NAI Blog

Bison in Yellowstone National Park.

The U.S. Government and President Obama are soliciting ideas about protecting the places we love in the nation. There are public hearings being held all over the United States and their America’s Great Outdoors Initiative website allows you to post your ideas. I posted my ideas there as follows.

I find the comments on my post there interesting for they reflect the broad range of thinking in the U.S. about government intervention and shared responsibility. Some do not want the government in our lives in any manner whatever – no taxes, no public education, just NO.

Those of us who love parks, wilderness, natural areas, clean air, clean water and a healthy environment know that the shared responsibility for those must depend on all of us. Leaving people to their own with no protection of natural resources would doom mankind to an early extinction at our own hands. There are those who would cut every last tree, mine every mountain and drain every oil basin, no matter what the damage to our land, air and water.

A hundred years ago most Americans lived on farms and learning about food, land and energy was a part of everyday life. Young people today assume that food comes from grocery stores and energy comes from wall sockets. How would they learn about the real sources. Simcity and similar video games do teach about such things in a virtual environment, but nothing helps you understand how the world works as well as hands-on experiences with the real places and things.

I would like to see every 18-year old give some period of time to her/his community, parks, non-profit service organizations or military service with no exemptions at all. We would all learn earlier in our work lives what value there is in public service. It would provide a valuable opportunity for contextual learning in all directions. Military personnel face those realities on our behalf.

During the hard times of the Great Depression, my father worked for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) cutting trees in Illinois. He had a 7^th grade education and was unemployed with three children to feed. He used to complain of the long days of outdoor labor and low pay but later would brag of the good work that was done and the value of a job of any kind in those dark days.

In my first job as a park ranger and visitor center manager, I was very aware that the visitor center was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps as a picnic shelter. Later walls were added along with exhibits and a visitor contact area. I often had young workers from Youth Conservation Corps or Young Adult Conservation Corps helping me. I’ve written before in this blog about the great experiences with those programs. They give young people a better understanding of how the world really functions. All the resources we use in life still come from the Earth.

The America’s Great Outdoors Initiative is a great chance for you to share your ideas or give your view on the ideas of others. It is especially a good time to share the value of outdoor experiences for young people to learn about our planet. I welcome whatever judgment you make of my suggestions.

-Tim Merriman

Chief of Interpretation Larry Frederick orients us to the popular Sheep Lakes area of Rocky Mountain National Park.

NAI just finished hosting the Civic Tourism III Conference in Fort Collins and it was very exciting. Despite light attendance of 63 agency staffers, interpreters, convention and visitor bureau staff and community volunteers, those present were enthusiastic about doing more to help communities have the kind of tourism they want.

Dan Shilling’s book, Civic Tourism: The Poetry and Politics of Place, was given to each attendee. The book emphasizes that civic tourism should include the triple bottom line of equity (social), environment and economics, invest in the story and connect with the public. Tourism is one of the top three economic forces in every state in the U.S., but there is no cabinet level position for tourism in the federal government. Many states have a tourism office that only spends money on advertising. They want more people to come but do not invest in development of the “STORY,” the product, the visitor experience, the attractions.

The Estes Park Museum tells the story of the community very well.

At Civic Tourism III we had a full day of mobile workshops that took groups out to Blackhawk/Central City, Estes Park and Fort Collins with varied attractions and tourism hosts. We wanted to study and compare communities who encourage tourism and learn what we could from them. Blackhawk is a gambling and mining town. Estes Park is a gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park and has always been a tourist town. Fort Collins has a central theme of “where renewal is a way of life with a focus on “Beets, Brews and Bikes.” The sugar beet industry was the main community support for decades, but is gone. Micro-breweries like New Belgium and Odell’s are a part of the current lifestyle with their tasting rooms and unique stories. The lifestyles of the community today are very much about renewal and sustainability.

Dave DiMatteo at New Belgium interprets their story and core values.

We took the participants to New Belgium, where they interpret their beer with the story of founder Jeff Lebesch bicycling across Belgium, meeting brewmeisters and doing lots of tasting. Each employee gets a free trip to bicycle across Belgium at their five-year anniversary. It is  likely the “greenest” brewery in the nation with its own wind farm for electricity generation.  They have made sustainability and wise use of resources part of their core values along with bicycle events (Tour de Fat), employee ownership and a rich culture of storytelling. They tell their story very well.

One enduring observation of the three communities visited and the many communities discussed was the lack of a town’s abilities to tell the story on the streets. Estes Park explained they get three million visitors downtown but only about 12,000 at the local museum, which tells the story of Estes very well. It’s three blocks from the high traffic zones.

Can you tell the community story on the streets and why should you? Towns usually have a unique, authentic story or stories that arise from their natural and cultural assets and history. Often these days the story is covered up or lost in the melee of highways, franchise stores and strangely themed neighborhoods. James Howard Kuntsler described this phenomenon in his book, The Geography of Nowhere.  If we don’t tell our story on the streets, we may be a “been there, done that” visitor experience, another generic community. Most will not visit the local museum and dig out the deeper identity of the community.

A city interpretive guide starts our walking tour near the Roman Baths.

I have tried to think of where I’ve seen a town’s story thoughtfully told at the street level in diverse ways. Providence, Rhode Island, and the Blackstone Valley do a good job with their visitor center museum combination. Mystic, Connecticut, has incredible attractions and some downtown interpretive signage that shares their rich history. Bath, England, has wonderful street interpretive tours that engage visitors with their unique history. Singapore has interesting signage on their major streets that tell the fascinating story of how a trading post turned into a major seaport and industrial city-nation in a fairly short period of time.

Interpretive planning has largely been focused on sites like parks, zoos, historic houses, museums and aquariums in the past. In recent years the Scenic Byways Resource Center has introduced corridors and communities to interpretive planning as an opportunity to share their stories. A very few CVBs like Great Bend Kansas have been out front acquiring interpretive planning skills to plan holistic experiences for visitors. Kris Collier as President and CEO of the Great Bend CVB is a Certified Interpretive Trainer and Planner who works with local attractions to build a culture of collaboration among the rural communities in her region. It can be done, but it takes leadership.

It is exciting to think about what our diverse towns and communities might be like if they embraced their local stories and became skilled at telling them. NAI’s interpretive planning courses can be hosted anywhere and the towns and cities of North America pose a great opportunity. We need to put our stories on the streets, but we have to plan it and not just hope it happens.

-Tim Merriman

The interpretive planning class gets a site visit at West Creek Reservation to better know the site early in the planning process.

Last week in Cleveland our interpretive planning class worked on plans for interpretive media for the grounds of the new park and interpretive project being developed by Cleveland Metroparks (CM) in collaboration with the Northeast Ohio Sewer District and City of Parma. A previous class worked on the overall concept for the Stewardship Center and many of their suggestions have been included in the design of the building. At last week’s class, John Cardwell, CM’s landscape architect, presented on progress being made on the center that is now under development, the WaterShed.

The West Creek watershed is on the Cuyahoga River, which caught on fire thirteen times in the past hundred fifty years and served as a catalyst for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to toughen standards regarding water pollution through the Clean Water Act and other legislation.

Not only is West Creek on a famously polluted watershed, the specific property of this reserve has an old landfill on it. It is surrounded by industrial sites and some homes who have only recently been moved to city sewage from having septic fields. The stream quality here is currently not so good and it is a great place to pursue their two goals – demonstrate restoration change on the ground and engage local citizens in applying best practices to bring about the positive change.

John began by explaining that they are working with “The Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™) in design of the grounds and  LEED standards with the building for the WaterShed. Best Management Practices (BMPs) are being encouraged already in the community by doing rain barrel workshops at some CM nature centers. These help homeowners build inexpensive rain barrels to install at home. Rainwater HOGs, large rain barrel systems, are being installed on nature centers as demonstrations. Slowing down water in the watershed is desirable to

Wetlands provide wildlife habitat while serving as a filter for stormwater and residential runoff.

increase the natural filtering of stormwater. Wetlands, in addition to providing wildlife habitat, are key components in this streamshed for slowing down stormwater.

CM’s chief scientist, John Mack, explained that they have 30 years of mainstem streams data collection in Ohio, one of the largest databases of its kind, but little headwater stream monitoring.  Scientific monitoring of the change on the ground is vital to the process. The creative interpretive media being planned will engage local residents in using better practices in their yards that drain into the West Creek watershed.

We have many watersheds in the U.S. where people live close to landfills, mining tailings, and industrial grounds. Improving water quality with citizen participation is a learning process from all directions. Too often we clean up our problems with no citizen awareness that it has been done. Good interpretive planning in this setting will help the community understand their roles and responsibilities in watershed protection, improvement and management.

The reconstructed wetlands on West Creek already attract great blue herons.

The parks department, sewage district and city cooperating on a major stewardship and ecological restoration project is fairly unique and a great opportunity. The sewage department is already offering discounts on sewage bills for those who use BMPs to help improve water quality on West Creek. Careful monitoring of the change in West Creek by scientists will give an important check on the effectiveness of the BMPs and citizen participation. The park will provide recreation space for residents while engaging them in a very worthwhile community project of restoration.

I’m looking forward to going back for a visit in two years when the WaterShed building and grounds at West Creek Reservation are redeveloped and being used by the people of Parma and surrounding areas. I want to see the creative interpretive ideas on the ground and in the hands of local children and families.

A nineteenth century conservationist in Japan, Tanaka Shozo, said, “The care of rivers is not a question of rivers but of the human heart.” Interpretation helps people make the emotional connections with places and stories that lead to commitment. This is a great place to demonstrate the power of such efforts.

- Tim Merriman

Bob Hinkle introduces the planning class to the West Creek Reservation site for the new WaterShed project.

I’m not in the new sitcom, Hot in Cleveland. I’m in Cleveland and it’s not hot this week, temperature-wise. But it is really HOT in our business due to Cleveland Metroparks (CM). Bob Hinkle is the Chief of Outdoor Education and for 39 years he has been a member of NAI and AIN before that, one of our two parent organizations. His leadership in CM’s education and interpretive programs for 28 years has been amazing. Dr. Bob, as many affectionately call him, has encouraged professional development as a cultural norm in this old and revered park district.

This is our fourth interpretive planning course in Cleveland at his request and managers of nature centers and programs in this system are required to earn the Certified Interpretive Manager or Planner credential. CM’s planner, landscape architect and designers have had the planner course, helping them work together with site managers and interpreters, all using a common process and planning vocabulary.

Lisa Brochu explains logic models with an example.

This week’s course is working on the challenge of planning the interpretive elements on the WaterShed grounds that augment the services of the building in achieving site objectives. Participants are from all over the U.S. and Canada along with six staff members of CM, with varying levels of experience in interpretive planning and graphic design. During the course, participants are exposed to planning principles and processes, then apply what they’ve learned to the on-site project challenge.

The culture of professional development and interpretive planning encouraged by Bob Hinkle is important to the success of CM’s six nature centers and other outdoor programs. Large organizations with  policies, politics and bureaucracy can end up with a “can’t do it” emotional environment, but thoughtful training and planning keeps professionals open to personal growth and empowers them with an understanding of what they CAN DO cost effectively and efficiently. CM continues to invest in helping their dedicated professionals grow and become better planners – that’s HOT and is making a difference in Cleveland.

-Tim Merriman

For thirteen years I directed a nature center in Pueblo, Colorado. In my first days there I was surprised to hear the gravel industry across the river from the center described as “the enemy” by some board members. I was told they owned all the land south and west of us and would eventually mine it all, leaving behind lakes surrounded by sterile hills of concrete slabs. I could agree that I did not want to see all of the riparian cottonwoods cut down for the gravel mines, but I could not grasp the concept of them being the enemy, so I got acquainted with them.

At Rotary meetings, I would often sit with Mark, their General Manager, and chat. He was a nice fellow and obviously cared about civic responsibility. Our conversations led to candid talk about the relationship we potentially had as neighbors. His employer owned the land and planned to mine it. We relied on the woods to the west for scenic beauty and wildlife habitat. We preferred it not being mined, but they owned it and had permits to get it done. And yet, they would prefer we not show up at “404″ permit hearings and attempt to block their normal business interests of mining gravel and making concrete. Gravel is the number one mineral in Colorado, not gold, silver or molybdenum as many might think.

In the spirit of cooperation Mark invited me to tour their gravel mines and concrete operation and suggest how they might work more compatibly with the nature center. As we drove around, I commented that they seemed to be burying huge granite boulders. He explained that they were too big for their crusher so they buried them as waste material. I suggested it would make great riprap for the river banks they were currently covering with large flat slabs of waste concrete. He smiled when he said, “Concrete is beautiful.” I laughed. We shared the unspoken joke of seeing each other’s different perspectives on how we work with resources and people. He said they might be able to do something about their approach to riprapping. We went on to talk about cottonwood reforestation on the older banks of the river and lake. They had a replanting program as required by mineland reclamation laws. I suggested they leave a few large “mother” trees and blast the hillsides with water when the cotton seeds of the cottonwoods blow all directions in June each year. They would get free regeneration of native trees. He thought that sounded reasonable. We did consider the possibility that the healthy beaver population would defeat this idea by cutting down the few trees left. That had happened throughout this Arkansas River valley when only a few trees were available for beaver food. Our tour resulted in two possible suggestions for changing some of their work approaches.

I went back to the nature center, pleased that we had such an interesting conversation. I had shared my hope that there would be a way for the gravel company to trade the cottonwood stand by the nature center for other property to mine. He said anything is possible. By the next day we looked across the river and the gravel company had covered sixty feet or so of river bank with the large “waste” granite boulders, covering the concrete slabs. From then on the river banks where they worked had more of a natural granite look and the concrete was obscured. I called to thank Mark and he said to come back in a few days and see their “mother” trees. I did and they had welded industrial size beaver guards around half a dozen large female trees. He explained that they had large pumps and could easily spray regeneration areas to start new cottonwoods.

Over the next few years we encouraged discussions between state parks and the gravel company about land trades. Eventually a corn field on state parks land that held gravel deposits was traded for the cottonwood stand by the nature center. Valco Sand & Gravel has since sold to LaFarge and continues to be a major gravel and concrete provider in Pueblo. Meetings during this period were frustrating because Valco had a clear fifty year plan and state parks did not work that strategically, but eventually it all worked. We found that collaborating with our friends next door was valuable for all of us. Their good will was evident in every way and they often donated concrete to nature center projects.

Some viewed our getting acquainted with a gravel company as fraternizing with the enemy. I think we got to know our neighbors and learned they were good people with an interest in taking care of the community. We all listened and learned.

-Tim Merriman

When you think of a community, do you think of the buildings or the people? Do you think of how it looks now, or its history, its traditions? Do you think of the

Vandalia Statehouse 1819-1839

businesses or the churches?  I think about these questions every time I think about my hometown, Vandalia, Illinois. I spent my first 17 years there walking in the footsteps of “___WHO___?” I didn’t know at 17. My hometown was not and is not a tourist attraction and my education growing up did not tell me much about the history of the community. I learned it later as I went home from college or after I was working as a state park interpreter.

Tim's sister and brother, Rosie Merriman Gerkin and Jim Merriman at Lincoln Park

What did I learn? I learned that I had walked in the footsteps of young Abraham Lincoln day after day. He was a young attorney serving in the state legislature of Illinois. Vandalia was the capital from 1819 to 1839 and the old capitol building still stands there. I don’t recall visiting it until I was grown, even though it was an interpretive site when I was in school. I had no inspirational connection with my hometown or community.

When I go back I still see the 1800s facades by looking up at Gallatin Street buildings, but modern facades look back at me at eye level. It doesn’t seem to have a unique history – but it really does. There are a few reminders of that history . . . a small park across from the statehouse has a statue of Lincoln and the library has some Lincoln memorabilia. I remember the plaster mask made from a mold of his actual face.

Vandalia, like many places, has a more public identity on its Interstate exit with a Walmart, McDonald’s and Arby’s. They look similar to every other store of their kind, not unique to a historic state capital.

When I first heard Dan Shilling talk about “Civic Tourism” at a meeting of ALHFAM (Association of Living History Farms and Agricultural Museums), I was immediately taken with the good sense it made to plan tourism in a community around the authentic stories and with civic engagement to learn from local people what they hoped to get from tourism. Civic tourism includes a focus on triple-bottom line economics – equity, economy and ecology. How do we balance our social, economic and environmental needs? We have to plan together as a community to get it done. Dan’s book, Civic Tourism: The Poetry and Politics of Place, suggests a very different approach to planning tourism in a community and partnerships are important to success.

Partnerships do not necessarily just happen in small communities, even those united around a desire to have tourism or tell their stories. Dr. Shilling points out that much of the work of traditional tourism is about “heads and beds.” How many will stay overnight and how much with they eat? We can ask those questions but we need to also ask, “What are our objectives for the health and well being of local people? What authentic stories can we tell and what kinds of experiences will share those? How will we measure success in social, economic and environmental terms?”

NAI is hosting the Civic Tourism III Conference in Fort Collins from August 11 to 14 with a theme of “Helping Diverse Interests Work Toward a Common Community Goal.” Michael Kirschman will speak on “What is it Worth: The True Value of Open Space.” Dr. Dan Shilling will update us on Civic Tourism, where it has been and where it is going. This will be a great conversation among all who attend to share what we have learned by working with communities. This event is a great value at $325 per person and Colorado is spectacular in August.

Please think of joining us or tell a friend about the opportunity to learn more about building effective partnerships in communities. I know people in my hometown still work on strategies to keep the history alive and it is a challenge. We all need to know more about how we do this. Our lives in our communities are made richer by working together toward a common goal.

- Tim Merriman

Bitapi Sinha of India presents to participants from 14 countries at International Conference in Australia.

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of community.  Whether it’s a community of organisms in nature or a community of humans—there are some universal properties.  The defining property of a community is that all the individuals are connected in some way—that connection may be a common interest, economic interactions, location or some other set of interrelationships.  Studies of community ecology have found that communities with more connections and stronger connections tend to operate with higher efficiency, are more stable and have high productivity.  I would suggest that may be the case with human communities as well.

Our early human communities formed around individuals that saw each other face-to-face on a frequent basis—clans, tribes, villages.  Through the years we invented more and more ways to communicate—one of the key features that ties a community together.  Symbolic communication, written language, telephones and now e-mail, Facebook and other social networking sites—all help to keep members of a community in touch with each other.  Still, there is no substitute for that face-to-face interaction with its rich context of non-verbal cues that add to the conversation.

That’s what got me hooked on hanging out with interpreters way back in the days of the Western Interpreters Association.  Those early WIA meetings provided an opportunity not only for professional development, but more importantly to join a community of people with the same interests, values, ethics—and just to have fun and enjoy each other’s company.  When WIA combined with the Association of Interpretive Naturalists, the size of our community doubled overnight, but the nature of the members didn’t change.  We still held similar key beliefs and values, skills and interests.  The family got larger and the nature of our interactions became richer still.  Perhaps the one downside is that many of our face-to-face meetings have become very large, so it seems like there’s never enough time to engage in all the conversations one would like.  It’s a pleasant dilemma to face.

Rick Morales of Panama and Sam Ham of the U.S. chatting at IC 2010 in Australia.

Our interpreter community has taken yet another step forward.  A global community of interpreters is forming around the annual NAI International Interpreters Conference.  I’m not sure this would have happened without the opportunity to meet face-to-face on an annual basis.  Talking to each other in-person quickly overcomes differences of language and culture, and we quickly realize we’re all interpreters that share the same basic values, beliefs and skills and challenges.  And the conversations just get more interesting as we add the exotic venues and multiple cultures to the story of what we do.  E-mail and conference calls help us keep in touch between meetings, but I believe the meetings are essential to keep advancing this fledgling global community of interpreters.

As our world continues to shrink and international tourism grows dramatically in the coming years, our own cultural competency will need to grow with it.  Spending time with interpreters from outside the US is a fun and effective way to grow your experience interpreting to international audiences.  You can seek out the increasing number of international interpreters that attend our national workshop each fall, or better yet, try to attend an international interpreters conference.  Our 2011 international meeting will be in Panama and promises to be a fabulous gathering.  The price tag should be reasonable, and you’ll never regret the experience you gain and the new friends you make.  I hope to see you there!

Diantha Martin presenting at Region 4 workshop.

National Association for Interpretation (NAI) has been around 56 years now, if we look back at the parent organizations, the Association of Interpretive Naturalists (AIN) and Western Interpreters Association (WIA). Their merger in 1988 brought to growing group together to create NAI. The interesting change during the merger meetings was the new name with “for interpretation,” not “for interpreters.” The previous groups were identified with the job descriptions, not the profession. The new mission in 1988 also focused on the profession in stating our desire “to inspire leadership and excellence to advance heritage interpretation as a profession.” The focus on professionalism was intentional. We knew many of managers and colleagues viewed an interpreter or guide as someone being paid to play in the forest, zoo, nature center, park or museum by talking to people and having fun. To be valued we have to be professionals doing a job valued and desired by management, not just applauded by our guests as entertainment.

Many members focus on the financial cost in thinking about membership. It’s $60 for a professional membership in NAI today and that supplies a magazine, member discounts and a variety of other services you can select, if you want them. (Download a complete list of benefits here.) In 1980 the dues for AIN came to $35 and WIA charged $25. In inflation-adjusted dollars the cost of membership in AIN in 1980 was  $90 and $65 for a membership in WIA., so the price has come down a bit. Some compare our prices to other organizations and find that most professional organizations charge about the same amount for comparable products and services or just a little more. As professionals we should be shopping for professional development to help us be more successful and price differences should not be the deciding factor. This is our profession, not a box of cornflakes.

It costs NAI about $152 per individual membership to provide member services for which we charge $60. The subsidy of each membership comes from other profit centers. We publish and sell books, provide training and certification and conduct national and international workshops that make a surplus in some years. Commercial and institutional memberships pay more than $152 and help subsidize every other individual membership. Still, it is not so important what it costs to support a membership as what is provided in benefits.

Benefits have increased substantially through the years and they have become less tangible. Members a decade ago received a print magazine, journal, national newsletter, member director and regional or section newsletters. Now all of these are electronic services except for Legacy magazine. It may seem that the electronic services should be cheaper because no paper or mail delivery is involved but the technology and skill to manage them actually cost more. We consume less in physical resources and that is good, but the commitment of time and expertise has gone up. Database management, online banking, 800 number conference calling, blogging and social networking are easier these days in some ways and more complex in other ways.

At some point we should all look at professional membership and its value in more intrinsic ways. What does it mean to us as individual professionals. I can think of times when I have found jobs, solved problems, learned vital new skills and grew personally because of the interpersonal relationships encouraged by NAI. Social networking by electronic means is bringing us all closer together digitally but face to face relationships have a value that endure. I have no close relationships from twenty-five years of digital networking, but friends from actual meetings have lasted a lifetime.

In the past decade NAI has certified more than 8,000 professionals in six categories and the endorsement of our network has helped many of them get jobs or promotions Through their good work and skilled performance they build credibility for NAI.

The greatest value of a professional network may not be what you get – the benefits. It should be what you give back and what you share with others. We grow the most when we train others, share our ideas at meetings and financially help someone who lacks the resources get training when she or he cannot afford it. Professionalism is not about getting so much as giving and growing. Finding value in a professional membership can be a financial exercise or spiritual growth in a community of like-minded people. We hope you will stay involved in this professional family of NAI and find the spiritual and professional support you need. And we hope you will get involved and give back to others.

- Tim Merriman

I hope you watched the video above with Captain Charles Moore giving background on the plastics problem. It’s just amazing and sad. I first became aware of the issues in the 1970′s when dead birds were being found with those six-pack rings wound around them. In 2000 we held our first ever Certified Interpretive Guide (CIG)course in LaPaz, Mexico, and Maria Elena Muriel gave her CIG presentation on the subject. “Every time you see a plastic bag, I hope you’ll think about sea turtles.” Her very compelling message was about the threat plastics pose in the ocean because they look to sea turtles like jellyfish, their favorite food. Eating a bag will can lead to the death of a turtle fairly quickly.

As interpreters many of us have broad audiences of children and adults with whom to share what we know and believe about stewardship of the Earth. So what might we do to make a difference with this growing plastics problem? Here’s a few thoughts:

Get informed – Grow your personal knowledge so that your using current information and connecting people with existing programs and information sources. Plastic bags are one of the main problems but there are many others as well.

Assist with legislative efforts to cope with this problem such as the work by Heal the Bay in Santa Monica, CA. Heal the Bay also has a new toolkit to use to Trash Your Friends – a fun way to let others know about the challenges we face with this. You might meet with area decision makers to encourage them to ban plastic bags in stores. San Francisco was one of the first cities in the U.S. to do this.

Conduct local investigations and cleanups – You can involve young people in your community in cleaning up parks, waterways, river corridors, lake shores, seashores and forests. Document the quantity and kinds of waste as you do it. Report the environmental costs and savings to area decision makers to encourage legislation to prevent worsening of the problem.

Collaborate with area merchants to encourage them to sell or give away bags that can be washed and used hundreds of times to haul home groceries and goods purchased. Be sure your gift store at a nature center, aquarium, museum, park, zoo, historic home or tour company uses sustainable alternatives for your guests to carry away items.

Invite constituents to sign a pledge to not use plastic bags and avoid excessive packaging. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio hosts a website for this purpose.

Captain Charles Moore reported on Good Morning America that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch encompasses more than 10 million square miles, an area larger than the continental United States. Ocean currents bring debris together where it slowly breaks down into little pieces which get consumed by fish and other marine animals. We are choking our planet on a diet of indigestible, useless plastic. It wastes resource, kills wildlife and pollutes our fisheries and recreational waterways. Now is a great time to get involved to stop this damage to the Earth.

Please share your ideas and successes with us for eliminating plastics from the waste streams of the planet.

-Tim Merriman

Last Saturday we took a unique tour in Puerto Rico. The boat captain, from the local fishing village, invited us onto his fishing boat and we eased out into the beautiful waters of San Jose Lagoon, a beautiful interior lake between San Juan and Carolina, the most urban part of  Puerto Rico. For almost four hours we traveled along the lagoon’s lush edges of black, white and red mangroves. Great egrets, snowy egrets, green herons, great blue herons and reddish egrets posed in the mangroves as we moved slowly down the Suarez Canal that connects San Jose Lagoon with Laguna Torrecillas. We saw dozens

Purse net fisherman

of large iguanas draped on the trees and several swimming along the edge of the canal. We learned that large tarpon of six feet length are common to the lagoons and a big attraction for fishermen.

As we went through a highway underpass we saw a fisherman’s camp and several men casting purse nets, while some fished from the bank with poles. In Torrecillas Lagoon, we passed the homes of the rich and famous people who can afford waterfront property and noted the disappearance of the mangrove forests where houses have been built. Along the way we saw the nests of common moor hens, nestled on the end of fragile branches over the water where

Osprey

predators dare not go. Ospreys hunted overhead and one perched on a limb with a fish in its talons. Pelicans, frigate birds, tern and skimmers were flying overhead or perched along the mangroves.

Finally we reached a small village near the opening to the Atlantic Ocean and we stopped to drink fish soup and enjoy a Medalla Lite Beer. The cafe manager showed us the fresh red snapper and mahi mahi (dorado) filling their freezers. They buy local fish daily directly from fishermen and then resell to restauranteurs or individuals. After we got back on the boat, we took a quick sortie out into the Atlantic near Pinoñes State Forest

and then turned back into the lagoon to cruise back to the Cantera community. It was a beautiful tour and intriguing look at the natural and cultural heritage of Puerto Rico we would never have found on our own.

We were in Puerto Rico last week teaching the Interpretive Planning class. We had a great week with sixteen professionals at the Humacao Nature Reserve about 45 minutes south of San Juan. The day after the course, Fernando Silva of INCICO (Institute for the

Suarez Canal

Conservation of Puerto Rico) and Eliezer Nieves, a Certified Interpretive Trainer and Santa Ana Nature Center Director,  showed us this  evolving program  in San Juan that uses interpretation for a community-based ecotourism program.

Peninsula Expeditions is a project of the Cantera Community, a low-income area of government-built housing with many of the usual urban problems of unemployment, drug use and crime. Like similar communities it includes many people who work very hard to improve the condition of young people growing up without local employment

Cantera community

opportunities. Cantera Company is a community corporation working to improve socio-economic conditions locally through development of ecotours.

Driving into the community and to the boat marina we noticed the lagoon or lake edge had many animal pens, stored recreational equipment, boats, gardens and picnic tables. People leave their apartment houses to enjoy some of the countryside amenities of having chickens or rabbits and a small garden. We took

Yellow-crowned night heron

our tour from a marina with a clubhouse for the commercial fishermen of the Cantera area. The experience that we enjoyed will soon be available to tourists, cruise boat visitors and local people. Local young people will initially be trained as interpretive guides and eventually as Certified Interpretive Guides.

Fernando and Eliezer told us about the past year and a half of meeting with community leaders to listen and discuss what they might do collaboratively. They will soon launch this new tourist initiative using a pontoon boat purchased to provide tours. Early conversations with local fishermen led to development of a resource map. Their knowledge of the area from fishing is so detailed that they can map the floor of the lake

Checking out the daily catch at a local cafe/fish buyer on Laguna Terracillas.

almost exactly from memory. The resulting map served as a resource for planning natural and cultural history tours.

This kind of collaboration between INCICO, a nonprofit organization with conservation and interpretation expertise, and the Cantera community is becoming more common around the world. Ecotourism offers opportunities for people to make a living by providing transportation, food, housing and guide services as they share their communities with people who enjoy learning about other people and places.  INCICO plays a key role as facilitator in Puerto Rico. We look forward to returning to take a Peninsula Expedition when the program is officially launched. It’s an exciting project for the local community and should create a rich opportunity for tourists to San Juan to escape for the day into a rich ecosystem with fascinating cultural and natural history stories to share. We appreciated the chance to see it as its being planned and wish our colleagues, Fernando and Eliezer, the very best with the final stages of planning and training.

- Tim Merriman