Presenter: Beth Scott

Approved LACES course

Description

Our national parks have seen a significant increase in visitors in the past 10 years. In 2008, 275 million people visited the 61 national parks in the United States. By 2017, the number had increased to 331 million. Budgets haven’t been increased to address the growth and the infrastructure within these parks is struggling to keep up. Our presentation will show in depth the impacts of growing use and the options for addressing the impact while providing opportunities to enhance the visitor experience.

Learning outcomes for participants include:

1.      Understanding the impacts of rapidly growing visitor use at National Parks and similar types of recreational facilities.

2.      Gaining an understanding of how transit systems in National Parks can enhance the visitor experience through careful design, planning and management of visitor facilities and recreation opportunities integrated with the transit system.

3.      Gaining an understanding of context sensitive and sustainable design for managing visitor use and resource protection at National Park Service properties.