In sep 2017 day of the dead issue

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JVA InterpNews

2 Volume 6, #5 - Sep/Oct 2017

The international heritage interpretation ee-magazine. magazine.

Hi folks. Can you believe that the summer is slipping away so fast? So here's our Sep/Oct super issue. We keep adding great articles from around the world, including an article from Hungary, one from South Africa and one from South Korea. Here are some new things about this issue and InterpNEWS: - We now have more regional editors helping to generate articles for us. You can meet them on page 3 and 4. Interested in being one of our regional editors? Please get in touch.

JV - Costa Rica being bugged.

- Our InterpNEWS marketplace is growing too. Check out the back of the issue to see the many companies and consultants supporting InterpNEWS. If you're interested in advertising adverti with us just send me an e-mail. mail. IN reaches over 300K in 60 countries, and over 150K just in the US and Canada.

- InterpNEWS is part of the International Heritage Interpretation Group.

Group Find out more about the HIIG on page 81.. Want to be part of our HIIG team? We make things happen. Our mission is the support of and advancement of the interpretive profession world world-wide. wide.

Nov/Dec 2017 issue.

I'm working on the Nov/Dec issue now (note the birds on the left) - so I'm looking for more wonderful and incredible interpretation articles. Interested in being published in InterpNEWS? Let’s chat. jvainterp@aol.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In This Issue: - Meet our regional editors - Interpreting the Day of the Dead - 3000 years of cultural heritage. The Arizona Republic - Interpreting Halloween - Thee History Channel Staff.

- Why leaves change color. USDA Forest Service - Tales and Memories around Old Possum Trot School. Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald - Shining a light on the meaning of artifacts.. J. Patrick Barry and Denise Wolvin - Identity of famous baby dinosaur fossil revealed. Aris Folely - Discovering the story of Baltic Amber. John Veverka - Farm Magic #4 -Feed Me. Rod Burns.

- The management of built heritage in the system of cultural tourism. Bernadett MÉSZÁROS - Cutting Edge Waterjet Technology Meets Ancient Labyrinth Design. Ron Blair - Is It Our Place? Exhibiting Controversial Contemporary Topics. Chris Brusatte, - U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Partnership Benefits Many. B. Westfall - Haleakala silversword -The The most amazing and wonderful plant needs protection. NPS - Phoenix Edu-Fair-Phoenix; Phoenix; Durban, South Africa. Tebogo Mohlakane-Mafereka - The Korean Demilitarized Zone Into Peace Park Designation Cho kye joong - Museos de sitio vs. centros de interpretación: la historia antes que los artefactos -John A. Veverka - Imagine... Speaking Tip 32 Ethan Rotman - University of Strasbourg is now listed as a World Heritage Site (News Release).

- So, who’s really your audience? Cecelia Ottenweller - The Truth About Wayfinding Kevin Fromet -Interpreting Early 19th Century Life for Children Children, Amanda Sedlak-Hevener - InterpNEWS Marketplace

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InterpNEWS is published six times a year as a FREE John Veverka & Associates publication and published as a service to the interpretive profession. If you would like to be added to our mailing list just send an ee-mail mail to jvainterp@aol.com and we will add you to our growing mailing list. Contributions of articles are welcomed. It you would like to have an article published in InterpNEWS let me know what you have in mind mind.. Cover photo: Day of the Dead costume. www.heritageinterp.com , jvainterp@aol.com. SKYPE: jvainterp.

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Meet Our Regional Editors Regional Editors are professional interpreters with a mission to help advance the interpretive profession and make connections with other interpreters, agencies and organizations to encourage folks to share knowledge and ideas about heritage interpretation. interpretation. They may represent InterpNEWS at conferences or other interpretive gatherings to help generate articles about new technologies, approaches, exhibits or other innovative advancements in interpretation. Want to be one of our Regional Editors? Let's chat. jvainterp@aol.com.

Dan Boys BSc, MAHI (40 Strettea Lane, Higham, Derbyshire, DE55 6EJ, England (07800 799561) - "Dan Boys is Creative Director at audiotrails.co.uk, audiotrails.co.uk a digital interpretation consultancy specializing in audio guides, location-aware location (native and web) app software and formal and informal informal learning for heritage sites and cultural institutions.” You can contact Dan at: ‘interpnews@audiotrails.co.uk ‘interpnews@audiotrails.co.uk’.

Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald, Professor in the English department at York Technical College,, Rock Hill, SC SC,, published author, and heritage performer. She is a dedicated supporter of InterpNEWS and con contributor tributor to each issue. She has authored several wonderful books (check her work out at Amazon.com) You can reach her at: doctorbenn@gmail.com Rod Burns - CPHI - (Certified Professional Heritage Interpreter - Canada). Rods long career in interpretation includes being the Education Supervisor, Salmonier Nature Park, Newfoundland, Canada, and currently being the owner of Bold Point Centre EcoTourism Training and Services. He also has 22 years of experience as co-owner co /operator operator of Bold Point Farmstay, www.farmstay-ca.com. He will be working to generate articles on innovative interpretation for IN from Canada. He can be contacted at:: bpc@connected.bc.ca Brian C. Westfall Corps of Engineers Community Relations Ranger/NRM Specialist.

Specialist Brian brings over 35 years of experience in interpretation with the US Army Corps of Engineers. Brian coordinated the interpretive outreach program at DeGray Lake for 19 years, promoting Corps of Engineers missions locally, regionally and nationally. Brian was also recognized as the 2006 Mississippi Valley Division Hiram Chittenden Interpreter of the Year. He also serves an as instructor for the COE National Interpretive Services Course. You can reach him at: Brian.C.Westfall@usace.army.mil Brian.C.Westfall@usace.army.mil, Heidi de Maine - South Africa International Editor.. Heidi is a Marine Biologist who, after working in the public aquarium industry as an aquarist, now consults to aquariums, zoos, museums and other natural heritage facilities specializing in interpretation and staff training. She has contributed to tradi traditional tional and online magazines and has written a series of children's books called "Abby's Aquarium Adventures". When she's not working, she's studying to complete her MSc in Interpretation or she's in the sea. You can contact Heidi at at, sunfishconsulting@gmail.com, www.abby.co.za

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Amanda Sedlak-Hevener is a freelance writer and public historian. She has a B.A. in Journalism and English in Ashland University and an M.A. in History from the University of Akron. She is currently working on an M.L.I.S. in Museum Studies at Kent State University. She believes in promoting local history through creative interpretation in museums, historic houses, and historical societies. You can contact her at: mandyhevener@gmail.com

Ethan Rotman - As principle of iSpeakEasy, Ethan has been speaking to groups for 30 years and training presenters for more than 25 years. He began his career as a park ranger in 1980. He quickly learned that Park Rangers must engage their audience or people will simply walk away. iSpeakEASY was founded in 2006 to bring a new approach of communication into the business world as well. He offers workshops and individualized coaching to help speakers improve their effectiveness and profitability. A frequent contributor to InterpNEWS, you can contact Ethan at: ethan@ispeakeasy.net Stephen W. Madewell has an extensive back ground with outdoor education and recreation. He has served as Executive Director for three Ohio park districts: Metroparks of the Toledo Area, Lake Metroparks and Geauga Park District. He has managed design and development for several environmental education and interpretive visitor centers, web based communication systems as well as way-finding and interpretive sign systems. Mr. Madewell’s involvement with conservation-based initiatives has included policy development, operations, natural resource stewardship, land acquisition, grant development and advocacy. He has written and recorded two conservation-themed musical CD’s: Arrow Creek and Rivers and Trails. steve@madewellmusic.com madewellmusic.com Cecelia Ottenweller, Ottenweller Consulting. Cecelia is an independent communication strategist, interpretive planner and exhibit developer focused on nontraditional educational environments, particularly zoological gardens and museums. She has over 20 years of experience, with projects that include her latest for the McNair Asian Elephant Habitat at the Houston Zoo, the audio tour for the Virgin of Guadalupe exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, You Are the Exhibit at the John P. McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science, the Dallas Federal Reserve (both their exhibits and wrote their commemorative history) and the Texas Independence Trail. She lives and works in Houston, Texas. To contact Cecelia, email her at ceottenweller@me.com or give her a ring at 713-302-2793.

Chris Brusatte MA Museum Studies, BA History - Interpretive Planner at Taylor Studios, Inc. Chris Brusatte has had the honor of working at Gettysburg National Military Park, the Library of Congress, Ford's Theatre, and Go For Broke National Education Center, and currently is an Interpretive Planner at Taylor Studios, Inc. in Rantoul, IL. You can contact Chris at cbrusatte@taylorstudios.com.

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Interpreting the Day of the Dead - 3000 years of cultural heritage.

The Arizona Republic

More than 500 years ago, when the Spanish Conquistadors landed in what is now central Mexico, they encountered natives practicing a ritual that seemed to mock death.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history.html#ixzz4CjALosg3 It was a ritual the indigenous people had been practicing at least 3,000 years. A ritual the Spaniards would try unsuccessfully to eradicate.

A ritual known today as Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.

Dia de los Muertos is celebrated in Mexico and certain parts of the United States, including metro Phoenix.

Although the ritual has since been merged with Catholic theology, it still maintains the basic principles of the Aztec ritual, such as the use of skulls.

Today, people don wooden skull masks called calacas and dance in honor of their deceased relatives. The wooden skulls also are placed on altars that are dedicated to the dead. Sugar skulls, made with the names of the dead person on the forehead, are eaten by a relative or friend, according to Mary J. Adrade, who has written three books on Dia de los Muertos.

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The Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations kept skulls as trophies and displayed them during the ritual.

The skulls were used to symbolize death and rebirth.

The skulls were used to honor the dead, whom the Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations believed came back to visit during the month long ritual.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history.html#ixzz4CjAGNQEd The skulls were used to honor the dead, whom the Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations believed came back to visit during the month long ritual.

Unlike the Spaniards, who viewed death as the end of life, the natives viewed it as the continuation of life.

Instead of fearing death, they embraced it. To them, life was a dream and only in death did they become truly awake.

"The pre-Hispanic people honored duality as being dynamic," said Christina Gonzalez, senior lecturer on Hispanic issues at Arizona State University. "They didn't separate death from pain, wealth from poverty like they did in Western cultures."

However, the Spaniards considered the ritual to be sacrilegious. They perceived the indigenous people to be barbaric and pagan.

In their attempts to convert them to Catholicism, the Spaniards tried to kill the ritual.

But like the old Aztec spirits, the ritual refused to die.

To make the ritual more Christian, the Spaniards moved it so it coincided with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day (Nov. 1 and 2), which is when it is celebrated today.

Previously it fell on the ninth month of the Aztec Solar Calendar, approximately the beginning of August, and was celebrated for the entire month. Festivities were presided over by the goddess Mictecacihuatl. The goddess, known as "Lady of the Dead," was believed to have died at birth, Andrade said.

Today, Day of the Dead is celebrated in Mexico and in certain parts of the United States and Central America.

"It's celebrated different depending on where you go," Gonzalez said.

In rural Mexico, people visit the cemetery where their loved ones are buried. They decorate gravesites with marigold flowers and candles. They bring toys for dead children and bottles of tequila to adults. They sit on picnic blankets next to gravesites and eat the favorite food of their loved ones.

In Guadalupe, the ritual is celebrated much like it is in rural Mexico.

"Here the people spend the day in the cemetery," said Esther Cota, the parish secretary at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. "The graves are decorated real pretty by the people."

In Mesa, the ritual has evolved to include other cultures, said Zarco Guerrero, a Mesa artist.

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"Last year, we had Native Americans and African-Americans doing their own dances," he said. "They all want the opportunity to honor their dead."

In the United States and in Mexico's larger cities, families build altars in their homes, dedicating them to the dead. They surround these altars with flowers, food and pictures of the deceased. They light candles and place them next to the altar.

"We honor them by transforming the room into an altar," Guerrero said. "We offer incense, flowers. We play their favorite music, make their favorite food."

At Guerrero's house, the altar is not only dedicated to friends and family members who have died, but to others as well.

"We pay homage to the Mexicans killed in auto accidents while being smuggled across the border," he said.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history.html#ixzz4CjA8CMH5

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JVA InterpNews Interpreting Halloween The History Channel Staff.

Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. It is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints and martyrs; the holiday, All Saints’ Day, incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows’ Eve and later Halloween.

Over time, Halloween evolved into a secular, community-based event characterized by child-friendly activities such as trick-or-treating. In a number of countries around the world, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people continue to usher in the winter season with gatherings, costumes and sweet treats.

ANCIENT ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they relit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

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HALLOWEEN COMES TO AMERICA Celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups as well as the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland’s potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-ortreat” tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday.

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TODAY’S HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS The American Halloween tradition of “trick-or-treating” probably dates back to the early All Souls’ Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives. The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as “going a-souling” was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

HALLOWEEN SUPERSTITIONS Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world. Today’s Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into cats. We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred; it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe. And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today’s trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday—with luck, by next Halloween—be married. In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it. In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl’s future husband. (In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.)

Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband. Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands’ initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands’ faces. Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry; at others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.

Of course, whether we’re asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the good will of the very same “spirits” whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly

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USDA Forest Service. f you are lucky, you live in one of those parts of the world where Nature has one last fling before settling down into winter's sleep. In those lucky places, as days shorten and temperatures become crisp, the quiet green palette of summer foliage is transformed into the vivid autumn palette of reds, oranges, golds, and browns before the leaves fall off the trees. On special years, the colors are truly breathtaking.

How does autumn color happen?

For years, scientists have worked to understand the changes that happen to trees and shrubs in the autumn. Although we don't know all the details, we do know enough to explain the basics and help you to enjoy more fully Nature's multicolored autumn farewell. Three factors influence autumn leaf color-leaf pigments, length of night, and weather, but not quite in the way we think. The timing of color change and leaf fall are primarily regulated by the calendar, that is, the increasing length of night. None of the other environmental influences-temperature, rainfall, food supply, and so on-are as unvarying as the steadily increasing length of night during autumn. As days grow shorter, and nights grow longer and cooler, biochemical processes in the leaf begin to paint the landscape with Nature's autumn palette.

Where do autumn colors come from?

A color palette needs pigments, and there are three types that are involved in autumn color. •

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Chlorophyll, which gives leaves their basic green color. It is necessary for photosynthesis, the chemical reaction that enables plants to use sunlight to manufacture sugars for their food. Trees in the temperate zones store these sugars for their winter dormant period.

Carotenoids, which produce yellow, orange, and brown colors in such things as corn, carrots, and daffodils, as well as rutabagas, buttercups, and bananas.

Anthocyanins, which give color to such familiar things as cranberries, red apples, concord grapes, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and plums. They are water soluble and appear in the watery liquid of leaf cells.

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Both chlorophyll and carotenoids are present in the chloroplasts of leaf cells throughout the growing season.

Most anthocyanins are produced in the autumn, in response to bright light and excess plant sugars within leaf cells.

During the growing season, chlorophyll is continually being produced and broken down and leaves appear green. As night length increases in the autumn, chlorophyll production slows down and then stops and eventually all the chlorophyll is destroyed. The carotenoids and anthocyanins that are present in the leaf are then unmasked and show their colors.

Certain colors are characteristic of particular species. Oaks turn red, brown, or russet; hickories, golden bronze; aspen and yellow-poplar, golden yellow; dogwood, purplish red; beech, light tan; and sourwood and black tupelo, crimson. Maples differ species by species-red maple turns brilliant scarlet; sugar maple, orange-red; and black maple, glowing yellow. Striped maple becomes almost colorless. Leaves of some species such as the elms simply shrivel up and fall, exhibiting little color other than drab brown.

The timing of the color change also varies by species. Sourwood in southern forests can become vividly colorful in late summer while all other species are still vigorously green. Oaks put on their colors long after other species have already shed their leaves. These differences in timing among species seem to be genetically inherited, for a particular species at the same latitude will show the same coloration in the cool temperatures of high mountain elevations at about the same time as it does in warmer lowlands.

Does weather affect autumn color?

The amount and brilliance of the colors that develop in any particular autumn season are related to weather conditions that occur before and during the time the chlorophyll in the leaves is dwindling.

Temperature and moisture are the main influences.

A succession of warm, sunny days and cool, crisp but not freezing nights seems to bring about the most spectacular color displays. During these days, lots of sugars are produced in the leaf but the cool nights and the gradual closing of veins going into the leaf prevent these sugars from moving out. These conditions-lots of sugar and lots of light-spur production of the brilliant anthocyanin pigments, which tint reds, purples, and crimson. Because carotenoids are always present in leaves, the yellow and gold colors remain fairly constant from year to year.

The amount of moisture in the soil also affects autumn colors. Like the weather, soil moisture varies greatly from year to year. The countless combinations of these two highly variable factors assure that no two autumns can be exactly alike. A late spring, or a severe summer drought, can delay the onset of fall color by a few weeks. A warm period during fall will also lower the intensity of autumn colors. A warm wet spring, favorable summer weather, and warm sunny fall days with cool nights should produce the most brilliant autumn colors.

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What triggers leaf fall?

In early autumn, in response to the shortening days and declining intensity of sunlight, leaves begin the processes leading up to their fall. The veins that carry fluids into and out of the leaf gradually close off as a layer of cells forms at the base of each leaf. These clogged veins trap sugars in the leaf and promote production of anthocyanins. Once this separation layer is complete and the connecting tissues are sealed off, the leaf is ready to fall.

What does all this do for the tree?

Winter is a certainty that all vegetation in the temperate zones must face each year. Perennial plants, including trees, must have some sort of protection to survive freezing temperatures and other harsh wintertime influences.

Stems, twigs, and buds are equipped to survive extreme cold so that they can reawaken when spring heralds the start of another growing season. Tender leaf tissues, however, would freeze in winter, so plants must either toughen up and protect their leaves or dispose of them.

The evergreens-pines, spruces, cedars, firs, and so on-are able to survive winter because they have toughened up. Their needle-like or scale-like foliage is covered with a heavy wax coating and the fluid inside their cells contains substances that resist freezing. Thus the foliage of evergreens can safely withstand all but the severest winter conditions, such as those in the Arctic. Evergreen needles survive for some years but eventually fall because of old age.

The leaves of broadleaved plants, on the other hand, are tender and vulnerable to damage. These leaves are typically broad and thin and are not protected by any thick coverings. The fluid in cells of these leaves is usually a thin, watery sap that freezes readily. This means that the cells could not survive winter where temperatures fall below freezing. Tissues unable to overwinter must be sealed off and shed to ensure the plant's continued survival. Thus leaf fall precedes each winter in the temperate zones.

What happens to all those fallen leaves?

Needles and leaves that fall are not wasted. They decompose and restock the soil with nutrients and make up part of the spongy humus layer of the forest floor that absorbs and holds rainfall. Fallen leaves also become food for numerous soil organisms vital to the forest ecosystem.

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What happens to all those fallen leaves?

Needles and leaves that fall are not wasted. They decompose and restock the soil with nutrients and make up part of the spongy humus layer of the forest floor that absorbs and holds rainfall. Fallen leaves also become food for numerous soil organisms vital to the forest ecosystem.

It is quite easy to see the benefit to the tree of its annual leaf fall, but the advantage to the entire forest is more subtle. It could well be that the forest could no more survive without its annual replenishment from leaves than the individual tree could survive without shedding these leaves. The many beautiful interrelationships in the forest community leave us with myriad fascinating puzzles still to solve.

Where can I see autumn color in the United States?

You can find autumn color in parks and woodlands, in the cities, countryside, and mountains - anywhere you find deciduous broadleaved trees, the ones that drop their leaves in the autumn. Nature's autumn palette is painted on oaks, maples, beeches, sweet gums, yellow-poplars, dogwoods, hickories, and others. Your own neighborhood may be planted with special trees that were selected for their autumn color.

New England is rightly famous for the spectacular autumn colors painted on the trees of its mountains and countryside, but the Adirondack, Appalachian, Smoky, and Rocky Mountains are also clad with colorful displays. In the East, we can see the reds, oranges, golds, and bronzes of the mixed deciduous woodlands; in the West, we see the bright yellows of aspen stands and larches contrasting with the dark greens of the evergreen conifers.

Many of the Forest Service's 100 plus scenic byways were planned with autumn color in mind. In 31 States you can drive on over 3,000 miles of scenic byways, and almost everyone of them offers a beautiful, colorful drive sometime in the autumn.

Thanks to the USDA Forest Service for this contribution to InterpNEWS.

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Tales and Memories around Old Possum Trot School By Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald College English instructor, published author, and performer.

When you hear the name, Possum Trot, what comes to mind? When you think of a one-room school, what do you envision? When you think of your own school days, what memories do you have? Perhaps you remember one-room school houses from television shows such as Little House on the Prairie or The Waltons.

Some of us may have heard stories directly from grandparents, great grandparents or older friends or perhaps simply stories passed down from one generation to the next, as it were. However you heard these tales really doesn’t matter. What matters is that you keep sharing them and spinning your own. These yarns help us understand other cultures and customs and appreciate our traditions. Despite the sorrows, suffering, and, yes, sometimes, shame, that happened when we were growing up in school, something remains special about the tellers and the listeners. There’s something beautiful, if you will, about details which are added or deleted over the years, perhaps because of the audience or the teller himself.

One of my brightest students, Leah Herlan, rushed into my office in late March, her blue eyes like stars, as she seemed to sing, “Dr. Macdonald, I can’t wait to show you my picture of this school Brittany and I saw after we shopped at the outlet on Interstate 85 near Gaffney. It was so cool.” Of course, I had often passed through Gaffney, South Carolina on the way to our summer place in the mountains, but I had never seen Possum Trot School. I was curious, especially after Leah showed me the scene of this one-room schoolhouse in the middle of a glorious green pasture.

What do most people do these days when they want to learn a little more about a person, place, or thing? They google! I google, you google, he/she/it googles. We google, you google, and they google. D’accord. And google I did! Possom Trot School was built in 1880. There are certainly schools which pre-date Possum Trot: Mattey Whaley’s one-room schoolhouse at “Old Field” Plantation on Queen’s Creek near Williamsburg, Virginia; Hickory Neck Academy in Toano, Virginia; and Uncle Thomas Wynne’s School at Green Mount Plantation near Lee Hall, Virginia; and, of course, a host of others. At the early schools, children learned their ABC’s from a hornbook worn around their necks.

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Of course, I didn’t attend school at Possum Trot, nor did my ancestors. Your ancestors probably didn’t either.

But I imagine we all have a school story or two, perhaps three. So let a Memory/Story-telling Festival begin as we pretend to gather around Possum Trot School on a crisp September or October morning, picnic lunches packed, spring water in the nearby creek, and bright orange, yellow, gold, and red trees in the distant hills.

An older friend whom I shall call Lady Slate Board because she asked to remain anonymous, as many interviewees do, said, “I remember having whooping cough in the first grade and missing a lot of days, but I made the grade. I was an avid reader. In the second grade, women of the American Legion’s Auxiliary brought graham crackers and a carton of milk to our school every day. That was back…..oh I can’t remember how far back now.”

“Well,” Mademoiselle Book replied, “I was called mentally retarded by my first-grade teacher.”

“Whatever for?” answered Lady Slate Board.

“For taking off my shoes, helping other students, and being confident. I walked around the room.”

“Well, at least you didn’t have to wear a dunce cap or sit on the dunce stool,” Sir Algebra interrupted.

“You on a dunce stool!” Dame Inkwell laughed. “I cannot picture that.”

“Yes, because I hadn’t read my assignment. I didn’t like the story.”

“What did you read?”

“Oh, I don’t remember,” Sir Algebra replied.“That was a long time ago. But I do remember when we made potato soup on cold days that every child brought a potato to school. Our teacher furnished the other ingredients. We chopped up the potatoes and took turns stirring the soup over an open fire while the rest of us played.”

“I remember,” Lady Inkwell continued, “that my first grade teacher taught me to appreciate books. She didn’t mind if we walked around during class. Sometimes, I moved around to escape the antics of my childhood sweetheart who sat behind me and dipped his pen in the ink, then started writing his letters. Sometimes he put ink on my curls. I couldn’t say a word,” she laughed, “for he would get in trouble. We didn’t see each other for years. During college, we fell in love. I danced ‘The Charleston’ on a table, wearing my high-heeled shoes. Yes, I was a ‘flapper.’ Most forgot to tell you that after school every day, when I was a child, I walked home. Before I played, my mother gave me a sweet potato still warm from the wood stove.”

“We had sweet potatoes after school, too,” Mr. Geometry said. “Sometimes, Daddy called them yams, but my favorite lunch was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and peanut butter oatmeal cookies. Now, in May, Azzilee added poke salad.”

Doctor Pencil scoffed a little. “If you don’t eat that early enough, you could poison your body. At least, that’s what Mamma told us. She used pokeberry for a dye.”

Mr. Geometry listened, then shared another anecdote. He told his listeners about how annoyed his mother was when she saw someone kicking his first cousin, Robert. “Totally undone, she ran and broke a branch off the smilax to whip the ugly boy. Also in those days we sang Christmas carols and put on a play for special holidays. Of course, the teacher used a school bell. If you brought the teacher an apple, you were called the ‘Teacher’s Pet.’”

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“Nothing like fun on the playground. In the old days, girls brought corncob dolls, and the boys played ball.

Then, there were relay races, “Madame Spelling interrupted. “I remember my grandmother told me about cutting her sandwiches in four squares to share with three friends. They did the same. She always had four different squares. Depending on what her friends brought, she sometimes enjoyed I peanut butter and jelly, cucumber and butter, chicken salad, and ground carrot and raisin salad. Her best friend’s mother often served chicken salad or nasturtium sandwiches at her bridge parties” “Memaw,” Little Miss Bell whispered, texting on her cell phone, then flipping her long dark hair up into a bun, her green eyes flashing. “Tell them we don’t use learn script in school, and explain to all these people that we use I-pads.”

“I will,” but you know I disapprove, and I imagine some folks here will, too.

“Not me,” Master Eraser answered. “When the teacher isn’t looking, I do research on my lap top.”

Madame Spelling frowned, but soon began smiling, a twinkle in her dark brown eyes, as she told them about her rebellious nature in school. “I disliked my first grade teacher because she wouldn’t let me go to the bathroom, and she separated my identical twin and me. We both got in trouble in the second grade for stealing paper. We had to pay the principal ten cents. Another time, we took rides down the antiquated fire escapes.

They were like sliding boards with ceilings. Such fun. From afar, as I look back on them, they came to remind me of that poem by Browning, ‘Childe Rolande to the Dark Tower Came.’ I can’t tell you why.”

“What else did you do?” Doctor Pencil queried, a broad smile on his face.

“I had always wanted to throw a book from the third floor to the first, and that I did after graduation.”

“Cool,” Master Eraser nodded.

“And I have learned a lot. Let’s plan to meet here another time. If not here, maybe you would start a memory/storytelling festival at a school in your area. Maybe you folks would consider making a contribution to this old school. I certainly will. Like all old buildings, one room or more, there’s upkeep. More than money, I felt an emotional connection with everyone here, and that was wonderful.”

I thanked everyone for coming. Even if they didn’t tell stories or share memories, they were great listeners. They were engaged. I told them that one evening they might get a possum and related that Gertie had told me about eating a grinning possum surrounded by sweet potatoes. Many flinched, but I learned about the world Gertie grew up in-----what her family ate, learned, and did to survive. She was my dearest friend.

I tried to remember something in Latin, but couldn’t. Maybe you will help me out. ☺

Dr. Martha Benn Macdonald College English instructor, published author, and performer. doctorbenn@gmail.com

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Shining a light on the meaning of artifacts.

By J. Patrick Barry and Denise Wolvin

We have all experienced that feeling of information overload at visitor centers and museums. In some facilities, display designers seem to want to tell you EVERYTHING there is to know about an artifact or object. After viewing multiple objects, you start feeling like you can’t remember one more fact. You may wonder, how can I wander through this place and see everything without getting into all the details? Maybe I can simply read the display titles?

As interpreters, we have tools to make displays more interesting while still communicating the most important details.

The Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center in Duluth, Minnesota has a display that includes a collection of lighthouse lenses representing the lights found on the lake. It features almost a dozen artifacts within formation about them. There are dates and sizes of lights and a bit about the people who helped get lighthouses installed.

The old display was great for the visitor that loves lighthouses, but for everyday people…hmm? What was missing was the answer to the question, “Why should I care?”

How do you get people to care about a Fresnel lens or why we find lighthouses in certain places around Lake Superior?

When Denise Wolvin came to the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center, the lighthouse display had a sign that said, “Display under construction.” She later discovered that the sign had been up for five years, an exhibit sidelined due to shifting priorities. She resurrected the project and started to work on connecting people to these artifacts.

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How do you get people to care about a Fresnel lens or why we find lighthouses in certain places around Lake Superior?

When Denise Wolvin came to the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center, the lighthouse display had a sign that said, “Display under construction.” She later discovered that the sign had been up for five years, an exhibit sidelined due to shifting priorities.

She resurrected the project and started to work on connecting people to these artifacts.

The display under construction, featuring the large Fresnel lens, the centerpiece of the old display.

The solution became clear; let people interact with the exhibit by bringing items out from behind the glass. Not only let the visitors touch and discover, but connect with the sailors that used lighthouses as beacons of safety and guidance. In addition, a simple story could connect the visitor to a sailor that longs for the safety of the harbor and the sight of his family, a story from the point of view of a sailor who has been away for months transporting cargo on the Great Lakes. When the sailor sees the lighthouse he says, “What a welcome sight for these weary eyes.”

The improved display. It tells the story about why lighthouses matter and lets people feel what an expensive artifact feels like without endangering the artifact.

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The story contains what has been missing from this display, a way for people to connect with it. It has been missing a theme or message.

As we know, the best themes combine tangible objects like the lighthouse lenses in this display, with universal concepts. By adding the story from the point of view of a mariner, Denise focused the message of the display to, “I want visitors to feel that lighthouses provided a way for sailors to return safely from their journey to the arms of their families.”

The beginning of the mariner’s story.

Here is the last part of the story called, “From the Wheelhouse.” “I’ve been out on the lakes for many months and this is the final leg before I can get off and be with my family again. My heart starts to beat wildly when I finally see the flashing white light of Duluth’s Inner Range Lighthouse just above the horizon. Soon after, the outer range light glows with its steady green light.

I wonder how many sailors before me had the same feeling as I am having now. I stared at the inner and outer range lights, remembering how they work together to guide vessels safely through the Duluth Ship Canal. The Captain lines them up, the inner range light directly above the outer range light to ensure safe passage through the canal.

Finally, the flashing light on the north pier comes into view chanting, “This way, keep left; this way, keep left.” every six seconds. What a welcome sight for these weary eyes. I feel sailors of the past joining me in this homecoming celebration.

Let’s line up the lights and head through the ship canal to where our berth and my family await. “ That is why people should care about these artifacts. There is a human story behind them. As interpreters, we help people discover that story.

The Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center focuses on the Great Lakes maritime industry, past and present.

Merchant mariners are the heart and soul of this industry and play a vital role in the U.S. economy by transporting raw materials from port to port. Merchant mariners depended on lighthouses to navigate safely through the Great Lakes and to return home to their families at the end of the season.

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The stories at the visitor center are varied and complex. Some stories express how technology has changed.

Today, massive ore ships may be loaded in a fraction of time it used to take. The visitor center tells the stories of how the Corps of Engineers built and maintains infrastructure to support the shipping industry. They tell the tragic stories of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and other vessels lost in the lake. A series of dioramas representing different vessels and times, show people in their cabins sharing thoughts about their voyages.

Freeman Tilden wrote a chapter in Interpreting Our Heritage, titled, “The Story is the Thing.” He discusses the relationship between science and art in interpretation. At the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center, the art of the stories reveals the science behind the many artifacts. The artifacts reveal the history and evolution of science and technology and the stories bring the artifacts to life.

Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center continues to work on connecting visitors with authentic maritime artifacts and fascinating stories about the people working on and around Lake Superior.

For More Information: Tilden, Freeman. Interpreting Our Heritage, 4th edition. 2007.

About the authors: J. Patrick Barry, CIG, CIT serves as director of NAI’s Pacific Northwest Region.

He worked 35 years as a ranger and interpreter for the federal government.

He is a Certified Interpretive Trainer and has experience as a visitor center manager, interpretive/customer service consultant, interpretive trainer, and speaker. To contact, email him at: jpatbarry@hotmail.com.

Main Fountain Garden New Heights Project Exhibit, Longwood Gardens

Denise K. Wolvin, CIG, has worked in the interpretation field for 18 years, with the last seven at the Lake Superior Maritime Visitor Center. Every day is filled with the wonder of discovery and connecting people with their surroundings – even massive 1,000 ft. Great Lakes vessels!

Denise.K.Wolvin@usace.army.mil

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Identity of famous baby dinosaur fossil reveals new species of feathered dinosaur.

Aris Folely, AOL News

The fossilized remains of a 90-million-year-old dinosaur fetus has been identified as a new species of dinosaur.

A team of paleontologists arrived a the conclusion by closely examining a batch of eggs associated with the fetus and conducting a comparative analysis of the anatomy of dinosaurs similar to the newly discovered species.

The dinosaur embryo, nicknamed "Baby Louie," was first discovered in the early 1990s, curled within a nest of other supersized dino eggs in Central China.

According to a new study published in Nature Communications, the oversized bird-like dinosaur, Beibeilongsinensis, which means "baby dragon from China," roamed the Earth between 89 and 100 million years ago.

Measuring at about 18 inches long and 6 inches wide, the clutch of eggs were the largest ever discovered. Experts say a nest of these eggs measured up to about the size of a wheel on a monster truck, and were tended to by adult dinos that were the largest roosting animals on the planet and weighed nearly 2,500 pounds at the height of their maturity. ''The geographical distribution and abundant occurrences of Macroelongatoolithus egg remains reveal that giant oviraptosaurs were relatively widespread and perhaps even common in the early part of the Late Cretaceous, even though their skeletal remains are scarce and have yet to be identified in many regions,'' researchers write.

Dr. Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh also says the eggs provide researchers with a look into the reproduction of some of the largest, strangest dinosaurs. ''It stretches the mind to imagine these wee little embryos growing into a one-ton feather-covered dinosaur that would have looked quite a bit like Big Bird,'' he said. ''And they were weird - with feathers and beaks, but no teeth," Brusatte continued, adding that the baby dinosaur was about the size of a guinea pig.

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John Veverka Certified Interpretive Planner/Trainer jvainterp@aol.com

In November last year I was invited to Klaipeda State University in Lithuania to provide training in interpretation and heritage tourism (and guide training) at the University. During my free time I had the chance to wander the historic city center and noticed all the major shops selling amber jewelry. I really didn't know much about amber so asked my hosts about it. In true interpretive form they took me to the Lithuania Amber Museum, house in a historic home (photos below).

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If you remember the start of Jurassic Park, they found a piece of amber with a mosquito in it that led them to create dinosaurs. The museum had lots of amber with insects, spiders and everything imaginable encased in the golden orbs. Of course the museum had a huge gift shop so I brought home "Baltic Amber" with me. I thought I would share with you what I learned about amber. Interpreters never quit learning and discovering.

So here is your lesson on Amber and some of the pieces with insects in them.

Amber is fossilized tree resin, which has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times.[2] Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects.[3] Amber is used in jewelry. It has also been used as a healing agent in folk medicine. The origins of Baltic amber are associated with the Lithuanian legend about Juratė, the queen of the sea, who fell in love with Kastytis, a fisherman. According to one of the versions, her jealous father punished his daughter by destroying her amber palace and changing her into sea foam. The pieces of the Juratė’s palace can still be found on the Baltic shore.

The abnormal development of resin in living trees (succinosis) can result in the formation of amber. Impurities are quite often present, especially when the resin dropped onto the ground, so the material may be useless except for varnish-making. Such impure amber is called firniss.

Such inclusion of other substances can cause amber to have an unexpected color. Pyrites may give a bluish color. Bony amber owes its cloudy opacity to numerous tiny bubbles inside the resin.[22] However, so-called black amber is really only a kind of jet.

In darkly clouded and even opaque amber, inclusions can be imaged using high-energy, high-contrast, highresolution X-rays.

Amber is globally distributed, mainly in rocks of Cretaceous age or younger. Historically, the Samland coast west of Königsberg in Prussia was the world's leading source of amber. The first mentions of amber deposits here date back to the 12th century.[24] About 90% of the world's extractable amber is still located in that area, which became the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia in 1946.

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Pieces of amber torn from the seafloor are cast up by the waves, and collected by hand, dredging, or diving.

Elsewhere, amber is mined, both in open works and underground galleries. Then nodules of blue earth have to be removed and an opaque crust must be cleaned off, which can be done in revolving barrels containing sand and water Amber occurs in a range of different colors. As well as the usual yellow-orange-brown that is associated with the color "amber", amber itself can range from a whitish color through a pale lemon yellow, to brown and almost black. Other uncommon colors include red amber (sometimes known as "cherry amber"), green amber, and even blue amber, which is rare and highly sought after.

Yellow amber is a hard, translucent, yellow, orange, or brown fossil resin from evergreen trees. Known to the Iranians by the Pahlavi compound word kah-ruba (from kah “straw” plus rubay “attract, snatch,” referring to its electrical properties), which entered Arabic as kahraba' or kahraba (which later became the Arabic word for electricity, ‫ ﻛﮭﺮﺑ ﺎء‬kahrabā'), it too was called amber in Europe (Old French and Middle English ambre). Found along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, yellow amber reached the Middle East and western Europe via trade.

Its coastal acquisition may have been one reason yellow amber came to be designated by the same term as ambergris. Moreover, like ambergris, the resin could be burned as an incense. The resin's most popular use was, however, for ornamentation—easily cut and polished, it could be transformed into beautiful jewelry. Much of the most highly prized amber is transparent, in contrast to the very common cloudy amber and opaque amber.

Opaque amber contains numerous minute bubbles. This kind of amber is known as "bony amber".

Although all Dominican amber is fluorescent, the rarest Dominican amber is blue amber. It turns blue in natural sunlight and any other partially or wholly ultraviolet light source. In long-wave UV light it has a very strong reflection, almost white. Only about 100 kg (220 lb) is found per year, which makes it valuable and expensive.

Sometimes amber retains the form of drops and stalactites, just as it exuded from the ducts and receptacles of the injured trees. It is thought that, in addition to exuding onto the surface of the tree, amber resin also originally flowed into hollow cavities or cracks within trees, thereby leading to the development of large lumps of amber of irregular form.

Amber is a unique preservational mode, preserving otherwise unfossilizable parts of organisms; as such it is helpful in the reconstruction of ecosystems as well as organisms; the chemical composition of the resin, however, is of limited utility in reconstructing the phylogenetic affinity of the resin producer.

Amber sometimes contains animals or plant matter that became caught in the resin as it was secreted. Insects, spiders and even their webs, annelids, frogs, crustaceans, bacteria and amoebae, marine microfossils, wood, flowers and fruit, hair, feathers and other small organisms have been recovered in Cretaceous ambers (deposited c. 130 million years ago). The oldest amber to bear fossils (mites) is from the Carnian (Triassic, 230 million years ago) of north-eastern Italy.

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Farm Magic #4: Feed me.

Rod Burns Quadra Island, BC, Canada InterpNEWS Regional Editor bpc@connected.bc.ca, In this column, I want to explore the diets of two (2) common farm animals. The largest is strictly vegetarian.

The smaller is an omnivore.

Food themed activities drawn from our mixed farm (animals and vegetables), are multi-sensory experiences, with very low emphasis on words. There are two exceptions. 1) When the sheep are in the back pasture and we want them up at the barn for feeding. A loud “Bahhhh Bahhh - Sheepers”, gets them running to the barn. An added kick in their step comes when they hear the rattle of the grain bucket. 2nd) When we want the chickens which are out in the brush and pastures, to also come to the barn. Similar to the sheep, I’ll shout out a very animated “ Chickers’ . . . Chickers”. The birds and the sheep, which might be 400 feet (125m) away from the barn make it to the feeding zone well before Myra Dog and I can walk a quarter the distance.

Sheep Feed Mysteries: Around 9 in the morning and again around 6 p.m. the sheep come off the pastures to receive their breakfast top up. The rest of the day, through the night, winter or spring, they are out in the pastures. Commercial portions are a blend of very high quality hay followed by COB: corn, oats, barley, which have been drizzled in molasses.

We only have 5 acres of natural pasture, so we need to supplement our 8 sheep with purchased hay and grains, Over the year we bring in about 1 ½ tonnes of hay and ½ ton of grain.

Try to explain to an eight year old, by just eating various grasses, leaves and a cup of grains per day, what biochemistry takes place, where you grow to over of 150 lbs / 70 kg. in two years,. The sheep drink only plain water: no growth hormones are added. Lambs gain perhaps 20 lbs in their first 3 weeks, just drinking high fat milk, served warm directly from the source of production – their mother. Over the course of 8 – 10 months, a lamb weighing around 8 lbs. at birth gains another 80 – 100 lbs. / 40 kg. In 2 years, they can weigh over 150 lbs.

Sheep, like other ruminants will graze for an hour, packing the grass and leaf clippings into their 1st stomach. A quick muscle contraction sends a green glob (bolus) back into the sheep’s mouth. Here the bolus or cud is chewed and chewed into a green wet slop that goes plop into the 2nd stomach. More enzymes and acids break down the vegetation into dissolvable nutrients. More processing goes on in stomach sections 3 and 4. By the end of the day, a full balanced slate of nutrients, have been obtained from the vegetation.

For sheep raised in climates with freezing temperatures in their first six months, part of the weight gain is “fat”. In 6 months, then every year thereafter, the lambs and adult sheep grow a wool coat or fleece. Depending upon the breed, the wool “staple” can up to 12 inches in length and weigh approximately 25 lbs / 12 kgs.

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Why is a sheep’s fleece a mass of curls? The curls form dead air pockets, insulating the sheep from either extreme hot periods through weeks of freezing temperatures. In some regions, sheep excrete “lanolin” which coats the curly fibers so that the fleece is waterproof.

Chicken Feeding Mysteries True, free range chickens, are NOT Vegetarian like the industrial advertisers’ want us to believe! Look at their sharp beaks! Look at their 3 very sharp toes. Their feet are scratching, digging, tearing instruments. The birds scratch through the snow, into the frozen ground for scattered grains, wild seeds and fallen fruit. When the ground thaws, leaves are turned over, twigs are pulled out of the way! Beaks whack into the ground pulling out wiggling worms or insect larva.

A sideways flash of a beak and all manner of bugs and insects are snapped off branches. Out into the front yard, I’ll toss any mouse which I might have trapped (dead), down in the root cellar. The “Chickers”, call as first mentioned above, get chickens racing to my location.

Junior chickens quickly learn from the senior birds that fresh food is being delivered, in this instance, a mouse carcass. Depending on the size of first bird to arrive, the mouse carcass might be swallowed in a few gulps. At other times, birds will fight for the carcass, resulting in smaller pieces being shared between more birds.

Every day, the birds roam our forest, pastures and brush lands hunting for food. Gobbled up are more insects, snakes, slugs, berries, apples, cherries. Household scraps of vegetable peelings, potatoes and carrot scraps add to their diet. A few year ago we learned that they will not eat commercial cheese snacks. The birds concluded it was toxic waste – fit only for human consumption! Learning to Feed Yourself like a chicken: activity Pretend that you are an adult chicken, out in the forest or yard eager to scratch up a tasty grub. Kick at the ground with your foot or scratch the ground with your fingers! Kick - scratch again, not worrying about the dirt getting well embedded under your finger nails. What garden tool, closely resembles a chickens foot and serves about the same purpose: digging, scratching in soft soil?

Can you see anything wiggling, any grub larva or worms? You might need to get your eyes down to a chicken’s level: on your knees and your nose almost to the ground! Use your fingers, like the chickens beak to extract anything that is wiggling!

It is your choice, whether you will now eat like a chicken! Gobble, Gump!

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Repeat the scratch test at different places around the yard. Why were some zones more productive? What might happen to the food sources in times of snow, frozen ground or in the rainy or hot dry periods?

Consider that when the cold and wet or freezing months arrive, without a heated coop plus grains or feed pellets brought in from 2,000 miles away, vegetarian chickens will likely die.

Omnivores have a better chance of survival over the same harsh period only if they eat a blend of grains, seeds, worms and grubs from which to build reserves of body fat. Naturally fed chickens have zones of bright yellow fat around their red-brown coloured muscle tissue. What color are commercial / industrial chickens and their fat?

Ponder for a moment considering eons of time and hundreds of observations: the hundreds or thousands of years, human creativity has created a tool to mimic a birds. What other inventions are based on some aspect of an animals behaviour in securing sufficient food eg. spider webs and fish nets, wasp stingers and injection needles.

In closing, eating and nutrition is a bio-chemical wonder, needing much more research and interpretation to help us understand how very large animals be it sheep, elephants or some whales put on hundreds of pounds of meat, flesh and bone in a few years, just eating a vegetable based diet. Small animals from ounces or a few grams up to many pounds / kilograms only survive by being well adapted omnivores.

Rod Burns Quadra Island, BC, Canada InterpNEWS Regional Editor bpc@connected.bc.ca,

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A guided tour of the COW Museum...

A lesson in interpretive theme development.

John Veverka Director Heritage Interpretation Training Center Certified Interpretive Trainer/Coach

Is there really a cow museum. Yes - it's lodged in my head... as a teaching aide for my interpretive training courses. One of the areas in interpretation where new interpreters seem to have the most problems is the area of developing interpretive themes. What is an interpretive theme? In interpretive programs, tours or media development it is the one thing, if nothing else, you want the visitor to remember from the program or tour. On a guided walk or tour, for example, the first thing you do is introduce the theme (main message) the tour will focus on illustrating. Then EACH stop on the tour works to "illustrate the theme statement", with a variety of different examples, that may relate to different visitors (in tangible and intangible terms). Then at the end of the program or tour you bring the story around again to repeat the theme (main message) the tour worked to illustrate.

So I needed an example to illustrate themes to my course participants, ergo - the tour of the cow museum.

This usually takes about 20 minutes as a power point program, but here is the shorter version just for you with some of the stops left out.

Hi folks, and welcome to the famous Cow Museum. You probably didn't know it but Cows are amazing creatures that affect our lives in many surprising ways (my theme). My name is John, and I am the lead "cow poke" for your tour. My goal is to reveal to you just how amazing cows really are and I'll help you discover the true magic of cows and their connections to you personally. If you have any questions during the tour feel free to "moo", or ask, and I will do my best to answer your question for you. And please, no grazing along the way.

The first stop on our tour is just how, in the early 1700's, cows helped change the landscape of our young nation and the east coast of the United States forever. Our story begins just around the corner.

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(Stop 1). So how did cows begin to change our early East Coast American Landscape? By eating grass! Yes, but it was the wrong grass!

Huh? by eating grass - really? Well let's go back to the early 1700's. Here's the rest of the story. When the early settlers from Europe immigrated to the US, and brought their cows and other livestock with them, many of the cows were getting sick. They weren't used to eating our native grasses. To solve the problem, the farmers plowed under our native grasses on their farm grazing land and brought over grass seeds from their home countries to plant that their cattle were used to eating. Now in those sacks of seeds came some travelers - in seed form - wildflowers from Europe. One of the most common plants that came over as an "invasive" species is one we see here growing along roadsides and fields. It has two names, wild carrot or "Queen Anne's Lace. So the east coast native landscape and plants of the 1700's began to change into the familiar landscape that we see today as "normal".

Well, you've now seen one of the first ways that cows have affected our lives on a large scale, but let's look at a more personal level. Are you wearing a cow? Or part of one anyway? On to Stop #2.

(Stop 2).

Let's look at what helps hold a cow together - it's skin.

Who in our group is wearing part of a cow, or using a part of a cow? Humm - I see leather shoes, leather belt, leather handbags. You may have leather covered furniture at home, leather car seats. See - cows can affect your lives personally in many ways - including in clothing style and fashion.

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We don't think of it as "cow skin", we think of it as Leather. Sounds much nicer. Well the skin is on the outside, for our nest stop let's take a look at the inside of a cow to see “what is in us”. Are we made up, in part, of "cow stuff"?

(Stop #3 Anyone hungry - ready for your cow on your platter?

Here we are at my favorite part of the "cows are amazing creatures that affect our lives in many ways" tour.

It's getting near lunch so I start to think of cows in a bun. So if you've had a steak, hamburger, hamburger helper, veil, or any other beef product, or been to a baroque, a portion of that meal stays with you. For younger visitors, it helps you grow, creates muscle, hair, skin, and other important body parts. For a person like me (patting my stomach) some goes to fat. So you are in part, made out of cow stuff. We are what we eat :) But there are still other examples of how cows are amazing creatures that affect our lives in many ways. For our next stop on the tour we'll move on to the business end of the cow – had any lately?

(Stop #4) We're going to milk this stop for all we can. Did you know that we actually have federal guidelines for how much cow (in the form of dairy) we should have each day? It's true!

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So if drank milk, ate ice cream, cheese, yogurt, put cream in your coffee this morning, had any bakery product like cake or cookies that had milk in them, then a cow affected your life today, in the past, and will probably do so in the future too. And there are guidelines as to just how much is recommended for you to have every day.

Isn't it amazing just how many cow based products we use and never think about it?

Speaking of food, did you know that cows were needed for elegant dining dinnerware? Is there a cow in your china cabinet? We'll reveal this surprising story at our next stop.

(Stop #5) So what do these two things have in common?

In your china cabinet you may have some "bone china" tea cups, plates or other dishware. Did you ever think of where the term "bone china" comes from? Probably not. Did you know that Bone china is approximately 53% cow bone ash! One of the most terrible jobs in Victorian England was the job of the "flesher" - removing all the meet and marrow from cow bones so they could be incinerated into ash and mixed with clay, to produce bone china.

This also affected Victorian social customs training for young girls who were taught how to pour tea into bone china cups. If you were well trained, you put the milk into the cup first, then the hot tea. If you didn't have proper training you put the hot tea in first. The problem, if you put hot tea in first the heat it could crack the fragile bone china cup. So cows were even affecting our social life etiquette as well.

(There would have been several more stops on this tour before this last stop -so for this article let's move on to the near end of the tour theme illustration example).

For our last stop, what do you think is one of the most important ways that cows have affected our lives, and American history and culture as well? Let's "get-a-long little doggie" to stop 10.

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(Stop #10) Well folks, I've asked you what you think one of the most important ways cows have affected our lives and American history and culture were and we had lots of interesting suggestions, but here is the rest of the story.... it's COWBOYS!

Growing up I wanted to be a cowboy. I watched all the westerns, the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers and all the cowboy heroes. Cowboys and all the ways their culture affected our lives and America are amazing. For example, cowboy songs (country music), cowboy hats, cowboy boots, saddle designs, horse tack, rodeos and more. They have been and will continue be a important part of our history and culture. Oh, and one more thing. Ever heard of logos for companies - letterhead logos and such. They are a part of "branding" for organizations and businesses. Well branding came from ranchers "branding" their cattle, so when round-up time came for the cattle, the cowboys could look at the brand on the cow to see which cows belong to which ranch. Does your business or company have a brand?

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Well, that concludes our tour. I hope I helped you discover some of the many different ways that cows are amazing creatures and have affected our lives. So the next time you put some cream in your coffee, have a glass of milk, have a hamburger or see a company logo, I hope you'll remember this tour and our story.

Don't forget to visit our Bovine Forever gift shop on your way out - lots of good cow products for you to take home with you. And remember, cows are amazing creatures and do affect our lives in many ways.

So that's a short version, of a power point program I developed for illustrating what a interpretive theme is, and how to work it into all the stops of a tour. But here's the "rest of the story".

We used the interpretive theme that "Cows are amazing creatures that affect our lives in many surprising ways".

So in my class presentation I ask course participants to do this: Take the word COWS out of that theme statement, and insert the name of your park, historic site or interpretive message, into it: i.e.

Lake Bonneville is an amazing place that affects your lives in many ways.

Harmon Nature Center is an amazing place that affects both people and wildlife in surprising ways.

Salmon are amazing fish that affects our lives and Native cultures in Oregon in many ways.

The Stone House Historic Home is an amazing place where a Union Army Hospital set up here in the Civil War affected the future of medicine and our lives today, in surprising ways.

You get the idea. Remember that a theme should: - Be stated as a complete sentence (Birds of the park is NOT a theme - it's a topic. A theme might be Bird migration is risky process for both people and birds!).

- Should express the main point the program will illustrate or focus on.

- Be motivationally worded and be interesting (provoke) about a subject that visitors might be curious to learn about or discover.

- Be used to introduce the program, be illustrated throughout the program, and summarize the main point of the tour (restate the theme) at the end of the program or tour.

So this is one of the tools I use, mixed in with some other additional "learning experiences", to have my course participants understand what a theme is, and how to use this concept to develop their own program, tour, exhibition, or site theme.

As a continuation of this presentation, I have them develop a interpretive theme for a program, tour or exhibition they would like to develop for their site, then go around the room and tell us what there theme is.

That way I can also check to be sure it "is" a theme as well. What do you think?

John A. Veverka www.heritageinterp.com http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_training_center_course_catalogue_.html jvainterp@aol.com

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The management of built heritage in the system of cultural tourism Bernadett MÉSZÁROS University of Pécs Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology Hungary

Introduction The objective of this paper is a study of the management of built heritage which is taken primarily from the point of view of tourism. The results are basically determined by the empirical research that I carried out in the last 13 years and also from my early career as a city marketing expert in Pécs. In addition, I worked for more than 8 years as a heritage manager in the Cella Septichora. After that, I became one of the leading professionals at the local touristic and destination management office.

Pécs, the 2000 year old cultural city

Photo by: László KÖRTVÉLYESI

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Results Heritage management connects the process of preservation and conservation of built heritage, as well as its reconstruction and presentation within a sustainable development. It includes a caring and economical approach which is sustainable as well as the methods and ways which ensures that we can enjoy the heritage. It is based on the following five pillars (MÉSZÁROS B. – SARKADI E. 2002): • Preservation and reconstruction • Cognition and scientific elaboration • development • presentation, interpretation and promotion • utilisation and actuation.

The role of tourism starts with the latter two, however, in an ideal situation, they should already be part of the planning and development process. Monument protection and tourism are connected. The former means that the product and the value are included in the touristic attraction, while the latter can contribute, besides popularisation and presentation, to the economic sustainability of the monuments. They are interdependent, so the question is, to what extent can they realise the advantages of this symbiosis. Moreover, to what extent can the people from different professions accept and understand the others` viewpoints.

The attractions, whatever they are – and it is especially true for cultural goods and monument buildings – cannot be separated from the surrounding areas. Also, they can only be defined in conjunction with their economic, social and geographical structures. This is also true when we plan their marketing. That is why tourism, cultural tourism and heritage management should be taken into consideration as part of the city development, just as the related marketing activities should be part of touristic and destination marketing.

In practice, we always presume that there is co-operation between the different professions by dividing the work load amongst different institutions, firms and civilian organisations. Despite preservation enjoying a priority, it is a legislative commitment to ensure accessibility which should be understood both from a physical and spiritual perspective by the owner of the heritage memorial1. That is why the program of the presentation and its familiarisation cannot be restricted or only oriented towards the tourists. The most important task is the involvement of the local citizens, who should be made familiar with our values. That is the reason why the popularisation programme has two parts: one, a traditional and pedagogical part, and the other, which aims to raise awareness.

We can see an example of this: the internationally well-known heritage days’ series in the autumn period. A heritage pedagogy program should be planned and realised on three levels: Firstly, to connect the monument with its environment. Secondly, to involve the cooperation of the students from the local primary and secondary schools. Finally, the third level is the scientific research in co-operation with higher education as well as publishing the results from an international perspective.The city can therefore be amenable to the utilisation of world heritage memorials and the historical city centre, not only through theory and research, but also from a practical point of view. ____________________________________________________________________________________ 1

2001. LXIV.

Act on the preservation of cultural heritage, Involving: Making the elements of cultural heritage accessible: 76 § - 80. §.

The text is of legal force since 01.01.2011.

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The product of heritage tourism The concept of heritage and culture was determined earlier by many authors. Some of them describe culture as the wider category, incorporating everything inherited by the previous generations. (TYLOR, E. B. 1871) While others (GYŐRFFI I. 1939) understand heritage as objectified memories. However, today there are more professionals who do not separate the two from each other but rather include the non-tangible heritage as well (NURYANTI, W. 1996, HALL AND MCARTHUR 1998). This approach was also confirmed by the 2003 Convention of the UNESCO, in Paris. It is tending towards the protection of immaterial cultural heritage.

Because of its structure, they all can be classified among the natural or manmade attractions. RÁTZ, T. classifies cultural values from a touristic approach in the following three categories: firstly, unanimated culture (buildings, objects or written memories/memorials), secondly, culture which expressed in everyday life (living folk traditions) and finally, animated culture (such as events) (RÁTZ T. 2011). LENGYEL, M. (1994, 2001) classifies here heritage, ethnic and rural tourism as well.

Certain protection levels and value elements are built on each other and they also complement each other. That is why I suggest in this study to classify the heritage values as the basis for heritage tourism by the following categories from the UNESCO: Cultural heritage Monuments (built and archaeological) Cultural possessions (material) Group of buildings Landscapes, cultural landscapes Natural heritage Physical or biological forms Geological formations , accurately enclosed regions and habitats Natural landscapes Spiritual heritage • Cultural heritage connected /related to everyday life • Arts • Animated culture

With this classification, we can make our product development work easier, although , we also have to take into consideration that this ‘product’ will always change its heritage content and it also depends on how receptive people are.

Another aspect of cultural tourism is history itself. Hence the fact that certain buildings, besides that their artrelated and architectural features are significant, they have the power to shape our image of a place, yet they also provide location to historical and art events as well.

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Settlement marketing relations Marketing can help achieving the profit needed for the sustainability and the realisation of market income.

According to its three dimensions we can say that: firstly, marketing positions the consumer and their needs in the centre, secondly, it is also a channel for information, thirdly, it is a tool which can be used at exhibitions, or when raising awareness.

Furthermore, marketing can also be used when trying to pursue or influence the costumer, or when making a product familiar in order to sell. (MÉSZÁROS B. 1997). So, marketing promotes raising the customers` attention and it also makes the attraction more attractive. The attraction will always be effective as long as it is based on the memory of the immanent values of the costumer. Marketing helps to choose from the values which can provide sensible advantage for the consumer and at the same time, it distinguishes itself from the competitors.

These ideas lead us to positioning which is the basis and the aim of the marketing activity. During the planning and the realisation of the marketing activity, we try to answer such questions as: what, for whom, where, for how much and how. However, we should never forget that marketing strategy always determines the market position and shapes the image. Its central role is to create such a recognisable and unique identity which forms an added value to the original characteristics of the product.

The city brand building, the creation of the positive image of the area or the town has its strategic importance, since those settlements acquire significant and competitive advantage which enables them to make a real brand for a while. The concept of ‘place branding’1 – where the subjects can be towns, countries or touristic destinations – comprises competition as well, which is carried out to attract tourists, visitors and investors (MÉSZÁROS B. – OROSDY B. 2012).

JANCSIK, A. (2014) determined the cultural factors which he based on comprehensive and international sources, as the elements of a regional touristic competition. In this classification, heritage receives a significant role either as a part of history, or a museum, as well as architecture or a particular local culture.

The heritage, which is a touristic attraction as well as being part of the city, even so, it is the touristic product itself. In this respect, marketing falls into a double judgement as well. During the touristic utilisation of heritage sites, we have to apply all aspects of touristic and settlement marketing with its apparatus.

Both tourism and settlement marketing possess the characteristics of services in Kotler`s traditional system (KOTLER P. 1992, 2012). Consequently, the way we regard them is basically determined by: -the incomprehensibility of the product (experience), -its inseparability (it comes into existence at the moment of consumption), -the fluctuation of its quality (the role of the human factor), -its ability to decline (‘empty chair’), -its saleability as a whole product provided by the human resources who participate in this service.

However, the heritage marketing work is determined by the central element, its value, which we intend to display at the located attraction. So we can never extract space from this formula. This is also influenced by the following thoughts: tourism constitutes an important part in the local settlement development, and also in the structure plans. Normally, the economic development plans have their own right because of its connection with settlement marketing and its developing effects. The values providing the essentials of the touristic product and their related regulations will appear in the local regulations. The local government legislations on protection and their accessibility are basically determined by the development, as well as by its ideas and plans which are also related to the local transport.

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The Romans made a distinction between the Civitas, in other words, the community of civilians, and between the Urbs, the citizens, so they make up the stones and streets of the city. During the realisation of the development plans, which has a dual state of its nature, should be kept in mind, so that the archaeological and monumental heritage is not only a complexion of stones but rather it delivers a visionary message that carries a building force for the community. The process of heritage management unfolds its key activities in historical cities, where heritage management as a professional and partial competence, and also as co-ordination activity steps in the process after the monument reconstruction has been finished. In historical cities, it can also carry tasks and responsibilities on a complete, settlement level. The preservation of monument buildings, their scientific research and evaluation, as well as the presentation of the development and its function is a shared competence amongst the following professions: the architect, the archaeologist, the renovator and the art historian. Of course, in an ideal case, the owner, the client and the architect who are responsible for the planning, should all involve the future operator in the planning phase as well. Furthermore, they should already share some realistic expectations and needs which later on should be met during the operation.

The question also emerges where, when and why it is necessary to think of the settlement level of heritage management. The answers are arising logically from the characteristics of the monument building, its functions and existence.

The establishment of heritage management on city level is needed when: there are numerous buildings with monument protection; in the inner city we find several monument properties with run-down status and unoccupied; the owner and operating domain is mixed.

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This could be because: it is not a project but a program; it determines the city image; it is in interaction with the settlement direction; it is a tool for the development of the city; it has touristic potential.

Maybe two areas of the list above need further description. Under the statement of ‘not being project but program’ we mean that just because its role of forming the city image and serving the needs of the community, we should not only think of separate buildings, but rather raising them out of the physical texture of the city, and also from the development and direction plans.

We also need to mention the buildings that have their distinguishing features, which determine the characteristics of their environment and their functions. At the same time, the city development plans dispose the kind of activities that can or cannot be carried out in certain part of the settlement.

Consequently, it derives from the former thoughts that we can understand the following development process in relation to specific buildings or their spatial units.

The first column of Table 1 shows the process of the classic project development and management at the time from its planning to its research and finally, to its realisation.

A historical city with monument management, its major units of development and tasks should include: The research, the preparation and the programme planning.

The planning process consists of: The investigation of the functions, including its limitations, as well as any particular, local features, also the programme`s surrounding environment with its barriers.

The architecture and the exploitation plan.

The management plan.

The next step is implementation and project management.

The operation and exploitation should include: The management and operation of buildings.

A sustainable management for the monument buildings.

The heritage managers` role and place can be seen in the areas that are indicated red. When we develop a touristic attraction from a monument building, we would have to apply the knowledge of the touristic product development, including the planning.

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Source: own editing which is partially based on own experiences and also, on the results of the monument exploitation program of the town of Kőszeg in 2015.

Table 2 summarises the most important functions of the heritage methodological centre, providing examples as well. After that, certain aspects should be explained. This overview puts emphasis on the scopes of cooperation. The diagram highlights four partnerships because these are the areas which constitute an organic part of the program, including the implementation of heritage management. However, in the case of a wellfunctioning co-operation with the task operators, the risk of duplication should be eliminated. By segmenting the work, we can provide a sufficient base, which shows an adequate separation of the tasks, like: the functions, the related knowledge and competences.

With the four pillars, the touristic centre can accomplish the programme of evaluation while it can also raise awareness.

As a co-operative partner, it collaborates with the operators in the following competence areas: with the local cultural centre – event organisation; with the local and regional TDM organisation – touristic management; with the local museum – monument protection, historical review, events; with the local government in the areas of : -the maintenance of the monuments, and city marketing -regulating protection for the local monuments -the city development and operation -the transport planning and organisation.

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Our focus on the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Pécs.

The Cella Septichora –is known as the largest building of an Early Christian cemetery in Pécs which has been excavated so far. It has received its present name due to its seven-apsidal ground plan which is unique among the Early Christian structures. That is where the subterranean tour starts, where you can find the wellpreserved, IV century crypts, tombs and burial chambers that now all belong to one site (see Cella Septichora Visitor Centre). Interestingly, even in their own time they would have stood separately from each other.

The ground plans and functions of these structures vary considerably. Some of the structures are two-storey buildings, for instance, you might find a chapel above the ground level with a subterranean burial chamber underneath. The best-known among them are the Peter and Paul, and the Wine Pitcher burial chambers which both have remarkable frescoes. There have also been found several, undecorated burial chambers with a similar structure.

The Early Christian cemetery, in the Roman times (almost 1600 years ago) used to be part of a desirable Mediterranean region with its sunlit slopes, flourishing hills and lush vallies. However, today, all of these historical monuments are concealed in the subterranean. A dream of the principal architect, Zoltan Bachman, came true when the monuments received a safety glass roof, which integrates and also visualises the subterranean archeological treasures with the ethos of the city.

The pioneering safety glass roof was envisioned as a real break-through with its large scale and with its capacity of bearing the weight of the traffic, which had not yet existed in the country before. The success was marked by the visitors` reactions as well as by the significant awards from the Government.

The architectural goal was to create a high quality glass and stone labyrinth which applies 21th Century technology not only to attract a great number of people but also, to enable visitors to get in direct contact with the past and so, to create a memorable experience of an underground time- travel in its fullness.

Cella Septichora- inside with the 200 m2 safety glass roof

The museum that is „open” all the time...

Photos by: László KÖRTVÉLYESI

Summary As a summary, we can conclude that heritage management covers five, significantly different areas: preservation, including the physical preservation and reconstruction cognition and scientific elaboration development exhibition and familiarisation exploitation and operation.

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The attractions, whatever they may be, are inseparable from their surrounding space, so they can only be defined together with their economic, social and geographical structures. It is especially true for cultural goods and monument buildings. Moreover, it is also true that when we plan their marketing, tourism, cultural tourism and heritage management, it all should be taken into consideration as part of the city development. Also, the related marketing activities should have a part in the settlement’s touristic and destination marketing.

A heritage can be a touristic attraction as well as a decisive image element. For instance, we can take a museum which is open day and night, creating a meeting point for people, so it is operating more like a ‘cultural plaza’. However, this could also be the venue for learning and creative activity which could result in the city`s powerful position in the competition between towns. Finally, heritage is also part of our common history that can only fulfil its role when we enable it to be enlivened and so to see it being transformed by generation after generation.

Dr. Bernadett MÉSZÁROS, MSc economics, marketing manager, University of Pécs Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (m.bernadett@mik.pte.hu) References

English Tourist Board & Tourism Management Institute (2003): Destination Management Handbook, 323 p.

GYÖRFFY I. 1939: Néphagyomány és nemzeti művelődés. (A Magyar Táj- és Népismeret Könyvtára 1.), Budapest, 1 p., 85 p.

HALL, C.M. – MCARTHUR S. 1998: Integrated Heritage Management: Principles and Practice. Stationery Office, pp 1-250.

INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF MONUMENTS AND SITES (ICOMOS). 1999: International Cultural Tourism Charter: Managing Tourism at Places of Heritage Significance. Mexico: ICOMOS 12th General Assembly JANCSIK A. 2014: Kultúra és versenyképesség a turizmusban, in: A kulturális turizmus sokszínűsége (szerk: Jászberényi Melinda), Nemzeti Közszolgálati és Tankönyvkiadó, Budapest

MÉSZÁROS B. – SARKADI E. 2002: Pécs/Sopianae világöröksége, örökségkezelés és menedzsment egy 2000 éves városban.

McKercher, B- DU CROSS, H. 2012: Cultural tourism: The partnership between tourism and cultural heritage management. Routledge, New York MÉSZÁROS B. – OROSDY B. 2012: Városmárka a kultúra fővárosa projektév után Pécsett, Marketing és Menedzsment, Pécsi Tudományegyetem – Publikon Kiadó, Pécs, pp: 4–14.

PUCZKÓ L. – RÁTZ T. 2003: Turizmus történelmi városokban: Tervezés és menedzsment. Turisztikai Oktató és Kutató Kkt., Budapest, 111 p.

NURYANTI, W. 1996: Heritage and Postmodern Tourism. In: Annals of Tourism Research. pp. 249–260.

SWARBROOKE, J. 1994: The Future of the Past: Heritage Tourism Into the 21st Century. – In: Puczkó L.–Rátz T. 2000: Az attrakciótól az élményig. Geomédia Szakkönyvek, p.70.

United Nations Educational Stientific and Cultural Organization, 2014: 2014-2021 MEDIUM-TERM STRATEGY. UNESCO, Paris, 34 p.

UNWTO & ETC (2011): Handbook on Tourism Product Development. Madrid: World Tourism TYLOR, E. B. 1871: Primitive Culture. Volume 1. London: John Murray. p.1.

2011. évi LXXVII. törvény a világörökségről Internet sources: http://www.heritagecollaborative.com www.unesco.com

Other sources: AVEC carta Memorandum of the Pécs/Sopianae Örökség Kht.

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Cutting Edge Waterjet Technology Meets Ancient Labyrinth Design.

Ron Blair Creative Edge

When Fr. William McIlroy dreamed of creating a labyrinth at Grace Episcopal Church in St. Helena, CA, he wanted to give his parish and the surrounding community a sacred space of solace and peace.

“Modern life is so stressed, so busy, we all need a way to bring more silence into our lives,” he says. “When you walk a labyrinth, you allow your mind to sink into silence, to get away from the business of the day and come to center.”

While Fr. Mac wanted the design to be an exact replica of the ancient Chartres Cathedral labyrinth in France, he also knew that he wanted state-of-the art fabrication.

“We didn’t want anyone thinking that we’d messed up a perfectly good front yard with a labyrinth,” he said.

The solution was a happy meeting of ancient design and modern technology. The completed labyrinth is a stunning 43’ in diameter. And even though its design is 800 years old, the 1400-square-foot granite labyrinth could not be cut into its curving shapes without the use of waterjet technology, a method of fabricating architectural materials that is less than 30 years old.

How Fr. Mac and his parish created their labyrinth is a story as meandering and complex as the winding pathways of the labyrinth itself.

Choosing the Design Fr. Mac first assigned a trusted member of the vestry, Steve Heller, to spearhead the project. A retired vice president of research and development at General Mills in Minneapolis, Steve and his wife Joan had recently moved to an 11-acre vineyard in the Napa Valley and joined Fr. Mac’s parish in St. Helena. When Fr. Mac asked Steve to spearhead the project, he asked, “What’s a labyrinth?” But he quickly came up to speed.

While researching labyrinth construction design and techniques, Steve discovered the work of Robert Ferre, president of Labyrinth Enterprises, LLC and a founder of the Labyrinth Society who is known worldwide for the design and installation of many beautiful labyrinths. Steve contacted Ferre by email and asked if he could recommend a company to construct the labyrinth at Grace Episcopal Church.

Ferre replied: “If you want extraordinary work, go with Creative Edge.” He was referring to Creative Edge Master Shop in Fairfield, Iowa, the country’s largest and oldest fabricator of architectural floors using water jet technology.

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Ron Blair, project manager at Creative Edge, was assigned to the project. “Working with the Chartres labyrinth added a dimension of mystery and intrigue,” he says. As a comparative religion major at the University of California at Santa Barbara, I had studied the sacred geometry of the Chartres cathedral. So two of my passions—creating beautiful art using waterjet technology and creating a sacred space—came together in my role as project manager for this labyrinth’s fabrication.”

It helped that Ferre, who had already measured the Chartres labyrinth down to 1/16 of an inch, gave his perfectly measured CAD diagram to Creative Edge. In other words, the design was already completed.

That left the choosing of the materials, which proved to be a nine-month journey with many switchbacks and reversals, not unlike walking the labyrinth itself.

An Education in Granite Before Grace Episcopal contacted them, Creative Edge had fabricated labyrinths in a wide range of materials from stone to vinyl, including a terrazzo labyrinth Robert Ferre designed for Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Florida.

“This project was unique because I wasn’t working with two decision-makers who could make all the choices,” Blair says. “From the start, Father Mac and Steve wanted to reach consensus with the entire congregation.”

First the congregation wanted to do the labyrinth in limestone, to match the natural look of the tufa volcanic rock and the steeply pitched matte black roof that made the Grace Episcopal Church a landmark in St. Helena.

“The congregation had just completed a 10-year renovation,” Heller says. “And the outdoor labyrinth is within several feet of the entryway. So we didn’t want the labyrinth colors to be too starkly contrasting or too contemporary. We wanted it to look organic.”

Blair knew from experience that limestone would stain over time, and be less durable. So he gently steered the congregation’s choices to durable granite.

The only problem: shiny polished granite would become slippery when wet. So the granite had to go through a flame treatment to roughen up the surface with tiny chips, and then a high-pressure-water-smoothing treatment to restore some of the beauty,” Blair says.

Because this treatment altered the color of shiny polished granite samples, many of the samples the congregation chose from websites didn’t look the same when shipped.

“With some samples, people said, “I liked it before, when it was shiny, but I don’t like it now,” Heller says.

Ron also narrowed the congregation’s choices to North American quarries, since the project couldn’t wait for several years for such large quantities of granite to be quarried and shipped from overseas. As another parameter, Blair made sure the samples came from quarries with sufficient amounts available so all the slabs could come from the same lot, ensuring that they would match each other.

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“It was an educational process,” Heller says. “Thanks to Ron Blair’s patience, I’m something of an expert in granite now.”

Once a few samples were chosen, Steve Heller placed the samples at the entryway of the church and then waited until people gathered to listen to their reactions.

“It wasn’t that I took a ballot, or rated the congregation’s votes on a scale of 1 to 10,” Heller says. “Instead, I’d listen for consensus. We went through three or four evolutions of samples, with approximately 10 groups weighing in on each round, before we got to what we wanted: two beautiful colors of granite, Crystal Gold for the path and Masabi Black to outline the edge of the path. It was a great feeling, because by the fourth round, 90 to 95 percent of the people said ‘you’ve nailed it.’”

The Crystal Gold granite sourced from Coldspring Granite is a stunning warm, translucent hue that echoes the warm, rich tones of the tufa church, while the Masabi Black granite, also sourced from Coldspring echoes the deep, resonant hues of the matte-black roof. The two together are a perfect complement for the historic Grace Episcopal Church.

“From my perspective at Creative Edge, even though this process certainly took a lot longer than normal, working with Steve Heller and Fr. Mac and seeing the process unfold was a joyful experience,” Blair says.

“There was something special about having the entire congregation take part in the process. They came up with a wonderful palette.”

Fabricating the Labyrinth with Waterjet After the design and granite colors were approved for the labyrinth, Creative Edge’s designers converted Robert Ferre’s design of the Chartres labyrinth into a kind of color map, which looked a lot like paint-bynumber. This was converted to machine code for the production department to fabricate.

Next, the specifications were downloaded into a waterjet machine’s machine controller (CNC) which positioned the cutting head and turned the cutter on and off. Skilled machinists placed the Crystal Gold granite slabs in jigs to be cut by the waterjet machine.

From there the project went quickly, with several machines cutting the granite for the labyrinth. As the largest waterjet fabricator in the US, more than 40 employees keep fourteen Flow International waterjet machines busy from 6:30-3:00 daily inside Creative Edge’s spacious 125,000-square-foot workshop.

Creative Edge CEO Jim Belilove, who founded the company in 1988, explains that waterjet technology forces extreme pressures of water through 1/8- inch tubes before it emerges from a tiny head of sapphire, ruby or diamond as a micro-cutting tool. Originally used to cut food such as commercial string beans or frozen pizza, its applications quickly expanded and is used today for fabricating aerospace parts, laminates, auto glass, paper products, ceramic molds and architectural materials.

The water is mixed with an abrasive, usually powdered garnet. When combined with 50,000 pounds of pressure, it cuts through the most brittle of floor materials—such as glass, stone, ceramic tile, marble, travertine, limestone and granite in slabs up to 3 inches thick—as precisely as a laser.

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Waterjet can also used to cut resilient materials such as vinyl tile, VCT, and rubber. For carpet, sheet vinyl and other materials that can’t tolerate water saturation, Creative Edge uses ultrasonic fabrication.

“Here at Creative Edge, we can fabricate any type of labyrinth or floor covering imaginable,” Belilove says.

“We can cut intricately curved designs out of costly granite or marble, medium-cost paving stones or terrazzo, or low-cost vinyl or carpet. In other words, no matter what the budget or materials, we can create it.”

Assembly and Installation After the pieces are cut, they are put together like a puzzle, following an installation map with each piece numbered. For a massive project like the 43-foot diameter Chartres labyrinth, assembly of the cut pieces takes place on the floor.

Production photos taken here at our facility as we laid the labyrinth out

Sub-assembly is next. Using glue guns and grout, the smaller pieces are combined into larger sections to make installation easy. After the Creative Edge designer gives a final inspection to make sure every piece fits together seamlessly, three others must also sign off: the sales rep, the project engineer and the operator who cut the job.

“Creative Edge assembles everything on their shop floor to make sure it all fits to make sure nothing has been damaged or broken in the process,” Heller says. “If anything has been damaged they can recut it. And because every piece is specifically numbered and has its own computer program for cutting it, we could always go back to them if a piece arrives damaged or somehow gets damaged over the years, and they’ll simply re-cut it, package it up, put it on the truck and ship it out here. This reliable system made us very comfortable working with Creative Edge.”

Creative Edge prides itself in delivering on time, with cost-effective and installer-friendly methods, Belilove says. For larger projects, sub-assembled sections are shrink-wrapped and arranged vertically in aluminum ammunition crates so the marble tile doesn’t weigh on the others and crack.

For the Grace Episcopal Church labyrinth, a pro-bono construction company volunteered their services to install the project onsite. The granite shipment arrived in St. Helena with an envelope of materials to make installation easy: a photo of the completed design and an installation map, which showed the location of every sub-assembly piece of granite, and the size and position.

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The installation work began at Grace Episcopal Church in St Helena, CA;

“Each project is considered from the point of view of the contractor and installation crew,” Belilove says. “We do big projects so we’re experienced at making it easy for a contractor to put everything together.”

Robert Ferre says he has been impressed with the services at Creative Edge. “Having personally visited their facilities, I see why they have such great capabilities,” he says. “They are enormous, with worktable after worktable dedicated to projects of all kinds. At Labyrinth Enterprises, we choose to use Creative Edge even for distant projects, as the cost of shipping is well worth getting the professional results we have experienced. Their attention to detail is what sets them apart. I highly recommend them to my colleagues who have need for their services.”

The inaugural or day of consecration.

Ron Blair Senior Project Manager ronb@cec-waterjet.com cec-waterjet.com

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Is It Our Place?

Exhibiting Controversial Contemporary Topics.

Chris Brusatte, Interpretive Planner at Taylor Studios, Inc.

In the past few years, museums and education centers have increasingly created exhibitions that tackle controversial contemporary topics. Exhibits have fought against racial profiling in the wake of Ferguson.

Nature centers have become more vocal in combating climate change. History museums have complemented exhibits on topics such as American slavery and the Holocaust with displays featuring modern parallels and a call for 21st century vigilance. More than ever, museums and education centers seem willing to go outside of their comfort zones in order to tackle controversial topics affecting the country today.

This has become the new reality for many institutions throughout the country, and in this writer’s opinion it is a positive development. But it also means that interpreters and museums need a new playbook – that is, they can’t simply approach these complex and touchy subjects in the same manner that they do their standard exhibitions and programs. How far should they go in tackling these controversial topics, and with what type of voice? Should museums and education centers be neutral and objective displayers of the facts? Is it ever okay for them to pick sides? Should they partner with others outside of the institution who might not be neutral? Museums face a minefield of potential problems when they decide to tackle controversial modern issues. Donors might pull funding. Visitors might stop coming. Conflicts of interest might arise. Such things should never be taken lightly, even when interpreters and museums knows that their cause is right.

So what is the answer? Like most things in life, there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. Each organization needs to look at its mission and values, its overarching purpose, and its audience. Only then can they gauge their approach to controversial topics. Let’s explore some recent examples throughout the country, including a number of projects that I have been lucky enough to work on. ***** Go For Broke National Education Center (GFBNEC) is a veterans’ organization founded to celebrate the Japanese American soldiers of World War II and their fight against racial injustice. From 2014 to 2016, I was fortunate enough to work for GFBNEC as their Director of Education and Exhibits. We created the organization’s first ever museum, in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. Our stakeholders and advisers were the veterans themselves, their children and grandchildren, and the wider Los Angeles community. The organization – and the new museum – always has had one foot in the past and one in the future, using the lessons of WWII to create a more just society today.

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Go For Broke National Education Center honors the Japanese American soldiers of World War II, like those shown here being honored at the White House by President Truman. Photo courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

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During the three years that we were creating our permanent exhibition, our country and our community experienced one of America’s far-too-common cycles of racial conflagration.

Police violence against African Americans ignited protests from coast to coast. The years-long presidential campaign spurred heated rhetoric against Latino Americans, Arab Americans, and Asian Americans. As we were planning our exhibition detailing the mistreatment of Japanese Americans during WWII, we knew that we would need to include some of these all-too-present modern examples of injustice. Not only was it part of our exhibition’s original plan, but it was also part of our organization’s mission and values, and it was wholly supported by a majority of our stakeholders. Our larger purpose was to use the history of the courageous Japanese American WWII veterans to fight for a better modern America, and our audience agreed. Thus, when our exhibition opened in June 2016, our visitors were happy to see that it dove deeply into modern controversial issues that parallel those of the WWII years.

Before GFBNEC, I was blessed to work on the massive renovation project of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, led by Howard + Revis Design Services. Not only is the museum a shrine to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but it is also an homage to the entire Civil Rights Movement and its continued relevance to today’s America. The museum sees as its mission the duty “to share the culture and lessons from the American Civil Rights Movement and explore how this significant era continues to shape equality and freedom globally.” The museum is not meant to “conclude” its story at the famous balcony where Dr. King was killed, but rather to continue the story to the present day. The exhibits tackle controversial topics in 21st century America, rather than offering a rosy version that ignores modern racism. In the wake of more recent events such as the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, the museum has hosted community discussions and contributed to the national dialog via influential thought pieces. With its overarching purpose to remember and continue Dr. King’s legacy, the museum has powerfully taken on controversial subjects that others have shied away from.

The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. Photo courtesy of Ken Stewart/Flickr.

History organizations are not the only ones having to deal with fraught and politicized issues. For well over a decade now, nature centers and science museums have had to deal with whether and how to exhibit and discuss the realities of climate change. Although most scientists today agree that climate change is real, a large portion of the American public remains unconvinced. Worst of all, the issue has become a political football, with angry and vocal partisans on each side. For large segments of the American public, even mentioning “climate change” is akin to bringing up religion or politics – emotions rise and reason is often thrown out the window. For years, most nature centers and museums shied away from mentioning climate change.

They didn’t affirm it. They didn’t deny it. They basically pretended away the existence of one of the largest scientific issues of our time.

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Luckily – at least in this writer’s opinion – this era of willful ignorance is coming to an end. More and more institutions mention climate change in their exhibits, and they do so in a scientific, fact-based manner. I currently work at Taylor Studios, Inc., an exhibit design-build firm in central Illinois. Our biggest customer base is nature centers and science museums, and we have noticed that an increasing number of our clients now include discussions of climate change in their exhibits. While many of our clients still worry about potential controversy, they have decided to nonetheless include this controversial content because of its importance to their overall missions. As public stewards of science and nature, most of them see it as their duty to teach others about the reality of a changing climate. A majority of their stakeholders and visitors agree, giving our clients further reason to tackle this politicized issue.

In fact, as you are reading this, an organization in New York is creating a whole new museum dedicated strictly to educating the public about climate change. The Climate Museum in New York City has a mission “to inspire dialogue and innovation that address the challenges of climate change, moving solutions to the center of our shared public life.” Not only is their mission perfectly suited for tackling this controversial subject, but so is their audience. Prominent stakeholders include world-renowned climate scientists, activists, and leaders of countless climate advocacy organizations.1 So what do all of these examples have in common? First and foremost, they all show museums and education centers tackling important, but controversial, modern issues. But the next area of commonality is much more important – each institution has both a mission and an audience that supports such efforts. It is part of the National Civil Rights Museum’s core purpose to advocate against modern-day racism, and it is the mission of most nature centers to educate the public about the health of the natural world around them, including threats such as climate change. The key supporters of Go For Broke National Education Center are not only okay with tackling modern instances of racial injustice, they actively push for it. And the core audience of the Climate Museum is supportive of their whole-hearted embrace of climate advocacy. When your visitors and key stakeholders tell you that it is your duty to take on a controversial topic, you should definitely move forward. And when your organization’s mission and values actively support such efforts, it should no longer be in question. Be brave, be bold, and do not be afraid to wade into the heated waters. The voice of museums and of interpreters is needed.

However, many museums and education centers lack mission statements that support such advocacy for controversial topics. Many also have audiences who object to tackling such heated subjects. Should these institutions all act like the National Civil Rights Museum or the Climate Museum, and focus on controversial modern issues? Of course not! As Rebecca Herz, author of the popular blog Museum Questions, states, each museum must look closely at “how their collection and exhibitions relate to [these] important contemporary social issues.”1 If their missions, values, collections, and exhibitions strategies do not focus on areas that overlap with these modern issues, then it is not in their duty to embrace these. Furthermore, it might even be detrimental.

Museums that take on heated contemporary topics that fail to align with their overall mission risk alienating both donors and visitors. For example, the typical funders and foot traffic to a children’s play museum might feel justifiably upset if they see the museum using its limited space and resources to mount a controversial exhibition about racism. Not only is the institution risking controversy, but it is also taking away resources from the core mission.

1

-----------------------------------

The Climate Museum, “Mission & Approach,” http://www.climatemuseum.org/. Accessed 14 November 2016.

2 Rebecca Herz, “Should museums respond to the grand jury verdicts in Ferguson and New York City?,” Museum Questions, 8 December 2014, https://museumquestions.com/2014/12/08/should-museums-respond-to-the-grand-jury-verdicts-in-ferguson-and-new-york-city/. Accessed 14 November 2016.

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Museums also risk watering down their core content by weighing in on every new “front page” issue in today’s 24/7 news cycle. For instance, very few argue that racism has completely vanished from America, yet is every act of modern bigotry (both large and small) comparable to the immense fight for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s South? Museum expert Edward Rothstein doesn’t think so. To compare every modern injustice to historic examples like the Jim Crow era and the Holocaust devalues just how horrible those eras were. Rothstein especially loathed when an otherwise powerful exhibition on Anne Frank turned its focus to modern issues such as planting trees and bullying.1 Such issues are indeed important, but in an exhibition about the Holocaust they definitely seem out of place. Hitler’s horrific actions should never be watered down in such a way that they are comparable to every common schoolyard bully. Does this mean that exhibitions on slavery, the Holocaust, the Civil Rights Movement, and other substantial moments in history should never tackle modern issues, simply because few can compare in magnitude to these historic events? Absolutely not! But museums and interpreters must be very careful when comparing apples to oranges, even though both are fruit.

Another important thing to remember is that museums and education centers have a large box of tools.

When it comes to tackling controversial modern issues, exhibits are just one way that museums can join the conversation. They can also hold public programs, host lectures and debates, convene community forums, gather collections, and partner with other organizations in the community to advocate for a cause. Some of these “tools” require more effort than others, and some are more controversial than others. Each museum needs to look at its mission, core purpose, and audience to determine what actions to take. If a museum doesn’t desire to mount an entire exhibition about a controversial topic, they can simply hold a one-time special program. If an education center doesn’t want to lead a particularly heated movement, they can partner with other local organizations whose missions more clearly place them at the front lines.

Another question that museums and education centers ask – is it possible to tackle these issues without taking a side? Of course! For some institutions, such as nature centers wanting to stress the threats of climate change, taking a side is desirable. But many museums want to address controversial modern issues in a more neutral, objective manner. This is not only possible, but often recommended. As Herz explains, there are two different paths for organizations that desire to tackle these heated issues: “the first is to take a stand, to fight for what we believe is right; the second is to create a space for dialogue.”1 Neither is inherently right or wrong, and it simply depends on each organization’s mission and audience. Without taking a side, even simply creating a space for dialogue – for example, by hosting a public forum – gets a museum actively involved in issues that people care about.

Perhaps the last important factor for museums and education centers is tone. These topics are controversial, and they stir up emotions both positively and negatively. Museums and interpreters that wade into touchy subjects must do so in a manner that is safe, measured, and welcoming of all viewpoints. Tone can matter as much as the subject itself – if an organization is seen as overly aggressive, antagonistic, elitist, or exclusionary, it is not fulfilling its role as a beacon of public education open to all. Museums and education centers can take sides, but they should never feel threatening to those with opposing viewpoints. _______ 3

Edward Rothstein, “Playing Cat and Mouse With Searing History: Museum of Tolerance Inaugurates an Anne Frank Exhibition,” New York Times, 13 October 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/14/arts/design/museum-of-tolerance-inaugurates-an-anne-frank-exhibition.html. Accessed 14 November 2016.

Edward Rothstein, “The Harmony of Liberty: National Center for Civil and Human Rights Opens in Atlanta,” New York Times, 23 June 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/23/arts/design/national-center-for-civil-and-human-rights-opens-in-atlanta.html?_r=1. Accessed 14 November 2016.

4 Rebecca Herz, “Should museums respond to the grand jury verdicts in Ferguson and New York City?,” Museum Questions, 8 December 2014, https://museumquestions.com/2014/12/08/should-museums-respond-to-the-grand-jury-verdicts-in-ferguson-and-new-york-city/. Accessed 14 November 2016.

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Rather, they must be open to all. In the wake of Ferguson, the Missouri History Museum has done a wonderful job engaging the entire community in public forums and collection efforts, seeking participation from all parts of society. The result? The museum has become a leader in the community, and it is trusted as a welcoming place for dialogue and discussion.

So what is the main lesson in all of this? First, that controversial subject matter is not going away, and that an increasing number of museums and education centers are joining these heated discussions. But the second lesson is even more important – individual institutions have a choice about whether to tackle these subjects or not, and to what extent. No museum should feel pressured to enter the fray, just as no organization should be prevented from speaking out. Each individual institution needs to look at its core mission, main purpose, and audience, and from there make a decision on whether it is in their interest to take on these topics.

And organizations can tackle these subjects in different The Missouri History Museum. Photo courtesy of Philip ways, in different magnitudes, as leaders or as Leara. community partners, as activists or as facilitators. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.

At Go For Broke National Education Center, our mission urged us to tackle the difficult topic of modern racism. Over the course of 24 months, we convened scores of meetings with our many stakeholders discussing the best way to approach this. Our younger supporters were in the majority, pressing us to lead the fight and pull no punches. A small number of our older stakeholders wanted us to focus more on our World War II history rather than modern issues. Only after in-depth discussions with all of our supporters did we decide our course – a provocative, state-of-the-art exhibition tying the lessons of World War II to heated modern injustices, complemented by a strengthened behind-the-scenes effort to enhance our historical archives. We felt that it was the perfect balance that allowed us to meet the needs of all of our stakeholders. It was our unique formula for our unique situation, achieved only after a close look at our mission and audience.

We stayed true to our core purpose, while fully embracing the opportunity to make our voice heard on modern issues. If every institution does likewise, museums and education centers can truly become places for powerful dialogue in our 21st century society.

Chris Brusatte Interpretive Planner Taylor Studios, Inc. Designed and built to last, we promise cbrusatte@taylorstudios.com 217.893.4874 www.taylorstudios.com/blog

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U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Partnership Benefits Many.

Brian Westfall Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge Enhances USACE PROSPECT Interpretive Services Field Studies.

Nearly fivefeet tall, Whooping Cranes towered above the smaller Sandhill Cranes. Although heavily outnumbered by hundreds of Sandhill Cranes, the two Whooping Cranes stole the show! As we viewed the amazing avian show from the wildlife observation building, hundreds of waterfowl took advantage of their wintering home, the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. Whooping cranes are the tallest birds in North America. With a wingspan of over 7-feet, they have a distinct appearance due to their snowy white plumage, the crimson head cap and their signature bugling call. One of our country’s rarest birds, the endangered species declined to about 20 birds during the 1940’s. However, through habitat restoration and dedicated conservationists, the Whooping Crane population has risen to about 600 today. During the winter of 2012-13, twelve Whoopers utilized the refuge along with Sandhill Cranes, ducks and other waterfowl.

The Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, named after Civil War General “Fighting Joe” Wheeler, is managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The refuge, located near Decatur, Alabama, was established in 1938 under an Executive Order by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The order created a 35,000-acre wildlife refuge designed to protect, manage and create habitat for wildlife, fisheries and plants. Wheeler is the first national refuge to be overlain by a multi-purpose hydroelectric reservoir, supporting approximately 14,000 Sandhill Cranes, 3,500 geese and 60,000 ducks.

In addition to waterfowl, Wheeler is home over 100 species of fish, over 290 species of birds, 74 species of reptiles and amphibians and close to 50 species of mammals.

Wheeler is the first national refuge to be overlain by a multi-purpose hydroelectric reservoir, supporting approximately 30,000 geese and 60,000 ducks. In addition to waterfowl, Wheeler is home over 100 species of fish, over 290 species of birds, 74 species of reptiles and amphibians and close to 50 species of mammals.

Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge is located in close proximity to Huntsville, Alabama. Huntsville has long served as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Learning Center (ULC). It is the center for learning and training for USACE. The facility is under the supervision of Headquarters Directorate of Human Resources. The ULC manages and implements the Proponents-Sponsored Engineer Corps Training (PROSPECT) program, the contents of the famous “Purple Book”.

In 2007, Interpretive Services PROSPECT course instructors Pat Barry, Nancy Rodgers, both with USACE, and John Veverka, of John Veverka & Associates, selected the Wheeler Refuge as the new home for the Interpretive Services field excursion studies. The 10-year partnership with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has been a tremendous success and still flourishes today.

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Pat Barry, Certified Interpretive Trainer and Lead Instructor, Interpretive Services 2001 -2015, proclaimed ,“Interpretive Services needed a new field trip location near Huntsville. For several years we used the Earlyworks Children’s History Museum and Alabama Constitution Village, but they did not resemble facilities at most Corps sites. The nearest Corps sites were too many hours away. Corps instructor Nancy Rogers found the nearby Wheeler Wildlife Refuge and it turned out to be a perfect fit. Facilities included a visitor center, basic self-guided trails, a classroom, theater, wayside displays, and the best bird observation building I’ve ever seen. The best part, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Rangers Teresa Adams and Daphne Moland welcomed us and fit us into their busy schedules. Without fail, they met with every class, made students feel welcome and, at the end of the day, helped provide feedback on the student’s products. It turned out to be a great place for our students to apply what they learned in the classroom and get practical experience in developing interpretive displays before returning to their sites”.

"We have certainly enjoyed hosting the USACE Interpretive Services field trips over the past 10-years. The students always produce some great interpretive ideas for exhibits and trails. We always hang on to their project ideas in anticipation of upgrading our exhibits in the future. It's a win-win partnership," stated Teresa Adams, Wheeler Refuge Supervisory Park Ranger.

John Veverka, the Corps contract Interpretive Services instructor for over 20-years, remarked, “Our relationship with the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge is a win-win for everyone. Our students get to work on real world interpretive planning and design projects. Wheeler has received thousands of dollars in free interpretive consulting services. Everyone wins!”

Mock-up Nature Trail Panel Design

Wheeler provides a tremendous setting for Interpretive Services students to get hands-on interpretive planning experience. The learning opportunities gleaned from Wheeler build skill sets that benefit their respective USACE projects throughout the nation. Interpretive practical applications such as theme based learning, nature trail design and visitor center exhibit design are paramount in providing our customers a quality nature based experience. With current climates of budget and manpower constraints, these hurdles are easier to overcome as the students actually design panels that can be adapted for use at their sites. This knowledge saves time and precious funding resources.

Wheeler Refuge Park Ranger, Daphne Moland, expressed a similar view, “The ideas developed during the interpretive workshop allow alternative perspectives from professionals from all over the country. The numerous exhibit plans are stored for "Times of Plenty". When the possibility of updates occur, we will have numerous wonderful interpretive exhibit ideas to choose from!”

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“The Interpretive Services course continues to be a huge success for the USACE Learning Center Training Program. Students again provided excellent feedback for the course to include excitement for the field trip, practical exercises and course presentations. The Interpretive Services course is consistently a bright star in the USACE Learning Center training program“ remarked Constance Tiller, Lead Instructional Systems Specialist Course Manager E & C Division.

We all benefit from working together. Common causes are the essential building blocks for all partnerships.

Together, we are stronger and the famous quote by Margaret Mead expresses the power of working together, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” This kind of common cause certainly brought the Whooping Crane back from almost certain extinction. With a “failure is not an option” attitude, a group of people bound together by similar mission statements can make a difference! In this case, albeit pales in comparison to the efforts that it took to save an endangered species, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers interpretive partnership is making a difference for the betterment and appreciation of public lands.

Brian C. Westfall Natural Resources Specialist Lead USACE Interpretive Services Instructor Ouachita Project Management Office U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District Brian.C.Westfall@usace.army.mil

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Haleakala silversword - The most amazing and wonderful plant that needs protection.

The National Park Service

Young plants - waiting for their big day.

The Haleakala silversword is found on the island of Maui at elevations above 2,100 metres (6,900 ft) on the dormant Haleakalā volcano — on the summit depression, the rim summits, and surrounding slopes — in Haleakalā National Park. The Haleakala silversword has been a threatened species as defined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, since May 15, 1992. Prior to that time, excessive grazing by cattle and goats, and vandalism inflicted by people in the 1920s, had caused its near extinction. Since strict monitoring and governmental protection took effect, the species' recovery is considered a successful conservation story, although threats remain. The silversword is also found at the higher elevations on the western slope of Mauna Kea on the Big Island, Hawaii, in the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve.

The silvery hairs, fleshy leaves, and low-growing rosette form of the Haleakala silversword (Argyroxiphium sandwicense subsp. macrocephalum) allow it to survive in hot, dry climates like the aeolian desert cinder slopes of the crater. Silverswords live between 3 and 90 years or more. They flower once, sending up a spectacular flowering stalk, and then die soon afterward, scattering drying seeds to the wind.

Delicate silverswords ('ahinahina), once ripped up and taken home by visitors as souvenirs, now depend on management efforts for survival. Park staff fence silversword-munching ungulates out, destroy non-native plants that would crowd out silverswords, and educate park visitors to stay on trails to avoid stepping on fragile silversword seedlings and root systems.

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Climate change may now present a new threat to these charismatic plants. Hotter temperatures and lower rainfall may threaten even the hardy silversword. Researchers with the University of Hawai'i are actively working with park staff to evaluate the effects of drought conditions on silverswords, and preserve these unique plants for generations to come.

Park biotech Lindsay Moore collects seeds from a flowering Haleakala silversword for propagation. Juvenile silverswords grown in park greenhouses will be outplanted to supplement wild populations (left) and a wild blooming plant looking like an other-worldly visitor.

Editors note: Every once and a while I come across some really interesting topics and short articles that I like to share like this one from the National Park Service. To the NPS - thanks for sharing, and for your management and protection for this amazing plant and story. John V

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Phoenix Edu-Fair close-out reportPhoenix; Durban, South Africa 1-2 June 2017 Tebogo Mohlakane-Mafereka

Phoenix Fair took place from the 26th May 2017 to the 4th of June 2017. A component of the Phoenix Fair was the Edu Fair programme during which schools from Phoenix, Mount Moriah, Mount Royal and surrounding areas visited the Fair. This event provides educational entertainment and a variety of enlightening exhibits in order to broaden the scope of education that the learners are exposed to. Edu Fair was hosted from Thursday 1st June 2017 to Friday 2nd June 2017. The first day was dedicated to the crèches, primary schools as well as special schools. The second day was dedicated to Combined as well as Secondary Schools. Mrs Samantha Maharaj was the Edu Fair convenor. She invited Kwazulu Natal Department of Arts and Culture, through Mrs Nalini Ramiah. Mrs Nalini Ramiah is KZNDAC Cultural Officer, based in Durban. Mrs Ramiah further invited KZN Museum Services, to bring artefacts as well as any promotional materials/information brochures to the stand. KZN Museum Services was represented by Mr Tebogo Mohlakane-Mafereka. Before the Fair, Mr Tebogo Mohlakane-Mafereka and Mrs Nalini Ramiah met at the Durban offices and they both went to Rydalvale Sports Ground in Phoenix to check the stands/exhibition area.

The following were the main objectives of the Edu Fair: • • • •

To promote an awareness of organisations services on a broad scale.

To provide information and make accessible the various resources available in the community.

To educate both children and youth on all aspects of life in the form of drama, role play, dance and competitions.

To promote learning in a fun and innovative manner.

On the 1st and the 2nd of June 2017, hundreds of primary school learners and their teachers visited the KZNDAC Exhibition stand, Short presentations on the services of KZNDAC were provided to each group, and each learner was given a goodie plastic bag containing the information brochures of the Department, a handheld flag, bookmark, balloon as well as a colouring-in sheet. The learners asked interesting questions, and they were also enlightened about various careers that are on offer in the Arts and Culture sector. The event was well organised and the participants were enthusiastic and keen to receive the information provided by us.

Tebogo Mohlakane-Mafereka Mohlakane-MaferekaT@kzndac.gov.za

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The Korean Demilitarized Zone Into Peace Park Designation: A Spectrum of Application as an Interpreting Natural History Issue Cho kye joong Dept. of Forest Resources, Sunchon National Univ., Jeonnam 540-742, Korea

cho140@scnu.ac.kr

ABSTRACT : It is an issue of vital concern to all Koreans and to all peace-loving people around the world. That issue is how “Converting the Korean Demilitarized Zone into a Peace Park” can contribute to the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula through limited and sustainable tourism development that emphasizes nature preservation.

KEYWORDS : Ecosphere, demilitarized zone, nature preservation, peace park, reunification Ⅰ. Introduction All people must have, buried somewhere in their cultural past, traditions which once let them live in harmony with nature. These traditions, coupled with the sensible application of modern technology, could surely diminish the dangers, common to us all, that stem from how we, as a species, are currently playing our role in the ecosphere. That this is possible is demonstrated by the fact that many conservationists, field interpreters, and educators have expressed great interest in the World Conservation Strategy and have committed themselves to developing National Conservation Strategies. The Korean Demilitarized Zone(DMZ), an area about 200miles long and 2.5miles wide (388 square miles), is a byproduct of the Korean War(1950-1953).

This military zone ha a supplemental buffer, the Civilian Control Zone(CCZ), which covers an area 12 miles south of the demarcation line. Natural resources were not considered, originally. The DMZ was a symbol of a military and international negotiation between the two ideologies after WWII. Rare migratory birds like the winter crane have found an “accidental paradise” after devastation of the original habitat in northern China and Siberia (Matthiessen 1996). A CCZ survey team of South Korean scientists in 1987 reported that the buffer zone is abundant in rare flora and fauna (Drohan 1996). Other recently reported survey results (Ministry of Environment 1995; Namkung et al. 1996) found 40 rare species of plants, along with 8 rare species of fish and 14 species not previously know to live in the area, and 8 threatened or endangered species. Everything “peacefully grew under the protection of military forces” (Zinke 1995), remaining intact with little human intervention over the last five decades.

Emerging environmental issues in the DMZ, as well as in the two Koreas, required a new DMZ policy. What follows is an overview of DMZ policies of the last 5 decades and discussions of policy tools, problems, and possible alternatives for our generation and future generations. It is imperative that policy-makers and managers have a correct understanding of these issues for their input and direction to positively impact this critical policy area.

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Ⅱ. DMZ Policies 1. Traditional DMZ Policies : Political Purpose and Development.

Between 1953 and 1960, no attention was given to the DMZ, because both governments hated each other and the centralized bureaucracies were weak. The anti-communism of the military government which seized South Korea in 1960 made DMZ policy even worse. The first development initiative was made by the late President Park in his August 15, 1970, National Liberation Anniversary Message suggesting disposal of artificial barriers and construction of a railroad through the zone. Right after Park’s suggestion, the non-military Area, International Peace Zone, and Merging Zone (National Unification Board) suggestions were made amid ideological conflict between centralized dictatorships on both sides of the DMZ. The 1979 United Nations suggested an International Park(UNEP) including environmental conservation (National Unification Board 1973).

The 1980s saw a sudden collapse of Park’s South Korean dictatorship, which opened a new era in national policy. Even though little changed with Park’s successors, the DMZ policies of President Chun and Rho were more active and seemed attainable. Unipeace City (District) and the Free Trade Zone mentioned in ex-President Rho’s 1988 UN General Assembly Address would have boosted land prices (Clifford 1990). Included was a shift of more DMZ policy initiatives from the President to the ministry level. The National Unification Board was no longer in charge. Other ministries participated in policy making, including the Special Zone and Freedom Highway (Ministry of Construction), Scientific Technology District (Ministry of Technology), Marine Ecosystem Survey and Natural Environmental Park (Ministry of Environment), and the Community Center for students (Ministry of Education) (Lee 1992).

After local self-rule was granted, recent opposition to a government policy by a county council demonstrated local government’s concerns for DMZ policy (National Park Management Cooperation 1995).

The buffer zone has become the object of tourism. The current ecosystem and hostility between the two Koreas in the DMZ and CCZ, ironically, are enough to attract tourists. Tourism within the DMZ has been a major issue surrounding upcoming national events (New York Times 1994 & 1996). National Tourism Cooperation is tried to attract tourism for the 2002 World Cup Soccer Game in Seoul showcasing the DMZ’s peculiar ecology and military conflicts.

2. Some Criteria and Problems Geographic Boundary and Categorization Geographic characteristics of the DMZ can be divided into four parts (National Unification Board 1972): west, middle, middle-east. The west and middle areas were agricultural paddies with spacious plains and river. Many migratory birds inhabit the middle area (Cholwon, Kangwon Province). The middle-east and east are composed of high mountains and beautiful landscapes, with little agricultural area. The east contains abundant forests.

Little is known regarding the environmental biodiversity or the landscape inside the DMZ for security reasons.

Until recently, the DMZ and CCZ were not designated in any categories of protected areas by the two Korean governments or by international conservation agencies. It is possible to characterize each region by certain criteria, according to the geographical attributes of the region. Using the IUCN category, the east fits the national park criteria because it has a beautiful landscape and neighbors the current national park (Category Ⅱ).

Two natural Environmental Conservation Zones designated by the Ministry of Environment are in the east section of the buffer zone. The west and middle areas which have rare migratory birds and plants can be categorized as a Nature ConservationReserve/Wildlife Sanctuary (Category Ⅳ). The Ministry of Environment has designated one site near Cholwon as the Natural Environmental Conservation Zone.

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Since the middle-area (Cholwon) includes historical landmarks, cultural conservation may be needed. The east and west parts of the buffer zone neighbor the East Sea of Korea and the Yellow Sea, necessitating management of the marine ecosystem.

Contexts of DMZ Policies and Limitations: After the 1980s, a number of conservation issues surfaced in the DMZ agenda, even though it was a kind of utilitarian conservation. The reasons for this can be classified into several sociopolitical characteristics of South Korea.

First, social values that influence public policy do not allow vacant land to remain intact in a country of scarce land. In particular, the DMZ and CCZ are not far from the Seoul metropolitan area, where 12 million people (1/4 of South Korea’s residents) live. Urban expansion and recreational demands are expediting land use in the area. Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs), which can be a bridge between agencies and residents, cannot make social values tangible, because of the communication gap between the agency and the interested public (Clarke & McCool 1995). Before 1987 few or no environmental NGOs existed compared with three hundred private NGOs in 1995.

Administrative dominance makes NGOs dependent or subordinate. NGOs lack expertise to function in such a role. NGOs’ financial restriction and direct control by each related ministry lead to insecure organization. This results in many ineffective DMZ conservation policies becoming fruitless. DMZ could be a unifying force for NGO’s similar to the Zahniser coalition and co-opting strategy pertaining to respective ministries and zoning legislation.

The second characteristic is agency power and conflicts among agencies. With the harsh bureaucratic interest of the central government, each ministry has different agendas regarding the park (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport), environment (Ministry of Environment), recreation (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism),and economic development [(Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Ministry of Unification, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc.), http://www.unikorea.go.kr/, etc.

Third is the zoning issue. The fundamental control of land in Korea is through zoning control, which is a “coercion, of the use of the legal system to regulate behavior” (Cubbage et al. 1993). Current land use is regulated by 50 plus administrative acts and the Constitution. Related acts required land utilization of 147 plus divisions (since 2010) by landowners for the purpose of the utility under government control (http://www.molit.go.kr/).

3. Destination of Peace Park A demilitarized zone was declared and both sides continue to meet from time to time at the border village called Panmunjum and the bridge on the Im-Jin river called “bridge of no return.” The war bred mistrust, antagonism and hatred between people on both sides. The protracted division since it has escalated ideological and cultural differences and led to a diminished sense of community. Millions of people were separated from their families by territorial partitioning and the war, and still there is no way for them to hear from their relatives on the other side of demilitarized zone.

In other, more pragmatic, terms, the Seoul metropolitan area now total nearly 20 million people, and it is still growing. A peace park only an hour away would provide a welcome relief to those trapped in this urban maze on a daily basis.

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The expanses of the DMZ could also include facilities for the reunion of Korea’s 10 million “dispersed” families, a neutral zone for reunification rather than for division. Utilization in this manner could continue long after inter-Korean travel is routing, making it a favorite place for families to gather from their homes throughout the peninsula.

The establishment of a peace park in an area of this size and with such a dramatic history would be unprecedented. It would send an unmistakable message to the rest of the world, that the hostility that has for so long tainted the image of the Korean peninsula, and of the Korean people, has been vanquished.

4. A Great Tourism Potential at the Site The tourism potential of such a peace park would also be enormous, not just from Koreans throughout the peninsula and the several million overseas Koreans, but for people from around the world who have long been curious about the mysterious happenings in this part of the world. Museums, monument, memorials, and other commemorative and educational structures could be of great interest to the study of peace. The setting and content of a peace park could contribute substantially to the therapeutic recovery of a people so long separated by such diverse ideologies. It could provide a venue for their understanding, appreciation, and acceptance of each other. When the two Koreas become one, they will also become a great destination of the East Asian tourism circuit, the crossroads between Japan and the West, and China and the East. As the world entered the 21st century with tourism as its leading industry, tourist attractions that combine pristine nature preserves and dramatic human stories will definitely beat a premium. The DMZ provides are unified Korea with a unique resource that has both the potential to help heal its past and build its future. Ⅲ. Recommendations Three alternatives can be suggested in light of current policy tools and time perspectives. Alternative 1. New Regional Planning Before Unification and International Cooperation: Conservation through new regional planning for the southern part of the demarcation line to protect the area from inordinate development pressure, which may come sooner or later is required. The keys to this new regional planning can be divided into two parts, local participation and “sustainable development.” Local participation, local initiative and the bottom-up approach are imperative factors for sustainable community development (West & Brechin, 1991). As an efficient path for local participation, institution building-NGOs, the Regional Planning Commission (Slocomb 1995) and national-local partnership-is necessary.

“Ecodevelopment” or “sustainable development” implies economic development and environmental conservation are adequate to guide the future use of the buffer zone. Residents wish to preserve their community without development pressures (Lins 1991), but their poverty and attractiveness to economic opportunity will leave them isolated. For sustainable development in the buffer zone, the economic burden created by the tax structure and development pressures should be alleviated (Lins 1991). The buffer zone area needs to be managed through non-traditional zoning regulation; because of the area’s special attributes, sparse population and many cultural assets. Environmental issues aside, these cultural assets can become important resources for the local people. The buffer zone can be managed as a “Special Natural and Cultural Assets Conservation District.” Classification as a core area, buffer zone and transitional area, like the buffer zone concept (UNESCO), is suggested.

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Alternative 2. International Cooperation: “International protected areas along borders contributed to reducing tensions and issues of access by rural inhabitants to resources” (Saunier & Meganck 1995). The area with which a world organization first can be concerned is inside the DMZ and CCZ. An international organization should be sensitive to ideological conflicts between the two independent countries. International cooperation can be expected for conserving migratory birds and the Korean War Memorial. Migratory birds which come into the DMZ and its neighboring area are not owned by Korea only.

Russia, China, and Japan also can participate in the migratory birds conservation treaty. International NGOs such as World Wildlife Funds (WWF) would participate in conserving migratory birds. The UN can allocate world heritage assets to the area, as the land bears marks of ideological conflicts after WWⅡ.

A professor’s recent suggestion of a Korea Peace Bioreserve System(Drohan, 1996) and a Korea Peace Park(President Park Geun-hye) are notable in that North and South Korea have already pledged to work jointly on environmental issues and reunification commissions (Drohan, 1996). Once issues are politicized, NGOs have little or no power to resolve issues, and goals tend to be diluted by political conflicts.

Alternative 3. DMZ Management after Reunification of the Korean Peninsula: Few people think the two Koreas can be reunified. Therefore, each government should convey a well maintained DMZ area to the next unified government for future generations. Effort must be made to keep the area as an ecological brick (Zinke 1995) for Northeast Asia and also as a world heritage for a war and beautiful natural conservation area. Ⅳ. Conclusion The DMZ is currently a symbol of divisiveness and despair to me and to all Korean people. However, it could easily be converted into a symbol of unity and hope that could help to open a new era in inter-Korean relations. Both sides are looking for a means of peaceful rapprochement, and all possible means of reaching that goal must be exploited to their fullest potential.

The DMZ’s irreversible precious ecosystem encompasses an area of less than 750 square miles. It is regarded as a public resource by a number of organizations, both public and private, and they have a wide range of plans for its use. So far, their plans are just plans. No earth has been moved, no trees have been galled, and no habitats have been destroyed.

Conserving biological diversity and maintaining or restoring natural plant and bird/animal habitats are goals shared by people throughout the world. Since these area of highest biological diversity, such as tropical forests which are critical to all of humanity, lie outside one single country’s jurisdiction, extinction prevention and habitat protection must be addressed in international as well as domestic arenas.

Koreans worry about the diligent but powerful centralized Government. The enforcement of the role of NGOs is a very important factor for the above 3 alternatives because I believe the role of NGOs can really contribute to national policy as well as international cooperation, especially by providing important information about environmental policy to each level of government. NGOs can be a watchdog for illegal policy-making processes and environmental activities in the area. Until now, our policy was not “here today” but “there tomorrow.” But we have “here tomorrow” and not “there tomorrow.” The DMZ policy, if we consider the environmental vitality and local people who live in the buffer zone, should not be “there tomorrow” any longer.

We need policies to convey the beauty of the Korean Peninsula as a whole to our children today.

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References Clarke, J.N & Daniel C. McCool. 1995. Staking Out the Terrain: Power and Performance Among Natural Resources Agencies. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. p. 139 Clifford, Mark. 1990. Gentrifying the DMZ. Far Eastern Economic Review. December 20,p. 32 Cubbage, F.W., J. O’Laughlin, and C.S. Bullock, Ⅲ. 1993.

Forest resources and public policy (Ch. 1). Forest Resource Policy. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

-----. 1993. Policy and political processes (Ch. 2). Forest Resource Policy. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

-----Public Ownership and Management of Land. (Ch. 12). Forest Resource Policy. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Drohan, Joy. 1996. Sustainably Developing the DMZ. Technology Review. August. Pp. 17-18.

Durrel, Lee. 1986. State of the Ark. An Atlas of Conservation in Action-A Gaia Book. Burman Ltd, London Joongang Daily (Korean Newspaper). 1996. November 9. The Ministry of Defense submitted the new bill to the National Assembly which allow agro-fishery facility construction in CCZ. Lee, Chong Whan. 1992. Far East Asia Economic Cooperation Case Study: The Problems of Duman River Project and Peaceful Use of the DMZ. The Institute of Kukmin University (Seoul) (Eds). The 4th Seoul InternationalSymposium of the Search for Economic Cooperation in Northest Asia and Peaceful Utilization of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the Korean Peninsula. Pp. 215-227 Lins, S.A 1991. “Community Development and the National Park Service: Examples of cooperation in Boxley Valley, Arkansas, and Ebey’s Landing, Washington” Small Town, July-August. pp. 4-11 Matthiessen, Pater. 1996. Accidental Sanctuary. Audubon. July-August. pp. 44-55.

Namkung, J., et al. 1996. On a water spider, Argyroneta aquatic (Clerk, 1758) from Korea (Araneae: Argyronetidae). Korean Arachnology 12(1) (Korean). Pp. 111-117.

Slocombe, Scott. 1995. Integrating Park and Regional Planning Through an Ecosystem Approach. pp. 58-60 Saunier, R.E. and R.A. Meganck. (Eds.) 1995. Conservation of Biodiversity and the New Regional Planning.

Organization of American States and the IUCN—The World Conservation Union.

The Ministry of Environment (Korea). 1995. A ’95 Report on Natural Environment Survey of Civilian Control Zone.

The National Unification Board (Korea). 1972. The problems and Policy Implication of Alleviation Policy of the National Government to the Border Line Between the Two Koreas; Based on the field survey. December.

The National Unification Board (Korea). 1973. Codevelopment of the DMZ. May. The National Park Management Cooperation. 1995. The Nature of DMZ IS Alive (Korean). National Park.

Winter.

The New York Times. 1994. May 8, v143, sec.5, pxx3 (N) pxx(L), col 1.

West, P.C. and S.R Brechin. 1991. National parks, protected areas, and resident people: A comparative assessment and integration. (Ch. 29). Resident people and National Parks: Social Dilemmas and Strategies for International Conservation, P.C. West and S.R. Brechin, eds. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

Yonhap News, 2013. Park proposes family reunions, peace park establishment in DMZ with N. Korea.

Zinke, Alexander. 1995. Ecological Brick for Europe: Integration of Conservation and Sustainable Development along the Former East-West Border. Munasinghe, Mohan & Jeffery McMeely, ed. Protected Area Economics and Policy: Linking Conservation and Sustainable Development. Washington, DC: World Bank & World Conservation Union (IUCN). pp. 133-147. www.molit.go.kr/ http://www.mcst.go.kr/ www.mofa.go.kr http://www.unikorea.go.kr/

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Museos de sitio vs. centros de interpretación: la historia antes que los artefactos* John A. Veverka**

Last year I had the privilege to participate in an interpretation seminar in Mexico, and later to contribute an article on the differences between museums and interpretive centers. This article was recently published in GACETA da MUSEOD (Number 66). This is the Spanish version of that article for our Spanish readers. John Veverka

Me preguntan con frecuencia la diferencia entre un museo y un centro de interpretación. La respuesta estriba en el propósito de cada uno.

La misión central de un museo es, básicamente, colectar y mostrar artefactos, mientras que la de un centro de interpretación es enfocarse en presentar e ilustrar una historia.1 También, los centros interpretativos son “específicos al sitio”, mientras que los museos son muy generales, con materiales de diversos lugares. Para este corto artículo se me ha pedido que

El Centro Interpretativo del Parque Natural Matagorda Bay Fotografía © John A. Veverka

presente un ejemplo de la planeación y el proceso mental que hace “interpretativo” a un centro interpretativo.

Y eso consiste en que la historia a presentar utiliza las técnicas de comunicación llamadas “los principios interpretativos de Tilden”, propuesta por Freeman Tilden (1957) al responder a la pregunta ¿qué es la interpretación? La definición que ha sido retomada a lo largo de los años por muchas organizaciones, y que yo uso cuando enseño interpretación en mis cursos universitarios, es la siguiente: la interpretación es un proceso de comunicación, dise ñado para revelar los significados y las relaciones de nuestro patrimonio

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cultural y natural al público, mediante el involucramiento de primera mano con objetos, artefactos, paisajes y sitios (Interpretation Canada, 1976). Se debe enfatizar en que las comunicaciones interpretativas no consisten en tan sólo presentar información, sino que constituyen una estrategia de comunicación específica que se usa para traducir la información del lenguaje del experto al lenguaje cotidiano del visitante. Es 50% “inspiración”.

Como caso de estudio, me gustaría compartir el boceto de planeación interpretativa y diseño de exhibición para el Centro de Interpretación Parque Natural Matagorda Bay. Un centro interpretativo tiene como foco central la interpretación de una tesis2 o mensaje central que todas las exhibiciones y experiencias interpretativas –tanto dentro del centro como localizadas en la totalidad del sitio: vía senderos, quioscos y plataformas de observación– ilustrarán. La tesis principal para el Parque Natural Matagorda Bay acordada por el equipo del centro de interpretación es:

Caption: Diseño conceptual de una de las exhibiciones, donde se muestra la importancia de los elementos interactivos Fotografía © Plan Interpretativo Matagorda Bay, Lower Colorado River Authority (lcra), Kaser Design.

El Parque Natural Matagorda Bay es un museo vivo de nuestro patrimonio cultural y natural regional que administramos y preservamos para beneficio tanto de los visitantes como de la naturaleza, en una custodia balanceada con nuestros visitantes.

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Esta tesis se dividió en cuatro áreas ilustrativas para las exhibiciones interiores y exteriores, así como las experiencias interpretativas: 1) El valle de río Colorado y la misión general de la Lower Colorado River Authority (lcra). También interpretación del programa de manejo de recursos lcra.

2) La historia cultural e industrial de la bahía Matagorda. 3) Los ciclos y los cambios estacionales del Parque Natural Matagorda Bay. 4) Los hábitats en sucesión de los ecosistemas del Parque Natural Matagorda Bay – desde la línea de oleaje hasta la formación y ecología de dunas y el ecosistema de marisma salada.

Todas las nuevas exhibiciones interpretativas serían entonces diseñadas y provistas de guiones para mayor detalle e ilustración de esas cuatro áreas temáticas, las cuales sirven para ilustrar la tesis principal. Así, a diferencia de los museos tradicionales que muestran artefactos como su enfoque principal, con frecuencia fuera del contexto de las personas que los poseyeron y valoraron, con narraciones de sus conexiones naturales o culturales ya perdidas, los centros interpretativos se centran en la narración, ilustrada con artefactos selectos y experiencias cautivadoras de aprendizaje y descubrimiento. Para quienes se encuentren interesados en conocer el plan interpretativo completo, así como el diseño de las exhibiciones del Centro Interpretativo Matagorda, es posible descargarlos en línea [https://issuu.com/interpnews/docs/ matt_-_matagorda_final_exhibit_desi].

También se pueden solicitar copias del plan interpretativo al autor, las cuales serán enviadas en pdf como archivo adjunto –me hace feliz compartir conocimiento y enfoques con ustedes.

Notas *Traducción de Manuel Gándara Vázquez. ** Certified interpretive planner, certified professional heritage interpreter [jvainterp@aol.com, www.heritage interp.com, Skype: jvainterp]. 1 En el sentido de relato. [N. del T.] 2 Theme en el original. [N. del T.] Bibliografía: Kaser, Matt, Concept Design Plan for the Matagorda Nature Park Interpretive Center, Copell, Kaser Design, 2015.

Tilden, Freeman, Interpreting Our Heritage, Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 1957.

Veverka, John A., Interpretive Master Planning. Volume One: Strategies for the New Millennium, Edimburgo, Museums Etc, 2011. _____, Interpretive Master Planning. Volume Two: Selected Essays, Philosophy, Theory and Practice, Edimburgo, Museums Etc, 2011.

See the press release on the following page for downloading the total magazine issue.

Cheers, John Veverka jvainterp@aol.com

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Press Release for the current issue of Gaceta de Museos, the leading journal on museums in Mexico Gaceta de Museos, the leading journal on museums in Mexico, announces its 66th issue, on site museums vs interpretation centers On July 12th, issue number 66 of Gaceta Museos, the leading journal on museums in Mexico will be presented to the academic community by the issue coordinators, Dr. Manuel Gándara and M.A. Leticia Pérez, in an event that will take place on Museo de Templo Mayor. The issue focuses on the debate on interpretation centers vs site museums. While “museos de sitio” have a long tradition in Mexico and can be seen at major archaeological sites, such as Teotihuacán, Palenque or Monte Albán, interpretation –as a communication strategy for heritage education- is relatively new, as are interpretation centers themselves.

The articles examine the relative strengths and challenges of format to help visitors understand heritage values and to promote a conservation culture. Among the authors are José Enrique Ortiz Lanz (current national coordinator of museums for the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia), that presents a broad panorama of archaeological site museums in Mexico; Gándara and Pérez’ introductory essay uses evidence from 5 visitor studies at Mexican archaeological sites and their museums. Ericka Blanco and Leticia Reyes talk about how the Guachimontones center (one of the first in the country) works today; Luz de Lourdez Herbert and Martha Cuevas, deal with the current situation of site museum’s deposits; Alma Méndez and María Rivera introduce a program using augmented reality for Tulúm; and Demian Ortiz analyzes recent experiences in environmental interpretation centers. International contributors include Victor Fratto (Argentina), John Veverka (USA), Veronica Chirinos (Perú) and Iain Davidson (Australia), presenting case studies in their respective countries.

The “memory photograph” section, by Alanis et. al, showcases one of the first site museums: that of Copilco, from 1917.

The issue can be downloaded in PDF format at http://www.mediateca.inah.gob.mx/repositorio/islandora/object/issue%3A1144

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JVA InterpNews Imagine...

Speaking Tip 32 Ethan Rotman iSpeakEasy

Imagine making a presentation and everyone is rapt with attention, the audience is smiling, listening and nodding in agreement with you as you speak. You feel comfortable, confident and you know you are making your point.

It is a nice dream: it is an even better reality.

The word “imagine” transports your audience from where they are to anywhere you want to take them. It immediately frees their thinking, bypassing obstacles, allowing your audience to see the result you desire. It grabs their attention and helps win their support for your ideas.

It is one of the most powerful words in the English language.

Try opening your talk with “imagine” followed by your vision. Watch as the audience listens and creates the images you are painting in their mind. You will be able to watch them relax, their bodies sink into their chairs and the lines on their face soften. The best part is that as they are the ones creating the image, they will have buy-in to your ideas.

“Imagine” allows your audience to see the result, rather than hearing the details of your product, service or idea.

It focuses on the positive outcomes you are trying to achieve.

If you are speaking to people who have some opposition to the methods you want to employ, they may be willing to agree with you on the goal. Using “imagine” will help you paint a picture of the end-result everyone wants.

Once you are here, it is an easier task to agree on the method to accomplish the goal.

It is easy to imagine a better world, a work place free of the problems we now see. You are jumping ahead and selling them on the product in a fun way.

There is a reason John Lennon’s song is one of the most widely known songs in the world.

Imagine a world full of great speakers…

Ethan Rotman ethan@ispeakeasy.net

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University of Strasbourg is now listed as a World Heritage Site.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, presently meeting in Krakow, Poland, announced today (9 July 2017) that the Neustadt -- the late 19th and early 20th century urban development of the city of Strasbourg, which includes at its very heart the University of Strasbourg -- just entered the World Heritage List.

The inclusion of the Neustadt means that the whole of historic Strasbourg is now World Heritage -- the Cathedral and Grand ĂŽle had already been listed in 1988. The recognition celebrates architecture, urban development, art and European history and exchanges.

In terms of university heritage, the value is also outstanding. In Strasbourg, the university buildings are extremely well preserved and richly decorated with artistic and architectonic elements, evoking and inspiring knowledge and culture. Moreover, the original 19th century university development plan is still there, particularly in the University Palace, Botanic Garden and Astronomical Observatory axis. The scientific, artistic and historic collections have been preserved, and so have the archives and libraries. It is one of those exceptional places in Europe where you can completely understand what the 19th century university was about: integrating arts and sciences to advance research.

UMAC and Universeum are delighted and proud of this wonderful news and congratulate the city of Strasbourg, the University of Strasbourg, and all partners involved for this successful and entirely deserved recognition.

Marta C. Lourenço, University of Lisbon, UMAC President SÊbastien Soubiran, University of Strasbourg, Universeum President

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So, who’s really your audience?

Cecelia Ottenweller Ottenweller Consulting

My career tends to be a distraction at casual social gatherings. I might be standing near the bar with a glass of wine in one hand, a small plate of munchies in the other, making small talk (while trying to figure out how to eat what’s on the plate without spilling the wine…) and at some point, someone will casually ask what I do. It’s fun to watch the looks on their faces when I say, “I’m a communication strategist, preferably in nontraditional learning environments, but I’ll do corporate stuff in a pinch to pay the bills.”

There’s always a pause with a bit of wide-eyed wonder before the slew of questions about what that all really means. Faux interest is transformed to honest curiosity and the light in their eyes change from dull to a small bit of sparkle because, let’s face it: Some of us may think we’re adults, but inside, there’s something about spending a day at the perfect museum or zoological park that lights the little kid inside of us up like a mayo jar full of fireflies caught on a July evening.

For those of us who actually get to live the rock-star lifestyle of interpretation design, moments like this can be oh-so-rewarding. But, they come with other moments when that exuberance can be transformed to disappointment, like watching a kid bite into a wad of what they think is grape gum that is instead medicinal cherry. It’s the other side of the rock star interpretive designer experience: I hear about the exhibits that don’t work, about disappointment, about bored kids and too-small text with too-big words, dull signs and audio tours no one can hear. I hear disappointment. I hear about being left out.

The Miracle Worker…

So, what does it mean to be a “communication strategist”? If I’m defining it from an economic perspective, my job is to be the conduit between “those who know” and “those they want to know what they know.” The word choice is deliberate: the people who hire me are generally the folks who know things and have an agenda about what other people should or need to know.

Between you and me, however, defining what I do this way is a little bit of a fib. I am paid by the people who “know”, but I see my real employer as everyone on the other side of the equation: I’m there for the folks like me, who have an inquisitive kid inside them who love sticking their noses into places they may not belong and who are sure that someday X really does mark the spot to pirate treasure. In my way of seeing the world, this describes everyone...some of them just don’t know it yet.

It is difficult, however, to do work for that audience given the way some projects are structured. I sometimes encounter a “shoot first, aim last” strategy underlying a project.

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I had a job a few years ago that involved a very quick installation of signage. I was hired quite late in the planning process. Like, really late. At one point, about a two days after we’d made a checklist of the signage they were hoping to have in the environment, and literally the day I met the rest of the internal team we did a walk through with the VP in charge of the project, who did a very quick, “Ok, this is where this goes, this is where that goes… we’ll have this element over here. Joe… the arch you’re building, what’s it look like? Ok.. great… Cecelia, where do you think the signs should go?”

Um…. Gimme a moment…

Hold the tomatoes!

Shooting first and aiming last happens way more often than it should. But why? I have some thoughts on this and I want everyone to take a deep breath first before picking up something to throw…

Quite often: • institutional leaders generate institutions to impress other institutional leaders, • designers design for designers, • curators curate for curators, • conservationists conservate (yeah, I made that up) for conservationists, and • writers write for writers.

There’s a group missing: Audience.

Yep. I’ve observed that, as a profession, we’ve a tendency to be a bit… self-centered.

“SPLAT!” (Ok…put the tomatoes down, people!)

“I’m an ADULT, damnit!”

Look, I said “we”, so I’m including myself here. This self-centeredness has developed for some really good reasons: We have careers and we are experts. This is what we do for a living it’s not just for fun. We’re serious and like everything else we touch we try to do it right. And that means being an ADULT: Deadlines, project schedules, chain-of-command, budgets, memos, architectural drawings, egos, committee meetings., milliondollar galas, donors, more donors, paid vacation time.

We have processes, apply best practices, run studies, generate statistics, lead forums, write books, and make sure we respond to comments on our blogs. (Well, those of you have blogs… I haven’t quite gotten mine up yet.)

Our attention spans are eaten up with the shoulds of the nontraditional educational world. In my meetings with teams, quite often I hear everyone discussing a project and evaluating its merits in global terms, broad generalizations and mass quantities: average numbers of visitors, peak attendance, statistics and surveys and demographic categories.

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But, let’s pause here for a second… There’s an even more insidious thing happening underneath all of this adulting… We are acknowledged experts – or, are we perhaps experts needing acknowledgement? Have we become adults in our career behavior, but are our inner un-satisfied children really driving the boat?

I have learned that, if I listen closely during these meetings or when attending conferences or forums, sometimes I’m hearing in all of this discussion the seeds of a rationalization for the speaker’s personal agenda, which can be an unconscious mental map, if you will, or a paradigm, of what should happen in a given space based on their own learning preference.

Alternatively, this can happen through an entrenched process that is followed like religion every time, a lot like my mom’s carrot cake recipe. Mom’s incredible success as a baker is her absolute commitment to exact measurement: a half-cup is a perfectly scraped half-cup, carrots are always orange, and don’t dare fiddle with her oil brand. There is no deviation, there is no invention and there is no bringing in new information. The result is very satisfying when eating carrot cake, but I would argue it is not good for museum interpretation, where such commitment to a mechanistic process can at times result in antiquated, run of the mill design and writing created for audiences that have long since gone the way of the dodo.

What can other fields teach us?

Once upon a time, on a career path not so far away, there was a man named Alan Cooper. He wrote a book, called The Inmates are Running the Asylum. The book shook the world of software interface design because of its radical suggestion that it was batty to allow engineers to design interfaces for real human beings to try to follow. Why? Because engineers design for engineers, not real people. Cooper’s book provided a startling alternative: put the user’s needs first.

We’ve all had the experience of getting tangled in a web of steps when trying to use a piece of software. For those of us old enough to remember Microsoft’s antiquated user interface that took the user through a myriad of nonsensical steps that seemed to always lead into a dark hole, you can thank Cooper for making our world better..

Cooper changed user interface design through the development of personas. A persona is not a generalized category and it is not a real person. In an over-simplified way, it’s a composite of the two. Personas are built using the skills taught to anthropologists: participant observation, interviewing, reflection, mapping... They have names, faces, histories, and behavior patterns, all drawn from real-life observations of real users.

Once built, the personas become part of the interface design team, which means that, in all of the discussions around how a piece of software is being designed, the user – the audience – must be included in the conversation.

How radical an idea is that? How would we do things differently if our audience members sat next to us and commented while we did our research, wrote our copy, and sketched our exhibit plans?

Maybe it’s time to consider inviting this concept into the process? I know many designers are very focused and mindful of visitor experience, but Cooper’s personas are not something I’ve heard referenced within interpretation design.

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Personally, I’ve found Cooper’s principles to be very helpful and that bringing them into my design work has helped me stay focused on the real customer, like the 10-year-old girl who wants to know why the chimps are inserting sticks into that funny mound of mud, the 72 year old woman from Oaxaca who wants to understand the Spanish translation under the Virgin of Guadalupe statue, or the painting student who wants to know how in the world Michelangelo was able to translate his layer of sketches into an entire ceiling of paint.

Whatever it takes, finding strategies that keeps us connected to our real client is essential. If not, we run the danger of following the wrong lead, being distracted by our internal audience-of-one, that “adulting” one, who’s quite likely focused on goals that have nothing to do with the joy of learning or wonder or discovery, the one who wants to be invited to come out and play. And, that’s a shame.

Cecelia Ottenweller Ottenweller Consulting Museums and Zoological Gardens Communication Strategy Interpretive Planning & Exhibit Development ceottenweller@me.com 713-302-2793

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The Truth About Wayfinding Kevin Fromet, Guide Studio

More than signs that direct you from Point A to Point B, wayfinding helps you create great place-based experiences. Like individual bricks paving your journey’s path, there are many considerations that impact a well-designed wayfinding program, from where to begin or end the experience, to what you see along the way.

How often do you find yourself in a labyrinth, driving or walking around in circles because you can’t seem to get to where you need to be? Everyone can relate to that unsettling feeling of being lost, and often – once we actually get there (wherever that may be) – we end up being so frustrated that the entire experience is ruined.

No one enjoys being lost and unfortunately, even the most sophisticated navigational tools like Google Maps sometimes fall short. Furthermore, you shouldn’t have to cling to your devices to reach your final destination.

Successful places invest time and effort into helping visitors find their way the first time, and every time they return. The consequences of not doing so – angry visitors, complaints, and reduced business and economic investment – should be reason enough to craft a strategy that supports a seamless visit experience.

Wayfinding, defined At Guide Studio, we define this strategy as wayfinding. Simply put, wayfinding means helping people in motion navigate a new place, whether they are traveling by car, bike or foot. It is a comprehensive system of information that guides visitors through a physical environment and establishes a sense of place in their mind.

Signage is not wayfinding Many people often confuse wayfinding with signage – the kind you see on city streets, in airports and parking garages, and across hospital corridors. While signs are a tangible component, enabling people to get to where they want to go, wayfinding is a bit more complex. True wayfinding connects various verbal and visual elements, including space, maps, directions, architecture, landscape design, symbols, colors and logos to enhance your brand and the overall experience of your place.

Signs are often used as a cure-all solution, but adding more signs or redesigning old signs will not solve a wayfinding problem. In fact, in most cases, it’s more detrimental than helpful. Once and for all, we’re going to debunk some of the biggest misconceptions about the relationship between signage and place-based experiences.

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Myth: Signs increase visit success. Don’t get us wrong, signs are extremely important tools; however, many organizations believe that signs are the hardware for making a poor experience better. While a consultant can help you determine if a new sign program is what you need, your problem(s) may have more to do with the experience you are offering to visitors. You don’t want to implement new signs that direct people to a disappointing experience. That’s the exact opposite of what wayfinding should do for you.

Myth: The more signs, the better. In the case of wayfinding, you need to take a less-is-more approach. An abundance of signs can add confusion, rather than clarity, to your experience. Good wayfinding employs as few signs as possible. Additionally, your signage should not live on every path to your destination. Sometimes, the quickest route to your location may take people through an undesirable area. Consider the journey you want visitors to take and implement signs to serve as their compass.

Myth: Signs support your regulars. Signage isn’t meant for those who are already familiar with your place; they should be designed for first-timers and infrequent visitors. Good wayfinding helps people develop mental maps of the terrain, eventually enabling them to get from one place to another without relying on signs.

Myth: Signs drive business. Marketing is an important component of the wayfinding mix, but you need to make sure your signs advertise your brand, not just one element of your place. Singling out one aspect of your destination will not only misdirect visitors, but it will send mixed messaging about what your brand represents.

You might be reading some of these myths and wondering if signage or wayfinding are right for your place. Wayfinding and signs maximize the DURING stage of the user continuum, but they are not a solution for increasing visits. If people aren’t aware of your place to begin with, they aren’t going to come.

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Addressing the audience journey True wayfinding is a fine art and your audience’s needs must be at the center of your canvas. From before they arrive to when they depart – and all of the stops and decisions they make in between – visitors rely on different types of information and support throughout each stage of their journey. As you begin to fill in the lines of your wayfinding plan, consider what tools you can employ to ensure your visitors have a seamless experience.

Approach While it’s hard to control what’s happening on the outside rings of your place, you may need to coordinate with other agencies, such as Department of Transportation and surrounding communities, to make sure that your destination is represented on their wayfinding signage and that all mentions of your place align with your established nomenclature.

Arrival In the process of arriving at your destination there are two types of entry points: jurisdictional boundaries and the point where visitors feel that they have truly arrived. This perceived, or emotional, entry point is your greatest opportunity to make an impact. Bold gateway signage that welcomes your visitors, introduces your brand, complements the environment, sets the tone for the rest of their interaction with your place.

Additionally, visitors in vehicles will need to find parking before they actually venture to the core of your destination. This means that consistent and visible parking identification signage is the crucial to creating an effortless arrival experience. The signs should work as a system with similar designs, nomenclature and information hierarchy.

Decision points You need to make sure that directional signage is placed before or at key decision points to clarify the best ways to navigate to different areas of interest. As someone approaches a corner and has two choices to make – left or right – having a sign that is visible as visitors approach assures them that they are heading the right way and helps them avoid getting lost. These signs can also serve as an opportunity to suggest and encourage traffic to certain destinations within your place.

Departure To ensure a smooth journey away from your destination, visitors should have access to pathways and signage for highways and surrounding communities to orient and direct them home.

Depending on what you have done so far, you might be creating a great arrival experience, yet the decision points or departure need some work. Wayfinding is about improving all aspects of experience, from start to finish, by arming visitors with the information they need to find what they are looking for. Most importantly, it gives them the confidence to come back without having to rely on anything but their memory from past visits.

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Other considerations In addition to your audience’s journey, a comprehensive wayfinding strategy addresses a variety of physical, environmental and social factors that can influence the experience of your place. Consider how these different components will impact your plan.

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Order. Where do people begin their journey, where does it end and what will they encounter along the way? Wayfinding helps people navigate through these different stages with ease, and forgetting to address one section can sacrifice visit success.

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Hazards and opportunities. Which areas do we want people to avoid? Conversely, where do we want them to go? Use signage, bright lighting and/or physical landmarks to pull people into certain locations.

You can also use signage, gates or even walls to keep them out.

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Transportation. You may need different types of signage that distinguish the best paths to take depending on your visitors’ modes of transportation. You can create sign families – vehicular, bike and pedestrian – that differ in color and function, yet similarly guide visitors where they need to go.

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Visibility. As you develop gateways, signage and landmarks within your place, make sure nothing gets in the way of the clarity and prominence of them. People of all heights and vision levels should be able to view important communication and symbols from up close or far away.

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Lighting. Can people see your signage in the dark? If people are going to be navigating through your place during the evening hours, you want to make sure that signs are close to lamplights that illuminate them in the dark.

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Consistency. Your signs may be visible, but is your nomenclature consistent and memorable?

Consistency helps people create those mental maps, allowing them to recognize where they are and where they need to go.

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Navigation tools. As you’re building your wayfinding program, you need to ensure that both print (maps, travel guides, brochures, etc.) and digital navigation tools (Google Maps, website, etc.) support the path you are encouraging visitors to take.

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People. Even better than signs, people can serve as one of the most effective wayfinding tactics. While the feasibility of using human wayfinders depends on budget and the size of your space, people can be a trusted resource for directions, especially within large places like college campuses, airports, museums and stadiums. If you’re considering this approach, make sure everyone is on the same page in terms of the paths, nomenclature and landmarks.

The list is innumerable and priorities depend on your particular place, circumstances, challenges and objectives.

Trusted stakeholders can help prioritize what needs to be implemented to optimize the experience of your place.

Wayfinding strategy cannot be done in a silo; you need the support of a team anyways to not only get the work done, but to help you manage and govern the program once complete.

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Maximizing place potential It is easy to think about how one sign here and one over there will solve directional challenges within your place, but simply adding new signs can cause even more confusion and misalignment. While wayfinding may sound too complex or fancy for your needs, there is no purpose in promoting a great place if you aren’t willing to invest in the support system needed to help people enjoy it. Wayfinding encourages you to look at your entire place (not just a small space) to ensure visitors can transition from one stage to the next with ease. By getting them to where they want to go, they will spend their time (and money) experiencing everything you have to offer.

Lets talk. At Guide Studio, we believe in being transparent with our clients and can evaluate if you’re well positioned for a wayfinding project.

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Interpreting Early 19th Century Life for Children Amanda Sedlak-Hevener InterpNEWS Regional Editor

mandyhevener@gmail.com

Many elementary school-aged children have no idea that life existed before McDonald’s, tablet computers, and grocery stores. When they’re visiting museums – particularly ones with exhibits that illustrate life during the early 19th century, it’s important to make these things clear to them in a way that they can comprehend. For example, you can show them a fireplace, but will they know that back in 1805, a person had no other way of cooking other than over an open fire?

A replica of a cabin from this time period that is stocked with dried herbs, metal plates and cups, cooking implements (cast iron pots and pans), a spinning wheel, a loom, and other items makes it easy to show the children just how people went about their daily life back then. Pointing out how people had to grow, catch, or raise anything that they wanted to eat or they’d starve, especially if they were out in a very rural area.

However, you can also tell them that once more people moved into an area and set up a village, then general stores and other businesses would follow suit. There was no Amazon.com – or even a computer – so things that were ordered from overseas took some time to come in.

On top of food, clothing is another topic that every child can relate to. Their parent’s buy them clothing or stock their closets with hand-me-downs from various places. Back in the early 19th century, most clothing was made by hand. In some cases, cloth was as well. This is where you explain how a spinning wheel works, and go into some detail about how sheep are sheared and their wool turned into thread. If you have them nearby, this is also a good time to show the kids how laundry was done, with a tub and a washbasin, or, if the time period is a bit later and the “family” was wealthier, with a metal clothes washing set up and a mangle.

Even beds were different in the early 19th century, as they had rope supports and mattresses stuffed with hay.

This is a good time to mention the rhyme “sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite” as most children have heard it, but might not understand what it means until they’re looking at something that helps them with the concept.

You can also point out that many of the smaller, rural homes were made by logs split by hand (without modern tools) and that many people had to make their own nails. Even fences and other things were made completely by hand with logs from trees that the settlers cut down on their own.

Interpreting how people lived during a time period that seems completely foreign to American kids these days isn’t impossible. While they may have a hard time grasping the ideas at first, as long as you keep emphasizing how different things were –and the complete lack of modern day amenities – then they will eventually begin to understand.

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InterpNEWS 2018 - an early peek at what's coming down the road.

Jan/Feb 2018 Mursi young woman - Ethiopia, cover.

July/Aug 2018 Issue.

Deadly Frogs cover.

Mar/April 2018 Issue Stagecoach Annie cover.

Sep/Oct 2018 Issue Day of the Dead cover.

May/June 2018 Issue Sharecropper story/cover.

Nov/Dec 2018 Issue Winter Fox cover.

Want to be part of our future too? IN reaches over 300K in 60 countries and is sent FREE as a service to the interpretive profession and to promote professionalism in interpretation world-wide. We are always looking for regional editors to help find articles and contribute to each issue. Interested in being part of the future of heritage interpretation communications with us?

Let's chat. jvainterp@aol.com. John Veverka - IN Publisher/Editor.

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InterpNEWS Marketplace.

InterpNEWS now offers advertising for interpretive services and media. If you'd like to advertise with InterpNEWS you too can reach our 300,000 IN recipients in 60 countries. http://heritageinterp.com/interpnews_advertising_details.html

Advertisers in this issue: Creative Edge Master Shop Taylor Studios, Inc. iZone Imaging Have Interpretation- Will Travel Heritage Interpretation International Group Guide Studio (Formally Studio Graphique) Wayfinding Audio Trails UK Kaser Design Museum Study Heritage Interpretation Training Center John Veverka & Associates Plas tan y Bwlch (Snowdonia National Park Training Center) Wales, UK

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InterpNEWS reaches more interpreters, government agencies, organizations, universities and related heritage sites than anyone, over 300K in 60 countries. A great publication to write for and advertise with, eh? http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpnews_advertising_details.html jvainterp@aol.com

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Have Interpretation...

Will Travel.

Interpretive Management and Tourism Development Consulting Have Interpretation-Will Travel is the newest addition to our Heritage Interpretation International Group. The mission of HIWT is to provide a range of heritage interpretation consultation services that most other interpretive firms don't offer at this time. Our team members are experts in heritage interpretation, from 40 years of interpretive planning, marketing and evaluation services, to teaching college courses in heritage interpretation (The Ohio State University, Michigan State University, and other university summer tourism institutes). We are authors of numerous heritage interpretation text books and provide consultation services world - wide. Our college degrees and academic training (BS, MS and Ph.D.) is specifically in Heritage Interpretation and related support fields (visitor research, marketing programs and analysis, psychology of the visitor, providing recreational learning experiences - visitor motivations and expectations from your heritage experience offerings and the (cash) perception of value from admissions paid to products-benefits received by the visitor). Did they pay $30.00 for a $10.00 experience? Probably won't see them again.

HIWT provides problem solving services to heritage agencies and organizations offering management and operations consulting services, outcome based interpretive management and research strategies and visitation growth planning development. How to deal with problems before they become problems. Forecasting visitation marketing issues and visitation trends. The "business" of heritage tourism and heritage site/attraction management.

Want to know a bit more? If you're a heritage tourism business manager or supervisor of a interpretive site or attraction or owner of a commercial heritage tourism business, cruise ship management/owner, heritage resort management, etc. have a look at my YouTube video and I'll tell you more about our new group and how we can help you increase your product diversification, audience/market share and profits. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vm7FcDb2u0 Want to know more? Feel free to contact us at any time.

John Veverka CEO Heritage Interpretation International Group Director, Have Interpretation - Will Travel http://www.heritageinterp.com/have_interpretation_-_will_travel.html jvainterp@aol.com

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Working to help forge the future of Heritage Interpretation:

* John Veverka & Associates. * InterpNEWS - the International Heritage Interpretation e-Magazine. (Reaching 300,000 in 60 countries) * The Center for Interpretive Planning Excellence and Advancement. * Interpretive Evaluation, Visitor Studies and Site Assessment Center. * The Heritage Interpretation Training Center (teaching 37 college level courses in heritage interpretation). www.herigateinterp.com

www.heritageinterp.com/interpnews.html

www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_evalu ation_visitor_studies_and_site_.html

www.heritageinterp.com/the_center_for_interpretive_planning_advance ment_.html

www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_training_ center_course_catalogue_.html

Want to be part of our future? Let's chat. jvainterp@aol.com

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Online Professional Development.

MuseumStudy.com At Museum Study our mission is to help you build a better cultural institution and be a stronger member of the team that carries out the mission of your institution.

To accomplish this we provide online professional development courses on a broad range of topics important for running a cultural institution including; Administration, Exhibits & Public Programming, Facilities Management, Collections Management, and Collection Preservation & Care. Our goal is to help you develop policies, procedures and programs to increase your institutions management and operations success.

New museum courses for 2017.

For more information on these courses click the links below or visit our schedule page to see what other courses are coming in the months ahead. http://www.museumstudy.com/courses/course-schedule/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

September 4th 2017 - Introduction to Natural History Collections.

- Moving Museum Collections.

- Planning and Presenting Live Interpretive Programs.

October 2nd 2017 - Assessing Risk to Cultural Property 1 - Understanding Photographic & Graphic Arts Materials.

- Creating Exhibitions Through the Collective Community.

November 6th 2017 - Interpretive Writing.

- Integrated Pest Management: The Plan and Implementation.

- Care a& Management for Archives and Works on Paper.

November 15, 2017 AASHL Basics of Archives.

For more information on our courses visit the course schedule on MuseumStudy.com.

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Looking for Interpretive Training Courses to expand your expertise and help with new or ongoing projects? http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_training_center_ course_catalogue_.html jvainterp@aol.com

The Heritage Interpretation Training Center offers 37 college level courses in heritage interpretation.

Start the course any time and work on the course at your own pace. All courses are offered on-line via our e-Live program where you correspond with and send assignments to your interpretive coach.

We also offer our courses live to be presented at your site for your organization staff or regional interpretive training - from one-day seminars to 5-day courses. All courses award certificates of completion and CEU credits. $800.00/day of training. Ask for details.

Some of our most popular courses. Cut and paste the link to visit that courses web site page for complete course content.

Introduction to Heritage Interpretation Course. 14 Units - 2 CEU credits. $150.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/introduction_to_heritage_interpretation_course.html Planning/Designing Interpretive Panels e-LIVE Course - 10 Units awarding 1.5 CEU Credits $125.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_panels_course.html Planning Interpretive Trails e-LIVE Course - 13 Units - 2.5 CEU Credits $200.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_trails_course.html Interpretive Writing e-LIVE Course - 8 Units and 2 CEU Credits $200.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_writing_course.html Interpretive Master Planning - e-LIVE. 13 Units, 3 CEU Credits. $275.00 http://www.heritageinterp.com/interpretive_master_planning_course.html