Camping is one of the fastest growing recreational activities. More and more families are packing tent or trailer and heading to one of Alberta’s many provincial parks and campgrounds. With this rapid influx, the parks have begun to develop new and innovative ways to both educate and entertain their visitors. Through the use of interpretive theatre, slide presentations, nature walks and a variety of other mediums, park interpreters are able to make the wilderness come to life.
The role of the park interpreter, or naturalist, has a long tradition in our park system. Many years ago, interpreters were taking groups of people on nature hikes to explain the many wonders found within our parks. Even today, the tradition of the nature hike lives on. Most parks that offer programming, also offer a variety of walks into the many significant regions they are designed to protect. The nature hike began long ago, and normally consists of a series of stops used to reveal some of the many features often missed during our generally rushed visits to our parks.
As interpreters began to garner a wider acceptance in parks, they began to vary their programming styles. The amphitheatre program was born around this time, and slide presentations were the medium of choice. You could bring the family to an outdoor stage and watch a series of slides detailing the natural and human history of the park in which you were camped. Unfortunately for many families, these more traditional presentation styles often held little interest for the younger family members. With children’s shorter attention spans, and lack of technical understanding, many of these presentations failed to attract families looking for a more varied program.
Luckily, over the past 10 years, things have changed. Programs across the province now are much more interactive and designed to bring a hands-on approach to our parks and wilderness areas. The dry lecture seems to have given way to a stimulating and entertaining presentation. Many parks also offer programs specifically designed to keep families entertained with environmental games and other highly active programs. Regardless of where you visit, you will find park interpreters busily engaged in the development of new and varied activities.
Perhaps the most dramatic changes have occurred in Kananaskis Country. Dropping by one of the evening programs here will quickly remove any reservations you may have about the death of the old style lecture. As the programs begin, you may find yourself transferred into a world of make belief—a world where animals speak and mountains move. In these programs anything goes. They usually take the form of an hour long play detailing any of a variety of wilderness or historical themes. With names like "Carry On Ranching" and "The Elbow’s Greatest Hits", you may meet characters like Dolly Varden and Herkemore the Coyote. You learn about Tick Tactics or how to see the forest and the trees. You meet with long vanished explorers and hear about the history of the Kananaskis through story, legend and even first hand experience.
Interpretive programs provide one of the easiest ways to learn a little more about the parks you visit. They bring the history to life and help give the plants, animals and geology some meaning. To preserve parks, we need to know more about the significance of those park areas. Also, programs allow the park to inform visitors about any specific concerns or dangers that may exist within that particular site.
In some provincial parks, guided hikes are the only way a visitor will be allowed into some of the more sensitive areas. In Dinosaur Provincial Park, interpreters take you on guided bus tours into an area where Paleontologists are actively excavating the bones of long vanished giants. Further south, at Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park, you can join naturalists as they take you past the stories of long disappeared natives carved into the soft sandstones. Without interpreters, these sites would be too sensitive to allow visitors to experience. If you haven’t visited these parks, do make the effort as they both offer some unsurpassed programming.
Interpretive programs can make your visit to our parks more exciting. In Kananaskis, crowds of several hundred people now regularly experience these wacky, yet informative presentations. Why not head out to one of our many provincial parks and check out some out the new interpretive programs for yourself.
