A GEOLOGY TRAINING MANUAL: MAKING GEOLOGY UNDERSTANDABLE IN PARKS

Grand Canyon National Park is a geologic experience like no other and a park that is visited by more than 5 million people each year. Many visitors attend park ranger led interpretive programs to learn how the spectacular scenery was created. It is crucial for park rangers at Grand Canyon, and other national parks, to understand and be able to communicate the geologic story to park visitors.

Most park rangers are well educated in fields other than geology. For this reason, they may not understand or feel comfortable presenting geologic information to park visitors. At Grand Canyon, discussion of geology is important and unavoidable. There is an abundance of technical literature regarding Grand Canyon geology, however it is difficult for rangers to comprehend without prior geologic education. To alleviate this situation, an illustrated geology training manual is being created to make geology more understandable to Grand Canyon park rangers. Beginning with the fundamentals of geology, and applying them to Grand Canyon geology, park rangers can learn how the canyon came to be, as well as ways to make the geology more meaningful to visitors.

National parks across the country contain a wealth of geologic resources waiting to be explained to the public. Through geology outreach programs like Geoscientists-in-the-Parks, national parks can work directly with geologists to make the parks' geology more comprehensible. Geology training manuals are one way geologists can help national parks gain a better understanding of their resource. In turn, this will educate the public, which is an important factor in the preservation and proper management of our geologic resources in parks and other natural areas.