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A study examined the objectives of outdoor education teachers and park staff involved in secondary school visits to Victoria (Australia) national parks. Interviews with teachers and park staff, observations, and document analysis indicate that outdoor education teachers needed training in socially critical environmental education, ecology, and land management. The educational merits of national parks versus local places are discussed. (Contains 35 references.) (TD)

Discusses how market failures can, in principle, be used to justify national parks. States the best rationale is based on existence or nonuse values instead of the recreational aspects. Shows more evidence (costs of providing and operating the parks and the magnitude of nonuse values) is needed before the case becomes compelling. (JEH)

Describes policies and basic concepts that may sustain environmental education in protected areas. Includes a summary of principles that may orient the development of environmental education programs, and areas of action that will help achieve the goals of protected areas. Discusses some educational experiences, their objectives, methods, results, and impacts. (Contains 19 references.) (Author/YDS)

Investigates the development of park visitors' knowledge, values, and beliefs during their visit to the Midway Geyser Basin. Draws on prior work in the areas of museum and informal education, and public understanding of science and cognitive psychology. Interprets the results in terms of park visitors' knowledge systems, how the experience stimulates personal understanding, and knowledge construction. (Contains 47 references.) (Author/YDS)

Interview examines the competing interests of U.S. national parks, which preserve Native American archaeological sites as the basis of cultural and historical interpretation to the public, and archaeologists, whose research excavations may destroy sites. National Park Service projects that encompass both stewardship and interpretation are discussed. (SV)

Explains the theory and educational utility of field-based instruction. Discusses an effective field-course structure, focusing on the planning process, pre- and post-trip meetings, and student activities and assignments. Describes a field course on resource management in national parks based at Oklahoma State University. (CMK)

Describes the use of a national park in Kenya for teaching and learning. (Author/CCM)

Describes how the national park service interprets the Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor. (CCM)

Evaluations of visitors' reactions to interpretation in Australian national parks found that guided activities provided more immediate responses to visitors' questions on Aboriginal culture than on-site signs; a well-designed interpretive mural mitigated people's disappointment at visiting wetlands when no birds were present; and ranger-guided events indirectly influenced visitors' environmental knowledge and attitudes. (Contains 34 references.) (Author/SV)

The National Park Service's applied ethnography program promotes democratic decision making in park planning, resource management, and interpretation by communities with a stake in agency decisions. Ethnographic research has contributed to historical interpretation of slavery in plantation parks, cultural interpretation of traditional Native land-use patterns in National Park areas, and culturally informed management practices in National Parks. (SV)

In Alaska's extensive parks and preserves, the National Park Service is in the difficult position of mediating between traditional Native subsistence practices and Western concepts of environmental conservation. Ethnographic research has raised awareness of the importance of harvest practices to rural Native groups for survival, cultural preservation, social and community relations, and socialization of youth. (SV)

Approximately 1,500 students in grades 4 through 6 attended two half-day interpretive programs at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore; one focused on ecological information, the other on environmental issues associated with the site. Each program significantly increased students' knowledge but had little impact on students' environmental attitudes or behaviors. Contains 49 references. (Author/SV)

Hispanic and Native-American seasonal Park Service employees in the Southwest are training younger local workers in masonry preservation in a National Park Service effort to establish a ruins preservation program. These new technicians will also learn to document, photograph, and report on preservation activities and follow legal administrative procedures. A photographic essay. (SAS)

More than 50 National Park Service (NPS) sites interpret Native cultures or early Native contact with Europeans. In about 30 of those, American Indians, Alaska Natives, or Native Hawaiians, in partnership with the NPS, present their own heritage and issues. Describes Native-run aspects of Sitka National Historical Park, Glacier National Park, and Canyon de Chelly National Monument. (TD)

Addresses specific National Park Service (NPS) responses to executive memorandum on collaboration with federally recognized tribes, and to Executive Order 13007 on Indian sacred sites: extent of consultation, confidentiality, access, avoiding adverse effects, collaborative planning, notification procedures, training managers, and suggested changes in NPS policies. (SAS)

The cultural resource specialist at Glacier Bay National Park (Alaska) explains the collaborative efforts of park staff and the Hoonah Tlingit to overcome language and cultural barriers in documenting park place names and clan oral history and traditions. The new park-community relationship, which follows decades of conflict, includes training local Native college students as summer field archaeologists. (SAS)

Illustrates implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in the three-year collaborative efforts of tribal representatives, anthropologists, archeologists, Park Service staff, and other experts to excavate, analyze, and rebury human remains found in the Lake Meredith National Recreation Area (Texas). Lake Meredith and the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes are developing a long-range consultation plan. (SAS)

Describes the National Park Service's implementation of guidelines to incorporate Native American perspectives into environmental, historical, and cultural interpretation programs in National Parks. Methods include brochure and sign alteration, hiring Indian interpreters and seasonal employees, and actively consulting with tribes to avoid incorrect interpretations. (SAS)

A 26-day summer field course of West Virginia University's (WVU) Recreation and Parks Department took students to Malaysia's mountains and rainforests to observe how Malaysians are managing national parks, problem elephants, and population pressures on parks. The adventure provided powerful learning experiences. Further exchanges between WVU and Malaysian park personnel are planned. (SV)

Describes an art education program that connects children and youth to the historical and contemporary issues associated with Yellowstone National Park. Originally conceived as a one-year celebration, the project has grown into a juried exhibit showcasing student art and writing which responds to Yellowstone resource themes and issues. (MJP)

Describes one experience of teaching students advanced research methods by participating in the collection of oral histories and historical documents about the eviction of residents from Shenandoah National Park. Asserts that community college students are capable of doing serious research with the proper guidance and if they become engaged in a topic with local relevance. (VWC)

Considers women's history in the western United States using the historic places of the National Park system as its basis. The National Park Service has created three categories for historic sites: places that focus on women's history; places that include women's history; and places that surprise us with women's history. (MJP)

Examines the abilities of adult and youth naturalists to promote cognitive and affective changes in forest recreationists. Interpreters at campfire talks and trail hikes were successful in accomplishing stated objectives. Youth naturalists were as effective as adults on several, but not all, performance measures. Contains 21 references. (PVD)

A class of fourth-graders-turned-film-producers created an animated video about national parks. The experience helped students acquire academic skills and knowledge, use technology meaningfully, feel confident about themselves and their learning, value cooperation, understand the creative process, sustain a vision, and have fun in school. (MLH)

Examines relationships among environmental education, ecotourism, and public attitudes toward conservation. The global ecotourism industry and the worldwide growth of national parks and other protected areas reflect the long-term impact of environmental education. The entire cycle of protection, ecotourism use of protected areas, and more positive attitudes toward protection is stimulated by environmental education and is gaining momentum. (CDS)

College students from Northern Arizona University are documenting both original pueblo architectural remains and later preservation efforts at Wupatki National Monument, Arizona. Concise descriptions of the original construction as well as of the intensity of destructive forces can contribute to preservation repairs that are structurally and aesthetically compatible with the original architecture and recapture information lost due to earlier repairs. (SAS)

California boasts nine national parks that are home to a plethora of recreational, cultural, and professional opportunities. It is no surprise that national parks draw in millions of recreational and non-recreational trips from across the country and internationally, however how visitors choose to arrive at these federal lands is a major consideration for land management, policy, and infrastructure decisions. According to the National Park Service’s Visitor Use Statistics, an overwhelming majority of visitors arrive by automobile. Alternative transportation options to national parks in California may increase visitor diversity and encourage the modal shift away from car travel. Additionally, transportation infrastructure has the potential to take up more natural spaces in national parks as population growth and recreational popularity increases in the coming years. Roadway widening, repaving, and other disruptive events can have negative impacts on adjacent ecosystems and communities, as well as contribute to public health issues. In this report, the existing conditions of transit to national parks in California are examined in relation to census tract-level sociodemographic and origin-destination data to reveal the spatial distribution of visitor origins and gaps in national park accessibility. From an equity perspective, findings suggest that median household income is proportional to the network distance between a given trip origin and national park destination, and household vehicle access and race are strongly correlated with national park visitation. By examining the current transit network to national parks, select characteristics of park visitation, and demographics of these visitors, this research aims to reveal opportunities for expanded transit connectivity to California’s national parks. Recommendations are presented to provide guidance to decision makers in the realm of transportation access to recreational spaces.

Despite long‐standing recognition in collective memory scholarship that commemorative sites are places of deep cultural meaning, fieldwork evidence collected at the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington, DC, suggests that visitors primarily engaged with mnemonic resources in a superficial fashion. This paper explores how interpretive park rangers, who are tasked with engaging the public to discuss the nation's history, nevertheless strived to deliver informational, interpretive services to the visiting public. Findings show that rangers, conceptualized in this paper as street‐level bureaucrats, developed roles and routine lines of action that hinged on how they imagined and constructed their audiences. This paper demonstrates how street‐level bureaucrats variably conceive of their clients at the pre‐interactional stage, thus identifying an underexplored dimension of discretion in frontline service work. Additionally, this paper contributes to collective memory research by contextualizing mnemonic deliberation within contexts of mnemonic agents' workplace dynamics, showing how organizational expectations shape discourses of difficult, contentious histories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]