Park Leaders Show

Park visitors on active on social media. Is your park or agency using social media to engage and connect? Or are you just posting bulletins and the new hours your visitor center is open?

Many parks and park agencies wonder what the proper way to use social media. In this episode of the Park Leaders Show, KC Procter talks about best practices for using social media to engage with park visitors.

KC Procter works in social media in two ways. First, he manages social media accounts for businesses or people with personal brands. Among others, KC does social media for a well-known author and a celebrity photographer. KC also does social media consulting for businesses.

Today, KC is going to talk to you about how your agency or your park can do better with social media. He will also do a walk through on the Park Leaders Facebook page so you can understand what makes a Facebook post more appealing.

You can visit KC on Twitter or his website.

KC put together a bonus for listeners of the Park Leaders Show. CLICK HERE to see what KC has for you.

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Sue Black, Director of Arizona State Parks, returns to the Park Leaders Show to talk about culture, visitation and the impact of parks on a state.

You can hear her first interview HERE.

Director Black offers compelling reasons why parks are important as whole to a state and individual parks to communities. It is not about the park, it is about what happens in the park.

You can't listen to this interview with Director Black and not be proud to be involved in parks.

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Sue Black, Director of Arizona State Parks, joins the Park Leaders Show to discuss creating a Gold Medal culture in parks.

Arizona State Parks is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Director Black has a goal to win the National Parks and Recreation Association Gold Medal award this year. Throughout her career, Director Black has set high goals and then found a way to achieve it.

Sue Black has been a director of two State Park systems, Wisconsin and Arizona, as well as Director of a County Park system. She brings a unique perspective to any parks conversation. Customers don't care about jurisdiction. Customers want to recreate. If different park systems are willing to work together, we can serve people better.

As a previous Gold Medal winner with Milwaukee Country Parks, and a finalist with Wisconsin State Parks, Director Black is working with her team to develop the culture to make Arizona State Parks a Gold Medal winner.

Sue also shares the tragic story that led to Granite Mountain Hotshot Memorial State Park.

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When the Director of Texas State Parks was a guest on the Park Leaders Show, he mentioned the Ambassador Program as one of the great things they were doing in Texas.

Tyler Priest, the coordinator of the Ambassador Program, joins the Park Leaders Show to tell us more about the program Director Leisure is so proud of.

An Ambassador Program is a way for a park system to introduce younger people to parks. Even if an Ambassador alumni does not end up working for parks, they will be a lifelong supporter and user of parks.

During this interview, you will find out the structure of the Program, the commitment from parks to each Ambassador, and what parks can expect from an Ambassador Program.

If you want to receive an information sheet about the Texas State Parks Ambassador Program, click here.

In addition to Tyler Priest, we also talk to Program alumni. Jenise Zuidema gives insight to the program from the inside as an Ambassador going through the training and working with a park.

Listen to the interview with Brent Leisure Part 1 and Part 2.

James Slade grew up in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. Now, he is on the front line in Africa working as Operations Manager and ranger with the Zimbabwe International Anti-Poaching Foundation.

James will give us an inside look at what it is like to be an anti-poaching ranger, and what the poaching situation is like in Zimbabwe.

Although in a management role, James spends as much time as possible shoulder to shoulder. This leadership trait will allow managers to get to know field staff better and get a feel for the pulse of what is happening in the field.

James also speaks about the impact of his time at the World Ranger Congress. Rangers gathered together helps build a brotherhood, or sisterhood, and recharge and reinspire us to keep working on the important work we do.

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Robert Ingram, Cheif of Visitor Protection and Law Enforcement for Washington State Parks, joins the Park Leaders Show to discuss bike patrol in parks.

Cheif Ingram was the driving force behind Washington State Parks bike patrol program. In this interview, he will share how the bike program was formed, how the agency chose the bikes and the decision to keep training in house.

Washington State Parks used three of their own rangers, trained by the International Police Mountain Bike Association, to help maintain the bike program and train ranger on bike skills.

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The National Park Service is faced with a $12 billion deferred maintenance backlog. How did we get here and what can we do about it?

John Garder from the National Parks Conservation Association joins the Park Leaders Show to discuss how the maintenance backlog grew so large and what we can do about it.

The maintenance backlog in the National Park Service is a reflection of what is happening with most park system throughout the United States. The discussion on the impact of a maintenance backlog is relevant for any park and any park system that struggles with deferred maintenance.

To find out more about the deferred maintenance backlog, please visit NPCA.org.

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One of the things I learned at the World Ranger Congress is that parks all over the world have the same problems.

Teemu Laine and Vesa-Matti Hillberg, both park rangers from Finland, join the Park Leaders Show to share their experience at the World Ranger Congress and what they have learned as park rangers.

This is the first episode of the show where "Reindeer herders" were mentioned as a problem for a park ranger. Even when the details are different, most of the problems we face are similar. This is why it is valuable for park professionals to be exposed to other rangers from around the country and world.

You can find out more about Finland National Parks HERE.

Brent Leisure, Director of Texas State Parks, returns for another episode of the Park Leaders Show.

This episode is short enough it could have easily been included on the first episode with Director Leisure. This conversation is a separate episode because it needs to be a separate conversation.

We need to support parks at all levels. City and County Parks are an important gateway for exposure to greenspace and the outdoors. For most of us, our first encounters with the outdoors are with an urban park. Parks enhance neighborhoods and lead people to visit larger State and National Parks.

The experience of visiting a National Park lead us to support our local parks as well. All parks are connected. It is a natural progression to begin with your local park and then move up to something bigger and perhaps more adventurous.

Director Leisure explains what Texas State Parks is doing to work with local communities and local parks.

In this episode, Director Leisure recommends the books Sand County Almanac and Leadership on the Line.

Texas is big. If you haven't been to Texas you have seen it on a map. No matter how you look at the state, it is big.

The enormous geographic size creates a challenge when it comes to communicating to staff if they are spread across the state. Brent Leisure, Director of Texas State Parks

Brent Leisure, Director of Texas Parks and Wildlife, joins the Park Leaders Show to discuss how to communicate when parks and staff are spread out. Communicating with a large staff in difficult. It becomes more delicate when the large staff is spread out in such a large state.

Director Leisure also discusses the challenge of inviting more diverse users to parks.

It is not enough to open the gates and say everyone is welcome to come. You have to reach out. Texas State Parks has implemented programs to engage a diverse population. They make an effort to attract urban visitors, visitors with little outdoor experience, visitors from diverse racial backgrounds. The lands and water the state has set aside are places where all demographics can come together to share experiences.