Conversations About Visiting and Managing the National Parks: Crowdsourcing America's Best Idea

As the popularity of the national parks grows, so do the challenges of visiting and managing them. This innovative book uses crowdsourcing - postings by park visitors on a range of social media sites - to start 100 conversations on issues associated with visiting and managing the national parks. The authors then use their experience and expertise to prepare short, plainspoken, and engaging essays that respond to the postings and complete the conversations. The book is written for park visitors, managers, and students. The authors are university professors who teach the history, philosophy, and management of national parks, conduct long-term programs of research for the National Park Service, and have spent years working and living in the national parks. This inventive, thoughtful, and inviting book addresses a wide range of national park-related issues, guides readers on how to more effectively plan and conduct their national park visits, informs park planners and managers about what visitors think about the parks, introduces the latest scientific and professional information on park management, helps prepare students for careers in park management, and enhances public appreciation and protection of the national parks. Preservation of our national parks has always required an active engagement with the public. The authors take this to a new level by responding directly to the many questions and comments posed by visitors on social media with thoughtful and informative responses. Jonathan B. Jarvis, eighteenth Director of the National Park Service

About the Author

Robert E Manning (Author) Robert Manning enjoyed a forty-year career as a professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont where he advanced to an appointment as the Steven Rubenstein Professor (a prestigious endowed professorship). He taught courses on the history, philosophy, and management of national parks, and conducted a longterm program of research for the U.S. National Park Service. Robert has written extensively about this work, publishing a dozen scholarly books and more than 100 papers in academic and professional journals. He earned the highest awards at the University of Vermont in both teaching and research, along with a number of national awards, and spent four year-long sabbatical leaves working with the National Park Service at selected national parks. His book, A Thinking Person's Guide to America's National Parks, was published in 2016 to help celebrate the Centennial of the National Park Service; the book was aimed at both popular and professional audiences and was highly reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.