Organizational Culture, Decision-Making, and Integrity: The National Park Service and theExxon Valdez

2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 305-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick S. Kurtz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Organizational Culture ◽  
National Park ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Park Service

scholarly journals Visualizing When, Where, and How Fires Happen in U.S. Parks and Protected Areas

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 333
Author(s):  
Nicole C. Inglis ◽  
Jelena Vukomanovic
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
National Park ◽  
Fire History ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Park Service

Fire management in protected areas faces mounting obstacles as climate change alters disturbance regimes, resources are diverted to fighting wildfires, and more people live along the boundaries of parks. Evidence-based prescribed fire management and improved communication with stakeholders is vital to reducing fire risk while maintaining public trust. Numerous national fire databases document when and where natural, prescribed, and human-caused fires have occurred on public lands in the United States. However, these databases are incongruous and non-standardized, making it difficult to visualize spatiotemporal patterns of fire and engage stakeholders in decision-making. We created interactive decision analytics (“VISTAFiRe”) that transform fire history data into clear visualizations of the spatial and temporal dimensions of fire and its management. We demonstrate the utility of our approach using Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park as examples of protected areas experiencing fire regime change between 1980 and 2017. Our open source visualizations may be applied to any data from the National Park Service Wildland Fire Events Geodatabase, with flexibility to communicate shifts in fire regimes over time, such as the type of ignition, duration and magnitude, and changes in seasonal occurrence. Application of the tool to Everglades and Big Cypress revealed that natural wildfires are occurring earlier in the wildfire season, while human-caused and prescribed wildfires are becoming less and more common, respectively. These new avenues of stakeholder communication are allowing the National Park Service to devise research plans to prepare for environmental change, guide resource allocation, and support decision-making in a clear and timely manner.

Why Administrative Histories Matter

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 236-263
Author(s):  
Joan M. Zenzen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
National Park ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Management Decisions ◽  
Park Service ◽  
History Of ◽  
Intellectual Integrity ◽  
A Site ◽  
Inform Decision Making

This article chronicles the history of administrative histories within the National Park Service. Administrative histories describe the history of a site or a group of parks. They can be important resources for management decisions. Managers, however, often do not know about or pay attention to these documents. Some managers have even threatened the intellectual integrity of these histories. Despite these issues, administrative histories matter: they fill an acute need by park superintendents and others to inform decision making and help with reporting and preservation.

The Power of the Llano Estacado: Jerry Rogers, Historian, Museum Director,and Federal CRM Leader

2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-141
Author(s):  
Robert L. Spude ◽  
Jerry L. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
National Park ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
Early Attachment ◽  
The World ◽  
Governmental Support ◽  
Park Service

This biographical interview with Jerry Rogers begins with his background in Vega, Texas, his early attachment to historical landscapes there, and his education. The bulk of the interview then focuses on his career of over thirty years with the National Park Service (NPS). Major topics include changing policies and organizational structures under the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, and Clinton administrations; the politics and strategies involved in gaining popular and governmental support for NPS programs; steps taken to more efficiently process historical nominations and decentralize decision-making; NPS's struggle to acquire the Manassas battlefield; the development of standards for historic landscapes; and the sobering ecological trends facing the park service and the world in the coming years.

Philanthropy and the National Park Service

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Vaughn ◽  
Hanna J. Cortner
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Park Service

A Question Of Relevance

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-123
Author(s):  
Michael A. Capps
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Interpretive Approach ◽  
Park Service ◽  
Educational Component

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial is an example of one memorial site that has successfully managed to retain relevance for nearly one hundred years by adapting to changes in scholarship and the expectations of its visitors. Initially created as a purely commemorative site, it has evolved into one where visitors can actively engage with the Lincoln story. By embracing an interpretive approach to managing the site, the National Park Service has been able to add an educational component to the experience of visiting the memorial that complements its commemorative nature.

Remembering the Battle of Pezi Sla (Greasy Grass—aka Little Bighorn) with the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Victory Riders: An Autoethnographic Photo Essay

2021 ◽  
pp. 153270862199112
Author(s):  
Elena Tajima Creef ◽  
Carl J. Petersen
Keyword(s):  
American History ◽  
National Park ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Northern Cheyenne ◽  
Park Service ◽  
Photo Essay

If one travels to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Park in late June, one can witness at least three events that simultaneously take place each year commemorating what has been called “one of the great mythic and mysterious military battles of American history” (Frosch, 2010). The National Park Service rangers give “battle talks” on the hour to visiting tourists. Two miles away, the privately run U.S. Cavalry School also performs a scripted reenactment called “Custer’s Last Ride”—with riders who have been practicing all week to play the role of soldiers from the doomed regiment of Custer’s 7th Cavalry. On this same day, a traveling band of men, women, and youth from the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho Nations who have journeyed by horseback and convoy from the Dakotas and Wyoming will reach Last Stand Hill to remember this “Victory Day” from 1876—one that historians have called the “last stand of the Indians” during the period of conflict known as the “Great Sioux War.” This photo essay offers an autoethnographic account of what some have dubbed the annual “Victory Ride” to Montana based upon my participation as a non-Native supporter of this Ride in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

scholarly journals Social media reveal ecoregional variation in how weather influences visitor behavior in U.S. National Park Service units

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily J. Wilkins ◽  
Peter D. Howe ◽  
Jordan W. Smith
Keyword(s):  
National Park ◽  
National Park Service ◽  
Spatial Behavior ◽  
Maximum Temperature ◽  
Daily Maximum Temperature ◽  
Daily Maximum ◽  
Daily Weather ◽  
Visitor Behavior ◽  
Park Service ◽  
The Impact

AbstractDaily weather affects total visitation to parks and protected areas, as well as visitors’ experiences. However, it is unknown if and how visitors change their spatial behavior within a park due to daily weather conditions. We investigated the impact of daily maximum temperature and precipitation on summer visitation patterns within 110 U.S. National Park Service units. We connected 489,061 geotagged Flickr photos to daily weather, as well as visitors’ elevation and distance to amenities (i.e., roads, waterbodies, parking areas, and buildings). We compared visitor behavior on cold, average, and hot days, and on days with precipitation compared to days without precipitation, across fourteen ecoregions within the continental U.S. Our results suggest daily weather impacts where visitors go within parks, and the effect of weather differs substantially by ecoregion. In most ecoregions, visitors stayed closer to infrastructure on rainy days. Temperature also affects visitors’ spatial behavior within parks, but there was not a consistent trend across ecoregions. Importantly, parks in some ecoregions contain more microclimates than others, which may allow visitors to adapt to unfavorable conditions. These findings suggest visitors’ spatial behavior in parks may change in the future due to the increasing frequency of hot summer days.

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