Rangers, E-Rangers, and Smart Phones as Tour Guides.

Rangers, E-Rangers, and Smart Phones as Tour Guides.

Almost by default, a RANGER is a person in charge at a park. There are Forest Rangers in the State and National Forests. Although their official job description might be anything between fire fighter, heavy equipment operator, botanist, water quality scientist, or wildlife biologist, we call them ranger. We expect them to answer our plant, animal, and historical culture questions, know the layout of their facilities, and the closest place down the road to get gas. 

The same expectation applies to State and National Park employees. They all must be available to search for lost or overdue hikers, and stand in as law enforcement when needed. They perform first aid and give guided tours. Their duties are as wide ranging as their patrols of their parks. They have to master hand tools, power tools, and transportation that range from an ATV to a bulldozer. They may have accounting and office duties, stand gate duty to collect fees, and clean the rest rooms.Their main duty has been described as to help protect people from people, people from the natural resource, and the natural resource from the people.  The one thing you may never hear a ranger say is “That’s not my job.” 

The ranger is also the best person to provide the information that goes into the map and brochure offered to visitors. That ranger may have helped blaze the trail, or build the boardwalk on the map. That insight can add the unique features that become the motivation for visitors to hike a specific trail or seek out a specific vista. The rangers know the frequently asked questions that their visitors poise, and those items can be incorporated into the brochure.

Video about a former Theme Park now a State Park 

Some park systems have websites devoted to each park. The basic park information with complete street address, amenities list, and a “Chamber of Commerce” inspired narrative about the park is on the main page. Multiple pages offer park history, culture, botany, and photographs or video of the special features of that park. The ranger input should be an important part of the web presence of the park. Having the right information, and enough information on the web can make a difference in the battle for eco-tourism and the visitors time. 

Having a rapidly loading and attractive first page that will display properly in all browser formats is an important consideration. The impulse to simply load a park brochure in PDF format should be avoided. At home computer printers may not properly render the PDF document. Today’s smart phones and tablet computers must also be considered during web presence discussions.  Some web search programs may not search PDF documents, rendering all that information invisible to on-line searchers. PDF maps and brochures should be offered, but should not be used instead of plain text on the park website.

Today’s cell phone density offers another option to self- guided tours that can  save paper. A large sign is posted near the park entrance or trailhead with a “Phone Tour” number. When the visitor reaches significant areas, a small sign can give a site code to enter when the master phone number is called, that will play a pre-recorded message- complete with sound effects and music. 

 While fewer people have “Smart Phones”, a similar concept can distribute much more information. The interpretative signage can include a postage stamp sized imprint, that when scanned by the smart phone, links to an interactive webpage about that specific site or feature. The smart phone can also use the call in system, and signage will still need to be used for those without either type of phone, or where cell phone coverage is marginal. At the end of the trail, a sign can solicit a donation to the “Friends of” group for that park with a special phone number and code. Then phone users can make a donation right from their phone.

Each visitor can help patrol the park as an “E-Ranger”. Similar to the neighborhood watch program, phones can give the operating agency many more eyes and ears.  Posting the Ranger Headquarters phone number at the park entrance, and encouraging visitors to program it into their phone, can increase park safety and encourage reporting of both emergencies and nuisance issues. If the park system has the ability to receive real-time text messages, or twitter messages, at their dispatch center the public might be encouraged to send in concerns and issues while still at the park.

It was interesting to note that of Florida’s 67 counties 63 had county government websites. Only 60 of those counties had a Park Department listed, and only 43 had a link to a park facilities page that listed the parks and addresses. 25 county parks department had each of their individual parks listed, but the quality ranged dramatically, with several just giving a park name and a link to a Google-map page. Some of the county park pages have not been updated since 2002 according to “Planned improvements scheduled” statements on their webpage. Several county’s had preserves under other departments, and did not have them listed on their “Parks” page.


Private and Public Partnership leads to great Boardwalk

Having a small county or a small budget did not keep Yankeetown Florida from having an outstanding preserve with a boardwalk, nature center, great signage, and web presence. New residents and visitors depend on the internet to find and enjoy parks.

Face Book Page about Boardwalks

Hikers Group Page on Face Book 

Should children be allowed in the Wilderness Public Lands?

Should children be allowed in the Wilderness Public Lands?

I recall when the Australian Wildlife Expert Steve Irwin took his infant son into the crocodile enclosure and the press was outraged. Why would anyone, they asked, put their child in such danger? What was he thinking? Or WAS he thinking?

 Irwin’s father was a wildlife expert in herpetology, while his mother was a wildlife rehabilitator. Steve Irwin’s parents started the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park, where he grew up around crocodiles and other reptiles.The controversial incident occurred during a public show when Irwin carried his one-month-old son in his arm while hand-feeding  a crocodile inside an enclosure at the zoo . The infant was close to the crocodile, and comparisons were made in the press to Michael Jackson's dangling his son outside a German hotel window.

A wildlife expert taking his son into a controlled environment is not the same as a young couple taking their kids with them out into the “waste howling wilderness”. How many parents watch their kids and control them on the trail? Based on my observations in some remote places, not many. Just because you can walk out into the middle of a swamp on a boardwalk, and not get your feet wet does not mean that danger isn’t just a misstep away. 

I have helped on more than a few search and rescue missions looking for children. Some of them “just slipped away” while the family was doing something like cooking a meal. No parent would out pace their child while walking down a trail and just leave them behind because they couldn’t keep up. Some parents do let their child “wander around camp”. A child can be out of sight within a few steps in the woods. If not trained to “Hug a tree” and sit still when lost, and trained to shout their parent’s first name or use a whistle, they can wander for miles and days. They may not even realize they are lost, if the child is angry from someone “being mean” to them or even if they are “Playfully hiding”.

In my EMT days, I treated several children that tried to pet wild animals. That cute kitty was a skunk, or a bobcat. And there was a family that was hospitalized because a child beat a hornets nest with a stick. I also treated a pre-teen that was “Tight-rope walking” on a boardwalk handrail within sight of his parents. That was a nasty compound fracture. Being miles from the nearest road is no time to play “Hey Y’all watch this!”

 Wildlife in Parks


But beyond the danger of the wilderness, there is the annoyance. How far can a shout or a crying child’s noise carry thru pristine wilderness? Other people on the trail can be annoyed and disturbed by both the child’s playground voice and the parent shouting corrections at a child just out of their reach. What percentage of graffiti is scrawled by the unsupervised child? Children may contribute over 60% of litter along a trail. While you cannot blame a carelessly discarded disposable diaper on the infant, maybe that child and parent don’t yet belong on the trail. And does every single child in your group need their own trail map and brochure?

“I don’t know why youth is wasted on young people, they don’t appreciate it like I would” quipped Will Rogers. The energy of youth can be the source of both danger and annoyance. Kids running down a boardwalk startle and drive off the wildlife that others are seeking to view. Even with a tripod, running kids can ruin a still shot by vibrating the boardwalk under the camera. And back at camp, a teen dives to catch a Frisbee and lands in the campfire.

Some parents are great at training and monitoring their children. The children learn early in life about the wilderness, like Steve Irwin. Other hikers marvel at the controlled inquisitiveness of the children if they even notice them nearby. Some parents should just consider taking their children to the Zoo instead.

 "NEVER LET NOT KNOWING KEEP YOU FROM TRYING"- Clyde Holcomb Sr.

Facebook page about Boardwalks

Devil's Millhopper

The following is a listing from the book "Boardwalks and Long Walks"  (c) 2012

Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park                                         Site # 8135 
4732 Millhoppper Road, Gainesville, FL 32653                                Alachua

In the midst of north Florida's sandy terrain and pine forests, a bowl-shaped cavity 120 feet deep leads down to a miniature rain forest.

 Small streams trickle down the steep slopes of the limestone sinkhole, disappearing through crevices in the ground. Lush vegetation thrives in the shade of the walls even in dry summers. 

A significant geological formation, Devil's Millhopper is a National Natural Landmark that has been visited by the curious since the early 1880s. A wooden boardwalk/ stair system leads down to the bottom of the sink.

http://www.floridastateparks.org/devilsmillhopper/default.cfm