andrea Olive, Chance Finegan, andKaren F. Beazley (University of Toronto Press, 2023).

This essay reflects some of our preliminary research to understand the relationships of conservation, national parks, and eugenics in the United States and how they affect parks today, as well as actions NPS staff and partners are taking to recognize and reconcile these entangled histories. The roots spread wide and deep, and we have barely scratched the surface. We intend this article as an invitation, to ourselves and our readers, to further exploration and reflection.

Each year, over 45,000 metric tons of waste are generated in US national parks through a variety of means, including park operations, visitation, and other sources. In an effort to address these impacts, the National Park Service (NPS) has partnered with commercial and non-profit organizations to implement the Zero Landfill Initiative (ZLI). The goal of the ZLI is to realize a steady decrease in waste generated in parks, and an increase in materials being sent for recycling. Through this initiative and aligning research, efforts to mitigate waste and recycling issues with visitors is underway; however, to date there have been no attempts to understand the perspectives of those individuals who manage these parks on a daily basis. This study explored Theory of Planned Behavior-based constructs regarding disposal of waste and recycling using surveys with NPS employees and park concession staff in Yosemite, Grand Teton, and Denali National Parks. Results indicate that perceived difficulty and moral norms related to disposal of waste and recycling are significant drivers of self-reported behavior and intent with NPS and concession staff. Generally, concession staff perceptions align with the goals of ZLI more than those of NPS staff. This research adds to the limited understanding of land mana­ger perceptions, and results provide justification for future messaging and trainings that could improve sustainable management of these and other NPS units in the future.

Keywords: Park Management; Visitor Use; Recycling; Waste Management; Communication; Human Behavior; Leave No Trace

A poem in the "Verse in Place" section of Parks Stewardship Forum.