Did you hear about the "electronic rangers" you can now rent in Death Valley National Park? For $15 a day these gadgets, which you place on your rig's dashboard, will give you a guided tour of the park. Park officials hope these devices, among other things, will generate a new revenue stream for Death Valley.
Manufactured by BarZ Adventures, these devices use GPS coordinates to trigger a video commentary of the immediate area. Already the devices have been deployed at Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi, Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah, and reportedly are on their way to Shenandoah National Park, if they're not already there.
Death Valley spokesman Terry Baldino told the AFP wire service that along with using the devices to entice younger generations to Death Valley, officials view the daily rentals as one way to boost revenues.
David Blacker, executive director of the Death Valley Natural History Association, had this to say about the GPS Rangers:
“In our attempt to keep Death Valley National Park relevant as we move into the 21st century we must embrace new technologies to help us with our educational and interpretive mission. This partnership with the National Park Service and Bar Z Adventures is our first step in doing this.”
Is the relevance of our national parks dangling on the future of where technology takes us? There's no doubt that advancements in technology play a key role in our lives, and can help deliver stirring interpretive programs in the parks. But first the younger generations have to want to go to the parks, and I question whether the prospect of listening to a GPS Ranger will be enough to persuade Susie and Johnny to beg their parents to take them to Death Valley or Shenandoah or Vicksburg.
Another question to ponder is whether it's a good thing to automate the national parks, to replace walking, talking interpretive rangers with electronics?
This summer I had the opportunity to join a ranger-led tour of the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park. The ranger, Larry Gore, captivated an audience of roughly 20 with a natural history discussion of the rain forest. Young and old were listening intently to his talk, laughing at his jokes, and watching as he used visual aids -- puppets of salmon and banana slugs -- to explain the cycles of life in the Hoh.
Ranger Gore also clearly answered questions that arose.
Will the GPS Ranger be able to duplicate such an interpretive program?
Comments
These sound like the 21st century of those audio tapes you used to be able to buy or rent to describe places motorists were passing.
Claire @ http://travel-babel.blospot.com
So now they can hire an illegal alien to collect your money and hand out these gizmos to the techno-starved masses. For me, our National Parks will always be the place to get away from places like this blogosphere, the computer on my desk at work, my telephone, and my kids' video games. I love it when the cell phone doesn't work. Pretty soon they'll have to install pay-per-nuke microwave ovens in the campsites so they can "connect" with that younger generation that doesn't know how to cook over an open flame.
But seriously, like the grocery aisle with all the toys and candy on display, this is yet another one of those things designed to drive a wedge between kids and their parents. Aww, come on Dad, please please please can we get a palm-ranger!? And if they don't get it, the sullen faces, the sour attitudes, and another ruined vacation. Watch all the parents cave in to the pop culture fad-of-the-week once again. Why even leave home?
They wouldn't happen to have some pizza and a drive-thru liquor store handy too, would they? I hope these devises are nice enough to inform you where the restrooms are.......
this site and it's following has a strong anti-technology bias. whether or not YOU go to the parks to escape technology isn't relevant to the public at large.
that said, i imagine that the reality is that managers are looking for ways to combat declining funding.
this probably includes ways to get educational messaging out to visitors, including podcasts, volunteers and all the other evils of technology. nothing better than a ranger giving a canned slideshow at an overly smokey campfire! (/sarcasm.)
i don't consider that a deliberate choice of downsizing, just a way to cope with bloated admin salaries with their automatic raises and lack of performance based continuation of employment combined with diminished funds for field staffing.
but i think beamis is right, they are boring and will never replace a well trained live ranger, the ones who aren't misanthropic and are patient and can identify with city folks after living at a park for a long time... you know, the ones who WANT to work interp and aren't all bitter about actually talking to people, like the backcountry ranger desk folks at zion... so bitter!
I would disagree that this site has a "strong anti-technology bias." If that were the case, this site wouldn't exist. The fact that it does exist speaks to our embrace of technology, as does the fact that we're entwining podcasts and videocasts with the typed word.
However, the editors' concern regarding technology such as the GPS Ranger is that it might be used to replace the "well-trained, live ranger."
Technology can be a wonderful tool for interpretation, for simplifying processes, for search and rescue and so many other endeavors. But I shudder to think of a day when campfire talks become virtual and your ranger-led hike requires a hand-held GPS Ranger. That day will not mark an advancement in interpretation, but rather a step backward.
While not trying to suck-up to the editors, indeed the overriding tone is NOT to be confused with an anti-technology idealism in the least. The sarcasm from this corner, at least, was directed toward the bias against the slothism (?) of the general public as a whole, not the devise in general. The entire premise of the national parks was to enable the public to have the opportunity to view an unspoiled environment, while never to be confused with a "walk in the park". The problem with interpretation via pod-casts, GPS, etc. is that it lends too much toward individual misinterpretation and listening without observing. One can stand at various overlooks at Bryce, Zion, Vermillion Cliffs and Grand Canyon for instance, and listen to a broadcast presentation highlighting the various strata of rock layers and formations, and at the same time COMPLETELY misidentify said landmarks visually, leaving a completely inaccurate view of the geology and topography which has just been presented to you. There has yet to be a suitable substitute invented for actually venturing into these environs and experiencing, up-close and personal, the full of the dimensions of the thickness of the redwall layer, the expanse and variety of the Navajo sandstone, the height of Zoroaster.......especially since in nature, nothing occurs in black and white. I've seen too many tourists who mistakenly leave these parks with the idea that colored rock layers reflect the sole component of various strata, without realizing that the majority of these divisions are the result of blending through multiple hues due to leeching of mineral components in the layers above, and are not the result of clear-cut definitions. It's not as though every few million years, the colors change just to satisfy the visual ability of the human eye. And ranger-lead interpretation is MOST helpful in accurately depicting these subtle changes, short of actually reading a book on the local geology.
@ kurt- i really think the bias against podcasts is in the vein of a slight anti-technological bent, intentional or not. blogs aren't really that tech, they're bread and butter of mainstream media now. and that statement is not meant to detract from the high quality of this site. but i think tech solutions in the park are *part* of a solution to low budgets in some manner and i don't ever get the feeling that's accepted by the npt community.
@ lone hiker- i don't see the difference between an electronic medium losing people on a tour and a bad podcast or handheld device or whatever. there are plenty of horrible interpreters out there, i think this site may have even highlighted one of them in kansas a while back... just because a live human being in uniform leads a tour doesn't guarantee anything of quality, especially without the cash to have someone auditing a tour, let alone train them properly.
*Blogs aren't really that tech...*
I think five years ago that statement wouldn't have held true, and even today they're continuing to morph and stretch and grow, limited only by their creator's imagination and $$$.
But that's a bit beside the point. You're exactly right that just because there's a person in uniform leading a tour or talk that the quality is not guaranteed. And that's where the Park Service needs to step up, not only with a solid training program and more interpreters -- not fewer -- but with auditing as you suggest. Is such a move included in the administration's Centennial Initiative?
True, the administration likes to tout that it's sending an extra 3000 rangers into the field in the coming year, but that's contingent on Congress funding the president's budget. And then there's the question of how experienced and knowledgeable these seasonals, if they trickle into the interpretive ranks, will be.
I wonder if turning to devices such as the GPS Ranger isn't an indication that the NPS is throwing up its hands over the lack of funding and reaching out for any solution and not always obtaining the correct solution? Again, I'm not dismissing outright the use of technology in providing a better interpretive experience in the parks, but I fear perceived solutions -- GPS Rangers, cellphone tours, etc -- could actually undermine, not heighten, the interpretive experience if they are relied upon more and more and the living, breathing, walking and talking full-time interpreters become a thing of the past.