A half-day symposium will be held Tuesday to explore the economic connections between Joshua Tree National Park and its surrounding communities in California.

The symposium, in partnership with the Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, and Twentynine Palms chambers of commerce and the Morongo Basin Regional Economic Development Consortium, will be held at from 1 p.m.-4 p.m. at the Twentynine Palms Community Center.

The National Parks Economic Symposium will highlight the unique economic relationships between national parks and their surrounding communities. The event is free to the public.

The conference will feature subject matter experts from the National Park Service and academia, as well as presentations by local community leaders. Issues and topics to be addressed will include demographics of national park visitors, visitor studies in the national parks, and the economic effects of national park visitors in gateway communities that border national parks.

The symposium has been designed to complement the sessions and presentations that will be the focus of the Western Governors Association meeting to be held in Yucca Valley on Wednesday, December 7.