Summit Highlights

Visitation and Experiences

  1. National parks need to create meaningful experiences for visitors to inspire stewardship; and rethink the concept of an appropriate visitor experience with multi-cultural backgrounds in mind.
  2. Inspiring stewardship is dependent upon meaningful experiences and constructing a more inclusive system.
  3. Improve NPS cultural literacy to go beyond signs in multiple languages; Conduct research to learn more about values, traditions, and preferences of various diverse communities.
  4. Reach out to the family vacation planners, mothers in many cases, to highlight positive experiences in national parks. Leverage social networking to share information about visiting and to overcome barriers around safety and security.
  5. Construct a more inclusive system by increasing awareness of national parks within communities of color; rethink the appropriate visitor experience, some activities practiced by people of color may not be considered appropriate by some of the white population, especially in urban areas; but all parks do not need to be all things to everybody.

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What Do You Think?

Help us shape an action plan for the national parks’ second century. Please let us know whether we captured the right actions from the summit discussions and whether any are missing. Also please indicate which actions are of the highest priority and which actions the group you represent is willing to take on as a priority.

Queen Quet

February 23, 2012

The "research" into cultural values takes more than coming in for a day or two and having academics or federal employees simply host meetings, workshops, or listening sessions. You need to form consistent grassroot community partnerships and have the cultural leaders form relationships with you and actually lead the engagement with the communities. I am willing to assist in this effort at any time. Peace, Queen Quet Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation

RK

February 22, 2012

A disability or age related difficulties are present in all cultures and ages. Parks do not need to be all things to everybody, but all parks do need to consider accessibility to all for a rewarding visitation and experience. By providing detailed accessibility information through the many channels of communication (web sites, printed material, etc.), this may cause a slow buildup of visitation from this population. They will realize a picture of a park attraction is one thing but actual experience is another world. What activities within a park are available for a person with a disability to be involved with? Can a grandparent go into a cave or dinosaur dig with a grandchild that has a disability, or the other way around? What activities are available for a person in a wheelchair? Intergenerational connection will have a very positive result providing this information is incorporated in park publications and/or web site.

ParkLover

February 17, 2012

6. Part of the visitor experience is the lodging, food, facilities, etc. The pricing of each is not commensurate with the quality in some parks. This speaks to a modernization of the parks. Realize there's a delicate balance we'd need to find here to maintain tradition and the rugged outdoors while providing comfortable facilities commensurate with the price. And, while we're at it, let's equip the parks for the 21st century with 100% mobile access.

Jim Gramann

February 17, 2012

I thought you captured my comments well in points 2, 3, and 5. A further point is that it's important to work with cities or metropolitan transportation authorities to ensure that parks in or near urban areas are served by adequate public transportation. Sometimes it doesn't exist (as in the case of Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in Jacksonville) or sometimes riders must go way out of their way on circuitous routes to reach a destination (as in some parts of Golden Gate NRA). If an urban park is not served by good public transportation, and if potential visitors don't have their own transportation, the park might as well be on another planet. Regarding cultural literacy, Shelton Johnson at Yosemite told me that he thought something like the cross-cultural communication courses offered by the State Department (which Shelton took when he worked with the Peace Corps) might be useful for NPS employees and partners who work in parks that have diverse visitation or that are located near diverse populations. Thanks.

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