St. Lawrence Islands National Park (SLINP) is one of Canada’s smallest national parks. In order to secure a future for biodiversity, Parks Canada must therefore work beyond the park’s boundaries to engage area residents in conservation on private lands. Despite an increasing understanding of the distribution of species and habitat in the region surrounding SLINP, Parks Canada still has limited insight into the landowners upon whom conservation efforts depend. This study employed interviews with owners of large (>50 acre) parcels in areas of interest for conservation and a hermeneutic methodology to explore the dimensions of landowners’ relationships to the land. Findings suggest that landowners may adopt a land ethic when their values and connection to the land are threatened, but that their management actions are constrained by competing interests. Management recommendations are provided to assist Parks Canada in working with landowners towards a shared vision of conservation for the region.

As urban areas increase in population, pressures are exerted upon vacant or undeveloped lands for housing, industry, public buildings, highway rights-of-way, and a host of other uses including parks. At the same time, pressures are placed upon existing parks to accomodate some of the other needs of expanding urban areas. The loss of lands that have been developed for recreation results in either the loss of a necessary activity or the reduction of the quality of the experience enjoyed by park users. Studies in the U.S.A. indicate that alienation of park lands by non-recreative uses is a serious problem. While many urban areas in Canada have experienced significant population increases and the resultant pressures on urban land during the last ten years, there has been no examination, on a provincial or national basis, of the effects of such trends on major parks (over 20 acres). Are park lands in this size category being alienated to provide land for non-recreative purposes? This thesis attempts to provide an answer to this and related questions. The findings of this study are based on 141 questionnaire returns from a survey of 234 Canadian municipalities with populations over 10,000. Two of 183 municipalities between 10,000 and 50,000 persons experienced a total of 5 alienations from 1960-1970. Seventeen of 51 municipalities over 50,000 persons experienced a total of 34 alienations during the same period. The land alienated was 13 per cent of the total park area affected; on the average, 15.5 acres of land were alienated per encroachment. Highways and roads, schools, and housing were the main uses alienating park lands. In most cases objections to the alienation by the parks board were overruled by the municipal council on the grounds that the encroaching use was of greater importance or that the land was cheaper. It is concluded that alienation of park lands in Canadian municipalities is a significant problem that to date has been unrecognized and un-publicized. Moreover, the study suggests that pressure on park lands will continue to mount in the foreseeable future. With the exception of parks given to a municipality in trust there is little to indicate that municipal legislation is oriented to protecting the major parks. In fact, parks that have been dedicated by public referendum are not guaranteed perpetual protection in all provinces. Parks, as viewed by some municipal councils, seem to represent a valuable form«of land bank for future development needs. The increasing public awareness of the value of major parks in urban areas may change this outlook in the future. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Understanding how committed employees are within an organization is a valuable tool for managing and fostering a successful work environment. A continued appreciation of employee commitment is especially beneficial following organizational change as it has been shown that change inevitably impacts commitment levels to some degree. This study investigated organizational commitment within a subpopulation of the newly restructured Parks Canada Agency using an established survey instrument. The findings revealed that an employee's tenure and work location currently influences commitment levels among the sample that was surveyed. This study also found that commitment to the Parks Canada mandate significantly differs from the expressed commitment to the current state of the organization. An effort to improve the moderate levels of organizational commitment would be a valuable strategy for enhancing the employer-employee relationship and contributing to the positive effects of the organizational change.

Understanding how committed employees are within an organization is a valuable tool for managing and fostering a successful work environment. A continued appreciation of employee commitment is especially beneficial following organizational change as it has been shown that change inevitably impacts commitment levels to some degree. This study investigated organizational commitment within a subpopulation of the newly restructured Parks Canada Agency using an established survey instrument. The findings revealed that an employee's tenure and work location currently influences commitment levels among the sample that was surveyed. This study also found that commitment to the Parks Canada mandate significantly differs from the expressed commitment to the current state of the organization. An effort to improve the moderate levels of organizational commitment would be a valuable strategy for enhancing the employer-employee relationship and contributing to the positive effects of the organizational change.

While Canada has, in recent years, experienced a significant increase in global immigration in tandem with rising migration to urban centers, visitorship to Canadian parks has been declining. It is thought that this is, in part, due to shifting cultural demographics. In 2011, as part of a larger measured response to these changes, Parks Canada in partnership with the Mountain Equipment Co-op, launched ‘Learn to Camp’. The Learn to Camp program provides participants the opportunity to learn how to plan and enjoy safe and successful camping trips. The program is facilitated through one to two day events, and includes a repository of information online and a mobile app. Participants, primarily new and urban Canadians, are groomed to become independent campers: learning where to camp, what to bring, what to cook, and how to stay safe. This thesis seeks to understand the Learn to Camp program – how it is performed, how it is received, and what, if any, are its impacts on participants, parks, and other stakeholders? In this project, I draw on primary research and literatures from cultural studies of nature to examine Learn to Camp under two frames, highlighting both immediate and long-term program implications. The literatures provided by critical studies of nature demonstrate how Canadian parks carry a limiting nationalist identity embedded within a history of colonial erasures. In my analysis, Learn to Camp appears to reinforce this historical narrative as it prescribes specific ways of ‘knowing’ and ‘being’ in park spaces. Concurrently, interview and questionnaire data indicate that new Canadians have an overwhelmingly positive experience with Learn to Camp. Participants are provided the skills, knowledge, and confidence necessary to become independent campers. Furthermore, participants leave Learn to Camp with a renewed sense of belonging to the Canadian landscape and to Canadian culture. In this project, I am interested in accounting for both the problematic underpinnings and the enjoyment that can be found in acculturating practices, such as Learn to Camp. / Graduate

The collaborative management arrangements in place for Nunavut’s National Parks demonstrated a shifting trend in Canadian resource management, where Indigenous people are increasingly involved in the governance of traditional lands. This work considered the arrangement in place for Auyuittuq National Park, Nunavut, by exploring the effect that differential discourse had on policy formation and implementation. To focus the research on a single management issue youth engagement was selected for consideration. Employing a qualitative case study strategy of inquiry, data was collected by conducting 50 interviews and 7 focus groups in the park adjacent community of Pangnirtung. The project findings indicated that the Parks Canada Agency’s discourse maintained a dominant position within the management process, such that many of the youth engagement strategies implemented did not account for Inuit cultural practices. As a consequence of this omission, many of the implemented methods were unintuitive to the community, and in some cases served as a barrier to youth participation. / October 2016

This study addresses the measurement of satisfaction. In doing so, it proposes a hypothetical conceptual framework for examining visitors’ satisfaction with their experiences in nature-based settings. Visitors’ overall satisfaction with their experiences was examined in terms of its relationships to visitors’ satisfaction with various site attributes, to visitors’ perceived importance of interpretive programs to learning, and how it is affected by visitors’ age, gender (male or female) and visitation pattern. The responses of 1309 Visitor Information Program (VIP) surveys returned by visitors to two national sites in Nova Scotia (Port Royal National Historic Site and Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site) provided the data for this study’s investigation. Secondary data analyses revealed that visitors’ satisfaction with the site attributes has the strongest effect on their overall satisfaction with their experiences. While visitors’ perceived importance to learning was also found to be positively correlated to overall experience satisfaction, when other variable are taken into consideration, its effect on overall satisfaction was found not to be statistically significant. Amongst these variables, gender was found to explain a significant amount of variance in visitors’ overall satisfaction with experiences in nature-based settings. Moreover, visitors of different age groups differ significantly in their perceptions of importance of interpretation to learning, and in their satisfaction levels. Although the findings show high levels of satisfaction at both sites, these are taken with caution. A discussion of the issues related to the measurement of satisfaction is provided, along with recommendations for a more discriminant, valid and reliable satisfaction measurement instrument.

This thesis proposes an architecturally integrated stormwater system and research facility in the town of Wasagaming, Riding Mountain National Park (RMNP), Manitoba. The design proposal provides four-season, interior and exterior space for the integration of resource management operations and park visitor experiences. Visible integration of infrastructure, building and landscape cultivate destination-based travel to RMNP while reducing human impacts on the ecosystem. Aging infrastructure and diminishing federal funding make responsible ecological and cultural management of parks increasingly difficult. Integration of research and tourism as a component of visitor experience at parks is one way of addressing cost-effective co-location of programme, ensuring future funding can be generated for resource management.

This study addresses the measurement of satisfaction. In doing so, it proposes a hypothetical conceptual framework for examining visitors’ satisfaction with their experiences in nature-based settings. Visitors’ overall satisfaction with their experiences was examined in terms of its relationships to visitors’ satisfaction with various site attributes, to visitors’ perceived importance of interpretive programs to learning, and how it is affected by visitors’ age, gender (male or female) and visitation pattern. The responses of 1309 Visitor Information Program (VIP) surveys returned by visitors to two national sites in Nova Scotia (Port Royal National Historic Site and Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site) provided the data for this study’s investigation. Secondary data analyses revealed that visitors’ satisfaction with the site attributes has the strongest effect on their overall satisfaction with their experiences. While visitors’ perceived importance to learning was also found to be positively correlated to overall experience satisfaction, when other variable are taken into consideration, its effect on overall satisfaction was found not to be statistically significant. Amongst these variables, gender was found to explain a significant amount of variance in visitors’ overall satisfaction with experiences in nature-based settings. Moreover, visitors of different age groups differ significantly in their perceptions of importance of interpretation to learning, and in their satisfaction levels. Although the findings show high levels of satisfaction at both sites, these are taken with caution. A discussion of the issues related to the measurement of satisfaction is provided, along with recommendations for a more discriminant, valid and reliable satisfaction measurement instrument.

Thesis (M.M.S.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2005. / Bibliography: leaves 59-64.