By revealing deeper meanings and connecting the visitor to the resource, interpretation strives to accomplish a number of goals. Interpretation can increase knowledge of a program\'s topic, change the visitor's attitude toward something, change future behaviors, and increase appreciation for a place and its resources. While literature exists professing best practices for interpretation, little empirical support is present in the research literature to validate these practices' individual links to desired outcomes. This study empirically identifies attributes of the interpreter that statistically linked to visitor outcomes. We tracked 31 interpreter attributes and 10 intended outcomes of interpreters in 376 live interpretive programs in 24 units of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and conducted visitor surveys immediately following the programs. This research addresses the following question: Which interpreter attributes most consistently lead to desired outcomes? Our research shows that the interpreter attributes most consistently associated with positive visitor outcomes were the interpreter's apparent degree of confidence and expression authentic emotion. The results can be used to inform interpretive training throughout the National Park Service. / Master of Science

The failed New Orleans Cultural Center Complex was cultural genocide to an area of the neighborhood known as Treme, where a tribute to the jazz great and native son, Louis Armstrong, was planned as an afterthought. The questions remain, was the planning and building of Louis Armstrong Park responsible for the genocide of the Treme neighborhood, is the park an appropriate use of land, and what are the prospects for the park's future? This thesis examines the cultural gumbo of New Orleans history, explores the early days of Louis Armstrong and the development of jazz, sets the record straight by vindicating the Louis Armstrong Park as the culprit for demolition in Treme, and takes a look at "the Back ‘o Town" as a tribute to him.

The Big Thicket National Preserve (BTNP) is a unit of the National Park Service whose mission prioritizes conservation of its wildlands in the United States. One threat to natural resources of the BTNP has been impacts associated with feral hog (Sus scrofa) activities. Population numbers of this non-native game species have increased throughout Texas, including areas within the preserve. Recreational hunting permitted by the BTNP has served as a means of controlling hog numbers, although the reported amounts of hog damage to park resources appear to have increased in recent years. Population reduction of feral hogs and mitigation of their impacts require research that documents and validates feral hog impacts on park resources. Here, I evaluated (1) population trends of feral hogs for the past 20 years via data from hunter-card surveys and track-counts, and (2) feral hog impacts on native vegetation for 3 management units of the BTNP. Results from my analysis suggest a nearly 3-fold increase in hog numbers throughout the preserve since 1981. The overall damage to vegetation from hog rooting or wallowing averaged to 28% among the 3 units of the BTNP. Landscape features such as topography, soil moisture, soil type, and dominant vegetative cover types were used to predict hog damage. Floodplains had the most damage in the Big Sandy unit (45%), while flatlands were mostly impacted in the Turkey Creek unit (46%), and uplands in the Lance Rosier unit (32%). Vegetative cover was an important variable in explaining variation in hog damage throughout the 3 units of the preserve. Impacts were more widespread across different vegetative strata than previously believed. Study results also support the premise that hog damage in the BTNP parallels the increase in hog abundance over the past 20 years. A more aggressive program for population reduction of feral hogs and mitigation of their impacts is recommended for the BTNP to continue to meet its legal mandates for conservation.

This dissertation examines changing relationships among natural landscapes and state agencies, as these relationships intersect in transboundary protected wildlands and in debates about natural resource protection and U.S.-Mexico border policy. Recent increases in undocumented migration, smuggling, and border enforcement along the Arizona-Sonora border impact ecology and public land management practices. In this dissertation, I analyze how natural and national spaces and boundaries are produced through institutional and individual practices and discourses in border wildlands. Further, I consider how different productions of space restrict or create opportunities for collaborative responses to ecological impacts resulting from migration, smuggling, and border enforcement. This research builds on anthropological scholarship on conservation, borders, and the production of space through an ethnography of conservation institutions as they face dramatic political and ecological changes in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

<p>This paper discusses the issue of threats to National Park Service resources that originate outside the boundaries of the parks, with specific emphasis on protection of scenic resources. A model planning process for protection of scenic resources beyond park boundaries is developed and the Blue Ridge Parkway is examined as a case study. The opportunities and problems associated with the application of the model process to the Parkway are also examined and discussed.</p> / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

Developed out of a need for a reliable methodology of documenting historic landscapes, the National Park Service uses Cultural Landscape Reports to determine the significance and integrity of historic landscapes. Treatment recommendations developed from an analysis of site history and existing conditions guide the management decisions of cultural landscapes. Russell Cave National Monument, located in Bridgeport, Alabama, contains one of the oldest continuous archeological records in North America. A cultural landscape report for the park had not yet been completed. This research consists of a historical narrative covering the 10,000 years of human occupation in the cave, a documentation of existing conditions, an analysis of historic integrity, and recommendations for management, preservation, and restoration of the landscape.

No description available.

Since 1990, at the direction of Congress, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has been developing the Legacy Resource Management Program to enhance DoD's stewardship of cultural and natural resources for which it has responsibilities. The Legacy Program is designed to go beyond compliance with various host nation, Federal, tribal, state, and local historic preservation, religious freedom, and natural resource protection laws, policies, regulations, and guidance. The original Legacy legislation specifically directed the Program to assess the adequacy of DoD's stewardship of Native American resources, for which it may have conservation or management responsibilities either as a major landholder or as a Federal agency whose activities affect traditional Native American values and practices. This report is about Native Americans and their cultural resource relationships with the Department of Defense. This study does not consider the Native American relationships of all 16 Defense agencies that report to the Department of Defense. Instead, the study was restricted to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps.

This thesis illustrates a process by which small organizations in the National Park Service can implement minor changes in current management and contracting practices to achieve measurable improvements in economy and efficiency by applying the principles and procedures outlined for competitive sourcing studies in Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76 (May 2003).

Park management at Padre Island National Seashore (PAIS) actively continues to modify the General Management Plan to maintain the safety of the increasing numbers of visitors and protect natural resources. When changes conflict with anglers' current usage of the beach, park management receives vocal opposition from local and visiting anglers who do not want their long-standing rights to the beach to be affected. To better inform management decisions and policies surrounding the beach area, this qualitative thesis research used ethnographic interviews to address the following key objectives: (1) Understand the relationship between surf anglers and the beach at PAIS, (2) Identify the main issues, concerns, needs, and expectations of the surf anglers at PAIS, (3) Describe the relationship between surf anglers and the National Park Service (NPS), and (4) Determine key areas of conflict and tension surrounding NPS management of the beach. At Padre Island National Seashore (PAIS), referred to by local anglers as "the PINS," anglers connect to the beach because of memories experienced there, a heritage of use, a sense of serenity and spirituality, and camaraderie. Those who have a long-standing relationship to the beach at the PINS, in some cases multi-generational, feel a sense of guardianship and even ownership over the beach. Many surf anglers at the PINS experience the outdoors through a family heritage of fishing, connect to others through fishing, and promote conservation practices through media, camaraderie, and local knowledge. Angler feelings towards the NPS range from distrust to an appreciation of the role of the NPS in protecting their sacred fishing place. Areas of conflict and tension stem from anglers' safety concerns, new regulations that challenge and threaten their traditional values and experiences associated with surf fishing, and a lack of communication and inclusion of anglers in the National Seashore's decision-making processes. To better manage conflict surrounding management issues on the beach at PAIS, this thesis suggests that park managers (1) reinstate public meetings; (2) utilize moderated roundtable discussion at public meetings; and (3) involve the scientific community, appropriate stakeholder groups, and angler knowledge in informing decisions and new regulations.