PARK/ACADEMIC COLLABORATION ON GEOLOGY: GETTING THE WORD OUT THROUGH RANGER INTERPRETATIVE PROGRAMS

National parks, monuments, and seashores often have incredible geological features and processes just begging to be explained to the public. But park interpretation staffs commonly lack background in geology, in both content and methods of interpreting geology to the public. Collaboration between the Oregon State University (OSU) Department of Geosciences and the Geoscientists-in-the-Parks (GIP) program of the National Park Service (NPS) has been addressing this issue by involving faculty and graduate students in parks, developing geology training manuals and exhibits for parks, presenting geology content and interpretation methods to park staffs, and incorporating a Public Interpretation option to the BS-Earth Science degree. The work is outreach and engagement, an important part of the mission of a university that complements teaching and research. The goal of the project is to increase the Earth science literacy of the public by training park interpretation rangers in basic concepts and current research in geology. It also produces students educated in geological interpretation on graduate and undergraduate levels. A challenge in interpretation is deciding what specific concepts can be presented effectively to the public, and at what level. The decisions can be especially difficult when a staff has little or no background in a subject such as geology. The key is to identify aspects of each park’s geology that represent first-order geological principles that can and should be presented. An important aspect of the project is that faculty and students work as actual park interpretative rangers, presenting guided hikes and evening programs, and working at visitor information centers. Participants thereby become familiar with a park’s resources and learn what it means to engage the public in formal programs and other settings. The experience provides the background needed for collaboration on content and presentation methods that link visitors to the geology of national parks.