Environmental History and the National Parks
By Alison Steiner and Neel Baumgardner, ASEH/NPS student assistants
In his recent documentary, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," Ken Burns explores the unique role of the National Park Service (NPS) in preserving the nation's past. The National Parks Second Century Commission Report, released last fall, also highlights the important connections between the places managed by the Park Service and key stories of U.S. history. Yet, one important question remains: what role do environmental historians play in the interpretation and management of these sites? At the ASEH Annual Meeting in Portland, we began to examine these issues during a full-day workshop on the relationship between environmental history and the NPS. More than eighty people-academics as well as Park Service employees-attended the workshop's morning session, and fifty people participated in an afternoon field trip to the historic Columbia River Gorge.
The purpose of the NPS Workshop was threefold. First, it sought to determine the state of the field of environmental history as it relates to the National Park Service. Second, it examined the ways in which environmental history can inform and influence management decisions and, specifically, how environmental historians can participate in decision-making processes. Third, it asked how we might advance the NPS role, as the nation's lead preservation agency, in interpreting environmental history for the American public.
The morning session speakers included Timothy Babalis (NPS), Rebecca Conard (Middle Tennessee State University), Rolf Diamant (NPS), Jim Feldman (University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh), Mark Fiege (Colorado State University), Phil Scarpino (IUPUI), and Mark Spence (HistoryCraft). Presenters reviewed case studies of the use of environmental history in the rehabilitation and public portrayal of spaces such as the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Isle Royale National Park, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Stones River National Military Park. For example, through the lens of oyster production in the Drakes Estero tideland of Point Reyes, Timothy Babalis, a Park Service historian, demonstrated that historical methods can help our understanding of landscape change over time by describing the evolving relationship between humans and a given environment. In addition, speakers examined the larger role that environmental history can play within the Park Service by breaking down artificial administrative divisions between natural and cultural resource management and in realizing the vision laid out by the Second Century Commission.
During the afternoon, Bob Hadlow (Oregon DOT) and Larry Lipin (Pacific University) narrated a field trip to the Columbia River Gorge. Participants stopped at Vista House (a public rest stop and observatory built in 1918 from which highway travelers could view the Gorge) and visited Multnomah Falls (the second tallest year-round waterfall in the nation). They finished the excursion with a 2.4-mile hike to Cascade Locks on the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail.
In his recent documentary, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," Ken Burns explores the unique role of the National Park Service (NPS) in preserving the nation's past. The National Parks Second Century Commission Report, released last fall, also highlights the important connections between the places managed by the Park Service and key stories of U.S. history. Yet, one important question remains: what role do environmental historians play in the interpretation and management of these sites? At the ASEH Annual Meeting in Portland, we began to examine these issues during a full-day workshop on the relationship between environmental history and the NPS. More than eighty people-academics as well as Park Service employees-attended the workshop's morning session, and fifty people participated in an afternoon field trip to the historic Columbia River Gorge.
The purpose of the NPS Workshop was threefold. First, it sought to determine the state of the field of environmental history as it relates to the National Park Service. Second, it examined the ways in which environmental history can inform and influence management decisions and, specifically, how environmental historians can participate in decision-making processes. Third, it asked how we might advance the NPS role, as the nation's lead preservation agency, in interpreting environmental history for the American public.
The morning session speakers included Timothy Babalis (NPS), Rebecca Conard (Middle Tennessee State University), Rolf Diamant (NPS), Jim Feldman (University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh), Mark Fiege (Colorado State University), Phil Scarpino (IUPUI), and Mark Spence (HistoryCraft). Presenters reviewed case studies of the use of environmental history in the rehabilitation and public portrayal of spaces such as the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Isle Royale National Park, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Stones River National Military Park. For example, through the lens of oyster production in the Drakes Estero tideland of Point Reyes, Timothy Babalis, a Park Service historian, demonstrated that historical methods can help our understanding of landscape change over time by describing the evolving relationship between humans and a given environment. In addition, speakers examined the larger role that environmental history can play within the Park Service by breaking down artificial administrative divisions between natural and cultural resource management and in realizing the vision laid out by the Second Century Commission.
During the afternoon, Bob Hadlow (Oregon DOT) and Larry Lipin (Pacific University) narrated a field trip to the Columbia River Gorge. Participants stopped at Vista House (a public rest stop and observatory built in 1918 from which highway travelers could view the Gorge) and visited Multnomah Falls (the second tallest year-round waterfall in the nation). They finished the excursion with a 2.4-mile hike to Cascade Locks on the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail.
This NPS workshop was a preliminary step in encouraging the integration of environmental history in Park Service management and interpretation. In order to establish a record of these proceedings, the workshop presentations will be published in an upcoming special issue of the George Wright Forum, the journal of the George Wright Society. In addition, please help us continue this discussion on-line by visiting our blog:http://asehandthenationalparks.blogspot.com/.
The workshop on environmental history and the national parks featured a variety of speakers in the morning and an afternoon site visit to the historic Columbia River Highway (see below).
No comments:
Post a Comment