Park Leaders Show

When I was young my father always had pigeons as pets. I spent plenty of time around his feathered friends. Perhaps that is where my interest in the passenger pigeon came from. I used to imagine what it must have been like to see the sky go dark when a flock of passenger pigeons flew overhead. When I saw Ben Novak's TEDx Talk about bringing the passenger pigeon back from extinction, I know I had t...

Jeff Goins has made his living with the support of a tribe.  The loyal following to his  popular blog  led to a successful self published book, You Are a Writer . Now, Jeff is make a living as a writer. His success has come from building a tribe. Jeff even teaches other writers how to build a tribe in his course  Tribe Writers . Jeff Goins joins the Park Leaders Show to discuss how a park can use...

Park Rangers are great storytellers. Sean Smith, former National Park Ranger, used the storytelling gift to write a series of thrillers with a park ranger as the hero. In this episode of the Park Leaders Show, Sean talks about how his time as a ranger led to writing  Unleashing Colter's Hell  and  Lost Cause . Sean tells us why he wrote these stories, and where the inspiration for the main charact...

Phil Gaines, Director of South Carolina State Parks , returns to the Park Leaders Show to follow up on his first interview . In this second interview, Phil talks about the Ultimate Outside program . The Ultimate Outsider program turns visitors into insiders by getting them into all 47 State Parks in South Carolina. Phil Gaines knows once people get out to explore parks, they will make a connection...

When I began my career as a park ranger at Riverside State Park, Jack Hartt  would often tell me how lucky he was to the park manager. He convinced me Riverside was the best park in Washington State. I believed him. I followed his lead and proclaimed there was not a better park in the state. Then, Jack became the manager of Deception Pass State Park. He began preaching that Deception Pass was the...

When you think of City Parks, what comes to mind? I imagine you don't think of 29,000 acres and 5,000 individual properties in a single City Park System. That is how much property New York city Parks is responsible for. In an environment that makes me think of skyscrapers and concrete, NYC Parks account for 14% of the city. Managing that much property surrounded by so many people is no easy task....

December 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of John Muir . Muir passed away on December 24th, 1914. His last fight was to save the Hetch Hetchy valley. If you are not familiar with John Muir and the Hetch Hetchy Valley , I am going to spoil the story for you. The valley is under water. Flooded behind a dam to create a water reservoir for San Francisco. The Hetch Hetchy was reported to b...

As a leader you have a responsibility to continue to get better. There is one area in particular though, where I think you need to improve and you may not have considered it. If you are a leader, you need to write great email. Email? Isn't Park Leaders about parks? Yes, of course Park Leaders is about parks, but it is also about leadership. And if you are going to be a leader and have an impact, y...

Have you heard anyone suggest our country should bring back the Civilian Conservation Corps? I have. And I agree, it would be a good thing for our country. But the Conservation Corps never went away. It just looks different. Mary Ellen Sprenkel, President and CEO of The Corps Network , joins the Park Leaders Show to discuss the work of the Corps Programs. The Corps Network is the national voice an...

Park signs are an important piece of park management. Typically, a visitor interacts with signs more often than they do with park staff. The words on signs create an identity for the park. How many parks take the time to review signs to consider the identity they create through signs? For this episode, Mike Kim joins the Park Leaders Show to review park signs to talk about how to create great park...

This episode of the Park Leaders Show is a part two of sorts. My interview with Kelli English was so wonderful and long that I broke it into two parts. The first part of our conversation was about interpretation and storytelling. You can find it here . With the second half of our interview, Kelli talks about growing up in the south side of Chicago and how she ended up telling stories as an interpr...

Kelli English is the Chief of Interpretation for four National Park Units in the Bay Area of California, including John Muir National Historic Site . She has spent her career as a park ranger interpreting stories to park visitors. Now, she interprets to interpreters. She admits, even though her job leans towards administration, she still finds opportunities to tell a story to park visitors. Kelli...

David Flores may not be who you would expect to pour his talent and research into outdoor recreation and conservation. Typically, someone who devotes their career to parks, recreation, or conservation grew up playing and exploring in the outdoors. David Flores did not recreation in parks and forests when he was a kid. Yet, he is now a research social scientist with the US Forest Service . How did...

Bradley Fauteux is the Managing Director of Ontario Parks , and the first international guest of the Park Leaders Show. After a stint as a professional musician, Bradley began a career in Government and has become the ultimate generalist.  Fauteux had been working towards the job of Managing Director for ten years. He spent those years acquiring the skills he would need for the job and building a...

Recently, I was talking to a park manager who told me someone on his team was looking for mentoring opportunities. It got me thinking about mentors and how important a mentor was to my career, especially early when I was new to being a park ranger. I realize not everyone is fortunate enough to get a mentor early in their career, but listen, friend, you do not need to rely on a mentor. Not in the w...

Diversity has been a consistent topic on the Park Leaders Show. For this episode, three former guests of the show return to have a panel discussion about diversity. Teresa Baker  (founder of African American National Parks Day ), Jose Gonzalez  (founder of Latino Outdoors ) and John Griffith (crew supervisor with the California Conservation Corps ) team up to form the first Park Leaders Panel. Tog...

Lee Cockerell returns to the Park Leaders Show to discuss customer service. Lee examines takes a deeper look at nine of the thirty-nine essential rules for delivering sensational service from his book The Customer Rules . In this episode, we discuss the following nine customer rules; Become an expert at creating experts. Treat customers the way you would treat your loved ones. Be a copycat. Fish w...

Two episodes of the Park Leaders Show have discussed the Conservation Corps .  Ray Bivens is a true Conservation Corps success story. Ray Bivens began his outdoor career with the Maryland Conservation Corps . That experience led him into a career in Parks and Recreation. At only 38 years old, Ray became the Director of Delaware State Parks . Ray has an entrepreneurial view of parks. He understands...

Valerie Naylor is the recipient of the 2013 Stephen T. Mather Award  for her steadfast leadership and persistent dedication to National Parks. Her persistent dedication has been put to the test against industrial pressure from the Bakken Oil Boom on the borders of Theodore Roosevelt National Park . For the past four years, managing this beautiful national park has been an exercise in relentless de...

Personal accountability is the foundation of leadership. If you don't get personal accountability right, nothing else in leadership works as well as it should. This is why QBQ by John G. Miller is one of the most important leadership books I have read.  I read this book at lease once each year and have given more copies of this book away than any other book. QBQ stands for the Question Behind the...

Naomi Torres is included on Richard Rojas ' short list of All Star Champions of change. When someone makes it onto a list like that, I know I want to talk to her. Naomi is the Superintendent of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trai l. She began her career as in interpreter at Alcatraz and has spent her career with the National Park Service in the Bay Area of California. As the Superinte...

As I talk to leaders and managers from parks, Disney came up more than once as a source parks could look to for best practices and new ideas on how to operate a park. I took the hint and brought Disney to the Park Leaders Show. Lee Cockerell is the former Executive Vice President of Operations for Walt Disney World. Lee was responsible for training 7,000 leaders at Walt Disney World. Imagine the c...

Sarah Milbourne recently became the Park Manager of Rocky Gap State Park in Maryland. Sarah is the product of a Park System which invests in employees. She bursts with enthusiasm for her agency, her park, and her new role as Manager. Sarah discusses the transition of becoming a Park Manager at a park where she already worked as a Park Ranger. She explains her desire and push to become a Park Manag...

I have been a lifelong fan of Smokey Bear. This month, August 2014, Smokey Bear celebrates his 70th birthday. Imagine that. Smokey has been with us since the Second World War. Seventy years of grandfatherly advice about wildfires. Seventy years of raising awareness of the impact of fire. Seventy years of standing on the roadside alerting you of the fire hazard. Seventy years of watching over us an...

For this episode, I invited a guest to return and we took questions from park rangers in the field.  So far, the most listened to episode has been Don't Let the Park Define You with Commander Bill Overby . I invited Bill back because you like him, and because he has a heart for both State and National Parks. As Commander of the Parks Law Enforcement Academy in Mount Vernon, WA, he is connected to...