Inspiring Everyday People to Action with Environmental Interpretation

By Johnny Kilroy on February 18, 2010 From Restoration campaign


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“While some of us must be activists, others must simply be active,” my friend said to me one day, as I headed to a climate change summit and he headed into the woods.

Casey Overturf is one of my best friends.  We went to college, we built a treehouse, chased women, and achieved various forms of euphoria.  Countless hours we passed at our favorite bar in Blacksburg, VA, emptying pitchers and ruminating over possible fixes to a jacked-up state of world affairs.

After emerging relatively unscathed from our scholastic incubation, I took my path as a writer and he took his as an educator.  Affinity for peace in the outdoors had bonded us, and each of us pursued the same goal, each in his own way.


(Casey Overturf, environmental interpreter, NPS, pauses and relishes his work while his group frolicks.  Photo:  Johnny Kilroy)


On the eve of this new year, our paths converged again.  I went to visit him at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington, where he works as an environmental interpreter.

I joined him as he took a group of about twenty visitors on a brief snow-shoe hike around the woods, valleys, and glaciers of the mountains. 


(A quick intro.  Photo:  Johnny Kilroy)


The walk was full of small pleasures, and guided with a light lesson about “cycles of change” in the environment.  Casey followed a tried and true teaching method:  start them with what they know, and build on it.


(Photo:  Johnny Kilroy)

First he got them thinking about simple “cycles of change,” like water, air, and populations.  Then he went into more complex topics, like how all species must make “adaptations to the cycles of change.” 

No field trip is complete without a game!  Casey had two volunteers demonstrate how a hare has adapted to outrun a coyote, using different sized snow shoes to represent critter feet.  They both fell over.


(The snowshoe hare game.  Photo:  Johnny Kilroy)

 

He pointed out lichens on the trees that indicated good air quality, but also explained how polluted air from Seattle and Tacoma travels with the weather systems and can become pinned against the mountain. 

In a gentle coda, he remarked that human impacts and climate change can affect our “cycles of change.” 


(Photo:  Johnny Kilroy)

 

Without imposing on their personal views, he showed them a place, explained some of its cycles, and offered suggestions something might be done to keep it in balance, sustaining life. 

Referring to the forests, rivers, glaciers, and mountains, he said, “I kinda like it how it is.”

He left the visitors to decide what might be done.

Interpreters play a very special part in American life.  They’re also known as park rangers, and tour guides.  Their whole gig is to meet people who visit public parks, engage with them in an intellectual intercourse, and to let them leave with a happy ending.


(Never too old to play.  Photo:  Johnny Kilroy)

 

It may seem like a breezy dream job (for some, it can be), but it can also be a grueling labor of love.  Interpreters have been well trained, and often university-educated in how to do their job.  The best of them do it because they love it, as Casey does.

Sometimes they are taken for granted.  Only a minority of park visitors actually participate in “interp” programs, and the ones who do may only give cursory interest.  That’s okay, though, as long as someone walks away feeling a little bit changed inside.


(Satisfied customers of the USG.  Photo:  Johnny Kilroy)

 

Some might say, “Of course there are park interpreters, why wouldn’t there be?”  One good reason why not is money.  Like all other government employees, our taxes pay their salaries.  For nearly the past decade, federal interp programs have suffered due to money being allocated to other things deemed more important, like wildfire suppression and warfare. 

However, some smaller park systems have thrived because the local populace supported them.  In Arkansas, for instance, Amendment 75 was a measure passed by voters to increase state sales tax by 1/8 cent, to go toward conservation. 

Jay Miller, Chief of Interpretation for Arkansas State Parks, told me that since its approval in 1996, the amendment has allowed to state to develop one of the most robust interpretation programs in the United States. 


(Paradise visitor center.  Photo:  Johnny Kilroy)

 

My friend Casey, who has worked for the Forest Service, the National Park Service, and Arkansas State Parks, commends the latter for its superb productivity and flexibility.  He often remarks on how, with the support of the people, he was able to reach so many more of them.

Changing the world isn’t easy…not even for Bruce Springsteen.  But commoners have magic powers too.  Individuals possesses more influence than they usually realize, to change norms and world views from the inside out.

Plenty of people make it their life’s work, existing at their own right size and giving the Earth a modest turn.  They are teachers, musicians, builders, magicians, paraphernalia distributors…you name it.  Pick the cause, they are slowly moving us with them.  It may be imperceptible, but it happens.


(Weeee!  Photo:  Johnny Kilroy)

 

Unlike the many Kings Ozymandias of the environmental movement we recognize so well - politicians, activists, celebrities, (dare I say?) Al Gore - public attention is not required for the lesser known heroes to function.

No, their chariots burn within, ignited by a simple smile or a widened eye.


(It rains a lot there.  Photo:  Johnny Kilroy)

This was Inspiring Everyday People to Action with Environmental Interpretation, an entry in our Restoration Campaign from February 18, 2010. It was filed under Forest

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