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2003, Expert in Interpretation and Strategic Communication, University of Idaho The following is the foreword written by Ham for the training manual I wrote at RARE. In the final published text, specific mentions to me were deleted, but retained below in the original text.
FOREWORD Planning and Orchestrating Love Affairs Between People and Parks Most of the world’s protected areas are open to public use. Indeed, many of them were justified and predicated on their popularity as pleasuring grounds for people. Since the earliest establishment of “parks” as a concept (I would argue, institution), their value to human society has emanated as much from the sheer joy they give us as from the biological and cultural attributes they preserve for humanity. Clearly, both kinds of value are important, and they are interdependent. Every applied conservationist knows the sometimes tenuous balance between use and protection, but we are also aware that some of the world’s most precious places might not exist were it not for the enjoyment and inspiration they offer their visitors, and for the economic opportunities they provide their communities and countries. Too often these days we can readily envision the conversion of parklands to other uses were it not for their immediate benefits to people. Make no mistake about it: parks and protected areas exist only because there are people who want them. In a free society, protection requires “people power” human beings committed to the continued existence of a place simply because it represents something they care about. Without such popularity, many parks today would not survive. History has taught us that having the moral support of comparatively small groups of biologists and archaeologists (who know a place’s esoteric values) is often insufficient. A wider, more inclusive kind of appreciation is required. For many of the world’s protected areas, nothing short of a love affair between people and the place will guarantee its future for another year, another generation or another millennium. Understanding the roots and intricacies of this love affair is what makes the RARE’s Park Planning for Life so unusual. Simply put, this is a manual on matchmaking how to plan and orchestrate love affairs between people and parks. Readers who turn these pages immerse themselves in the delicate balance between providing for public use of a park and its protection. Public use can take many forms, and each type of user brings a different way of accessing and experiencing the park to the planning mix. Anticipating this diversity, understanding it, and planning for it, are the central topics of this very important manual. Jon Kohl, RARE’s chief author of the package, has achieved something extraordinary here that promises to take the concepts and precepts of public-use planning to a new level in the park management profession. For if users of this package faithfully follow its advice and procedures, they will find themselves more adept at the intricate task of matchmaking-building bonds between people and parks by providing the former with opportunities to enjoy and be inspired by a place, and the latter with protection that encouraging public access requires. Park Planning for Life is more than manual; it is a highly practical programmed course on how to think about public-use planning and how to carry it out. Whether using the materials in hard copy, the provided CD or accessing the manual and its specialized modules on the web, users of Park Planning for Life will happily encounter one of the most useful and usable guides to public-use planning imaginable. Most impressive is that the package is available in multiple languages, making it accessible to protected area managers all over the world. I consider this a rare accomplishment, one that speaks loudly to the care and dedication that have gone into producing this unusual resource. Another feature that sets Park Planning for Life apart from most other “training” packages is its masterful combination of a solid and contemporary theoretical underpinning in its focus on the practical realities of on-the-ground park planning and management. Virtually every word of advice the package offers is based on real-world experience, yet it is theoretically sound. In my experience, few training materials achieve this impressive blend of conceptual validity and applied practicality. This may be the best-reasoned approach to public-use planning ever published in a single source. Having focused most of my professional life on the importance of interpretation in park management, I am of course especially pleased that Jon has prepared such a thoughtful discussion of that topic in Park Planning for Life. Readers will see a fresh new perspective on how thematic interpretive planning can complement the public-use planning process. Jon’s notion that a theme “is a thing plus a statement about the thing,” is an original contribution that I believe makes thematic thinking and thematic interpretation easier to understand and apply. In my opinion, Park Planning for Life and its well-conceived modules represent an unprecedented accomplishment in giving park personnel a much-needed decision framework for carrying out an informed, and in some ways enlightened, public-use planning process. I am impressed.
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March 23, 2005