I'm a really big fan of the
WildeBeat, an audio journal available online, with stories covering wilderness topics. The programs are expertly crafted. Most recently, the WildeBeat covered, in two parts, a series called 'Listening to the Parks'. Steve Sergeant, the show's producer and host,
in part 1 encounters a friendly, if not somewhat clueless, RV owner who fires up his secondary generator in the morning so that he can make a cup of coffee. The sound coming from the generator is so loud, Steve can hardly hear himself speak as he approaches the RV owner to talk. It is interesting material, thought provoking. But, what's prompted me to create this entry today is some information contained
in part 2 of the series. At about 5 minutes into the clip, Steve and Kurt Fistrup of the
National Park Service talk about capturing an 'audio snapshot' of the parks the same way you might take a photograph with a digital camera. I think this is really a terrific idea, and as mentioned in the article, it isn't too difficult to get started.
Just recently I bought an all-in-one stereo recording device. It is called the 'Zoom H4'. At first glance the two end pieces give the device an appearance like a tazer or something, but those pieces are actually two microphones bent in a fashion described as an 'x - y pattern'. This pattern captures an extraordinary stereo image. I've used it in the field, and then reviewed the recording later in the evening in a semi-silent room, with my eyes closed, the sound generated puts my mind's eye back at the place I made the recording. The Zoom has a switch on the outside which lets you control the microphone gain, and I've found that the microphones are way too sensitive at the highest setting (+30db). If there is any wind present when the mics are set to high gain, the result is a 'boom, boom, boom' sound even when the foam windscreen is attached -- not too pleasant. I wish the Zoom let you control the input levels on the outside of the device, but to access that setting, you have to click a few buttons and adjust it through the built in software instead. Another key feature which led to my purchase of the Zoom is that you can connect external microphones to the device. This is great. So, if you have a higher end mic, like a
shotgun microphone for capturing specific animal sounds, you can plug in right into the back of the unit. Very handy.
Recording is captured as either uncompressed WAV files or as MP3 files, each with selectable frequencies and bit-depths. The files are saved to an SD memory card, which is probably the same type of memory card used in your digital camera. The device runs on two AA batteries, and in my experience so far, when using the device like a digital camera (cycling power on only when taking a 'picture'), they last about the same time as a camera. Unfortunately, there is no battery meter on the device, just a note on the screen that says 'battery low'. For a much more detailed review of the H4, including audio samples, check out this
article on oreilly.com. I bought my Zoom for about $300 at
B&H Photo/Video. If you get the Zoom, consider also getting a tiny beanbag or tripod to use while recording with the H4. I found a $5 beanbag at Office Depot, originally designed to cradle a cell phone, which is small enough to fit in a pocket and doesn't weigh anything.
One last note about the
WildeBeat. If you haven't already heard, the program is now a project of the Earth Island Institute, a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. The show is funded through
listener donations. I've just become a member. Full membership works out to about $1 an episode, which is worth it to me to support such great work, and ensure that there will be more programs like this down the road! Thanks Steve and Jean.
Website Update: OK, in my last update, I know I said I'd have something to see by now, so I apologize that there isn't anything new to see. Here's what's going on. The goal of the new website is to have a lot of 'community' oriented features. There are lots of sites which provide that feature, but what I've discovered, is that creating all the configurations and code to make it work takes a lot of time. As of right now, the site is 98% ready, and this week I'm having a few different folks check out the site and see that it works OK. The plan as it stands now, is to have the re-launch next Monday, the 25th. I'll keep you posted if things change. Thanks again for your patience.
Best Places to Work in the Federal Govt. 2007
This is an
interesting list. Want to take a guess where the
National Park Service ranks among 222 other federal offices as a place to work? Would you guess top 10? Nope, think lower. Top 50? Lower. Top 100?? Keep going lower. Top 150???? Lower. If you guessed 160th, you were dead on correct. FYI, that is lower in rank than other land management offices like the Forest Service, BLM, and Fish & Wildlife. I'll leave it to you to decide if there is deeper meaning in these numbers. The chart provides a little more data that may be of interest, the 58.2 score is 6.9% lower than the 2005 score of 62.5. And, did you see this detail? The
Work/Life Balance score for the NPS is ranked 218th of 222. It is hard to get much worse than that.
Newscast About Fees on Colorado Mountainside
I've talked about fees a number of times on this website. Sometimes I have trouble expressing why I think many of the visitation fees are absurd. Someone sent me a link today to this story broadcast on the Denver evening news late last week. Have a look -
CBS4 Reporter Gets Ticketed for Looking at Wildlife on Mt Evans. I don't know about you, but I get upset when I see that video. Doesn't it just seem crazy? You can drive on the road, check out the wildlife, but your tires better not stop! If your tires come to a stop, you have engaged in an activity that MUST be taxed! To be clear, this story is about the Forest Service, but the fee authority is the same as the parks, the FLREA.
story sent via email, which was probably found via NewWest
Web Update
Getting really close now ... look for the updated site as soon as the end of the week.
![Grinnell Glacier 2006, Glacier National Park : Karen Holzer [USGS]](/nucleus/media/1/20070608-grinnellGlac2006.jpg "Grinnell Glacier 2006, Glacier National Park : Karen Holzer [USGS]")
I've written a new piece for the
Frommers.com park newsletter that you may be interested in. This one, "
Tipping the Balance: How Glacier National Park is Melting Away", as you might guess from the title, looks at the effects of the melting glaciers in
Glacier National Park. As I was writing the piece, the question that kept flying through my mind was, so what? So what that the glaciers are melting, it's just ice after all. So there is less ice in the mountain tops, what's the big deal? It turns out that it is a big deal, and that is what I tried to suggest in the article. I wrapped the article with some quotes from
Aldo Leopold, a conservation leader whose messages about the land ethic, and conservation are as strong today as when he had been writing them over 60 years ago.
If you are not familiar with Aldo Leopold, have a look at
some snippets of his writings on the web. If you've got more time, do yourself a favor this summer and read his book '
A Sand County Almanac'. Quite inspiring.
By the way, I didn't include it in the Frommer's article, but if you get a chance, check out this series of USGS photos of the shrinking Grinnell Glacier within the park -
http://nrmsc.usgs.gov/repeatphoto/gg_mt-gould.htm.
Park Podcasts, So Easy A Caveman Can Do It (Or At Least A Bunch of 4th Graders)
I've been wanting to use that caveman line for a long time. No offense intended for either cavemen or 4th graders! I was forwarded an email last week written by the teacher of a 4th grade class in Westford, Massachusetts. Their class had been studying the National Parks for a whole year, and at the end of study created a set of 20 Public Service Announcements about parks which they have published on the web. Have a listen, I think they are pretty fun, and reflect a wide range of parks across the system:
Abbot School Park PSAs
Park Webcams
This is a link I pull up every now and again. It's got a number of webcams from around the park system set up to monitor air quality conditions. The cameras provide a nice snapshot for the feeling of "now" at these different places:
NPS Air Quality Webcams
I've received my advance copy of Jim Burnett's latest book called "
Hey Ranger 2: More True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from the Great Outdoors". I had read the book's predecessor, which was only published a few years ago, and loved it. I'm really glad that he's found more material for a second book. Part of the reason I enjoyed the first one so much was the attitude and point-of-view of the author, it's all about fun. Here is a brief passage from the intro to 'Hey Ranger 2' which describes Jim's intent.
This book is written in an informal, conversational style, and each chapter is its own stand-alone story, so you can read it a bit at a time, whenever you're ready for an entertaining break from your daily routine. Some of the characters in these true tales have narrow escapes, but everybody survives in the end, so the result is fun, family-friendly reading that everyone from veteran outdoorsmen to armchair travelers can enjoy.
'Hey Ranger 2' should be hitting bookstores this summer. My impression is that the first book had a wide distribution, and if this one is the same, you'll see it all over. I had seen version one in my local REI, as well as in NPS bookstores around the country. And of course, in the age of the internet, everything is available for sale online. 'Hey Ranger 2' is no exception, and can be
ordered today from Amazon.com. Keep your eyes peeled for this book during your travels this summer.
I've had a chance to talk with Jim Burnett in email about the book already. We'll probably try to set up an audiocast interview in the months to come. By the way, when you get your copy, have a look at page 227, in the chapter entitled 'In the Eye of the Beholder'. Way back when, I sent Jim a few fun stories that I remembered while I worked seasonally, and I'm exited to tell you one of them is in the new book! How cool, thanks Jim.
Web Update: I'm still working on Park Remark 2.0. And, if any of you have had to do much work with computers, maybe you can relate ... this project has taken me longer to complete than I had originally anticipated. At this point, it is looking like early to mid-June before the new site will be up and kickin'. I appreciate you loyal readers checking in, I can see from my web statistics that you are still visiting. Thank you.
If it feels a little quiet around here, it is because I'm working on some changes to the website behind the scenes. I hope to make an announcement within the next couple weeks or so about the changes. In the meantime I may add a short article or two, but for now, most of my efforts are going into the code for ParkRemark 2.0. By the way, I've really enjoyed
reading the debate between 'Avoiding Paradise' and 'Mark Johnson' at the conclusion of the
recent Disney article. They wonder, has the NPS drifted so far towards resource protection that they've turned a stink eye toward visitors? Or is it because so much of the visitor experience is now handled by less qualified volunteers that the public perception of visitor outreach in the parks is so poor?
By now if you've been following the pricing game played by the
National Park Service, you will have heard the comparison made to Disneyland multiple times. I referred to one such comparison made by the NPS in
yesterday's article. As you may know, this comparison has been going on for years. I've been told by
Scott Silver that the earliest comparisons go as far back as 1985. Here are a few more, from years past:
1996,
The Thoreau Institute : "A visit to Disneyland costs roughly the same or more [as a family visit to the movies, or kids playing video games]. Numbers like these make most of the [Forest Service fees] appear low."
2000,
Rep. Regula : "The fees are minuscule compared to what people will pay to go to a movie or to go to Disneyland."
2004,
PERC : "If entrance fees were raised to $20 per person per visit (not $20 per car for a week) ... they would still represent a small portion of the total expenditure for a typical family trip. By comparison, twenty dollars per person is less than half the price of a single day’s visit to Disneyland."
To be clear, I don't have a problem with
Disneyland. I'm not trying to vilify ol' Walt. Disney has created an amazing amusement park, and as such, it has it's place in the fabric of American life. I've been there more than a few times, and enjoyed myself each time. But it must be understood that I go to National Parks for reasons that are completely different than the reasons I would go to Disneyland. And so, comparing the cost of the two as justification for higher park entrance fees is more than unfortunate. It would be like comparing the cost of park entrance fees to something like the cost of automobile tires; you could say there is a relationship between the two - I need tires to drive through a park - but the comparison in cost would be silly and makes as much sense as the comparison with Disneyland admission.
"But wait," you might say, "wouldn't you recreate in Disneyland, just as you'd recreate in a park like
Yosemite? The comparison would then be fair, wouldn't it?" Sure, recreation is part of the National Park experience, but when you've got a system as diverse as the 390 park units of the NPS, recreation plays only a small role. Would you consider driving to Disneyland for a picnic? To make a connection with history? To study forest succession? To gaze into the Milky Way? To reflect on war, as you might at the
Vietnam Memorial? To find room to think?
There may be a thousand reasons that people seek a national park experience. Of those reasons, one may be to enjoy a family vacation as one might also do at an amusement park like Disneyland. As the
National Park Service builds this case for parity pricing of the recreation experience, they shut out every other legitimate reason you might use your public lands.
There are more problems with the Disneyland or movie ticket price comparison. A huge issue is that our taxes don't subsidize the cost of movie tickets or entrance to amusement parks, as they do with the national parks. Disneyland sets its prices based on an economic theory that maximizes profit, our federal lands are not supposed to operate on those terms.
If the Park Service is looking to make a more accurate comparison for pricing, I suggest they consider using city, regional, or state parks in their statements. Like the national parks, local parks are sustained by taxes. Like the national parks, local parks may be used for picnics, outdoor education, as a place to think, and as place for escape. I've even seen local parks with hiking trails, campgrounds, and visitor centers, similar to those at the federal level. With so many similarities, why haven't we seen the price comparison made in the media? I'm sure you can guess my conclusion. It's because the $25 to enter the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Zion, Yosemite (proposed), Olympic (proposed), and others, would seem by cost comparison to local parks, unreasonable and absurd.
It would be possible to post an article about park entrance fees almost everyday in recent weeks. The stories of proposed entrance fee increases are coming fast and furious from around the nation concerning
Park Service managed areas. Add that to the 60% increase in an annual pass (the America The Beautiful pass), then throw in price increases for additional amenities (like campgrounds, hiking permits, guided tours, boat launch, RV dumping, and even fishing permits), and before long the public park experience looks exactly like the
Disney experience that NPS statements continue to push about themselves.
... going to the parks will still be "absolutely a bargain," said [National Park Service spokesperson David] Barna, when compared with the price of movie tickets for a family or places such as Disneyland.
CNN.com - May 6, 2007
There is a reason politicians stay away from tax talk. It is impossible to put lipstick on a pig, and when it comes to a public favorite like the parks, no one wants to be left holding the purse. Folks like Barna, and even Director Bomar are left with the unenviable task of trying to sell a policy nobody wants.
"Many (visitors) said 'We'd pay double,'" Bomar said. "We heard that comment over and over."
USA Today - April 29, 2007
It is possible Bomar did hear that comment over and over, but it seems clear to me that she was asking the wrong people. Those that paid to enter the park are not the population to ask about fees. Point the survey at the millions who have left the park over the last 10 years, and I'm sure the overwhelming response would not be an enthusiastic vote for higher taxes to access public land.
But, we don't need surveys to tell us what people think of these fees. Just ask around:
Klamath Falls editorial, "the federal government should not discourage people from visiting the national parks and missing the educational aspects that come along with those visits";
New Mexican editorial, "it’s easy to tie fee increases to exclusionary plots";
Vermont editorial, "thoughtful responses today could lead to a better plan that would help our parks without shutting Americans out";
John Byrne of the Sierra Club, "entrance fees disproportionately affect those on the left-hand side of the economic bell curve," adding, "fees to enter National Parks should be abandoned";
Bill Wade of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, "the fee increases appear to be getting out of hand";
Tim McNulty of Olympic Park Associates, "given that the park budgets are being strapped, this is a time when they really need to cultivate supporters and attract more people to the parks"; Oregon Congressman
Peter DeFazio, "I believe the proposed fee increase represents the larger issue of misplaced priorities within [the Department of Interior]."
Add these voices to those of the citizens of
the states of Oregon, Montana, Alaska,
Washington and California which have either introduced or ratified positions asking the Federal Government to abolish the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, and the picture comes clear.
The overwhelming response to these fees is negative. Have we had enough of fees? If I may speak on behalf of the public lands advocates quoted in this piece, YES! Unfortunately, we are on a path that won't change until someone in the House or Senate steps forward to stop this mess. I don't think the answer is as simple as the practically cliche'd "write your congressman". Congress won't listen until enough of us pool together to make it an issue worth spending their time on. If so, perhaps the answer is "write your newspapers' editorial board".
There is new information about park fees surfacing in the papers nearly everyday. If you haven't already, subscribe to the
Western Slope No-Fee email list, Robert Funkhouser sends out a ton of important info on that channel. You can also follow the trail built by Scott Silver at
Wild Wilderness. And, don't forget Kurt's reporting at the
National Parks Traveler. All good sources of info regarding the ever increasing fee issue.
Cool shot of the
Death Valley Racetrack Playa, huh? Click the photo for a closer look. This shot comes from Dan Duriscoe of
Night Sky Team in the
National Park Service. It was published earlier this week on the
Astronomy Photo of the Day website. Be sure to catch the
explanation under the photo, it describes how the shot was made, and makes reference to programs within the NPS and others to protect the night sky -- like the recent
dark sky designation for
Natural Bridges.
As you've probably heard, the Queen of England was on a visit here in the USA recently. And, like a lot of foreign tourists who come to this country, she wanted to see the sites. What better tour guide than
Park Service Director Mary Bomar! In this
Washington Post photo, they wander through the
World War II Memorial in D.C. Click the photo to visit the original page.
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