A Report on National Park Service: Interpretation

Everhart, William

The current uneasy feeling of many National Park Service people about the status of interpretation was probably best expressed in the rhetorical question addressed to the powers that be during the course of this study, by a Grand Teton seasonal. "Is interpretation really going downhill - or is it merely standing still while the rest of the world goes up?" Concern for the vitality of interpretation has been evident throughout the Service for some time. It was a topic of extended discussion in several recent meetings of the field and Washington directorate. Following its review of NPS field operations, in 1971, the Advisory Board reported to Secretary of the Interior Rogers Morton on the status of NPS interpretation: "We must conclude generally, however, that interpretive positions, facilities and performance are at a low point for recent decades. On a piecemeal basis interpretation appears to have suffered most in the competition between programs for inadequate budgets and from personnel restrictions of recent years." The present study was initiated at the request of the Director on July 10, 1972, when he notified the regional directors he was asking me to accept a six month assignment to undertake a review of NPS interpretation. In deciding how the job might best be approached, it seemed to me what was not needed was another task force making one more survey of field interpretation. The people who are actually involved with field interpretation matters, most of whom are in the parks, already know better than anyone else what the problems really are. My objective has been to find a way to let the people of the National Park Service develop the report. I have therefore involved as many people as possible, solicited their views, and to the degree possible have attempted, objectively, to translate their knowledge and experience into a final report. The study has benefitted enormously from the counsel and direction received from two advisory groups. Pete Shedd, Deputy Director of the Virginia State Office, Tommy Gilbert, Chief of the Office of Environmental Interpretation,and Tommy Thomas, Supervisor of the Mather Training Center, formed a steering committee which did most of the strategic planning. The regional directors appointed the following personal representatives to carry out the study operations in their respective regions: Northeast, Frank Barnes; Southeast. Bernie Goodman (Kennesaw Mountain); Midwest, Jim Schaack; Southwest, Al Shroeder; Western, John Good (Yosemite); Pacific Northwest, John Davis (Klamath Group); NCP, Rock Comstock and Wes Wolfe.