Science and Public Engagement in National Parks: Examples and Advice from Young Scientists

Abstract

Communicating research to public audiences and helping public audiences engage with science is a significant component of scientific careers today, as evidenced by the countless scientists active on social media. Formal encouragement and support for public communication and engagement can be seen in published calls for scientists to be better communicators (Olson 2009), syntheses and prospectuses for research in science communication (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2017), countless science communication training opportunities (e.g., COMPASS: https://www.compassscicomm.org/), public storytelling programs featuring scientists (e.g., The StoryCollider: https://www.storycollider.org/), and the establishment of professional societies and journals in citizen science (e.g., Citizen Science Association: https://citizenscience.org/). In ecology, ESA actively embraces and supports scientists' roles in public communication and engagement through advocacy, training, funding, and communication channels (Kenney et al. 2020). We are encouraged that interest and support for communication and engagement is present among students and other early career scientists (Kuehne et al. 2014, Neeley et al. 2015, Ritchie et al. 2022). National parks are ideal places for ecologists and other scientists to engage with public audiences. Parks provide scientists with endless opportunities for research that can inform management of public protected areas (Sauvajot 2016). Equally important, parks present visitors with opportunities to associate scientific experiences with their emotional attachments to place (Halliwell et al. 2022). With over 400 protected areas that draw hundreds of millions of visitors annually (https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/Reports/National), the United States' national park system has tremendous potential for informing public attitudes and values about science. The National Park Service (NPS) takes this potential seriously via its own staff, strategic initiatives, and partnerships in science communication and public engagement. Professional communicators in parks (interpreters, educators, and others) often are available to collaborate with researchers on making their science part of the visitors' experience (Watkins et al. 2018, Merson et al. 2020). For all these reasons, national parks can help strengthen scientists' work related to the “broader impacts” criterion of National Science Foundation grants. Early career scientists, from undergraduate students to junior faculty, have many opportunities to do science in national parks and communicate it to a variety of public audiences. All scientists who want to conduct research in parks must obtain permits (see https://irma.nps.gov/RPRS/), a process that yields relationships with resource managers and park interpreters (Watkins et al. 2018). In some parks, Research Learning Centers (www.nps.gov/rlc) collaborate with scientists on a variety of communication and engagement activities. Students and junior faculty can join projects or begin their own through established internship and fellowship programs. Examples include Scientists in Parks internships for students (https://www.nps.gov/subjects/science/scientists-in-parks.htm), and Mosaics in Science internships for students from under-represented demographic groups (https://www.nps.gov/subjects/youthprograms/mosaics.htm). The Second Century Stewardship program at Acadia National Park provides graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and junior faculty competitive financial awards for research, with training and opportunities in science communication (https://www.scsparkscience.org/). And NPS websites, which attract hundreds of millions of viewers, offer many opportunities for scientists to communicate with diverse audiences about their park-related science. One such site is the recently reconstituted electronic magazine Park Science (https://www.nps.gov/subjects/parkscience/index.htm). Here, we share our stories to demonstrate the diversity of science communication opportunities that national parks provide to students and other early career scientists. Our goal is to show how conducting and communicating science in parks can enhance one's scientific accomplishment and skills by including societal impacts, and to encourage other early career scientists to consider working with national parks. As an employee of the NPS, one of us (TW) often sees students and early career scientists who are inspired to bring science and people together in parks. The rest of us (JB, CN, SS) are early in our scientific training and careers and have recently communicated science in national parks in a variety of ways. I am a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. In the summer of 2021, I was a Scientist in Parks Fellow at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park (HAVO). My role was to create a curriculum for local high school students that addressed the impacts of climate change on the island of Hawai'i and incorporated Native Hawaiian science and culture (https://www.esa.org/scientists-in-parks/building-curriculum-around-science-and-culture-at-hawaii-volcanoes-national-park/). To do this, I reviewed research on localized effects of climate change and on Native Hawaiian connections to land and ecology. I interviewed local cultural and scientific leaders and park scientists, then worked to translate their on-the-ground research and cultural knowledge into engaging, hands-on lessons around the park to be taught by local teachers and the park's education staff. As a liaison between park scientists and the public, tasked with cultivating meaningful experiences within nature that promoted climate science learning, I was able to gain insight on how the Park Service utilizes their established community relationships to effectively share their science. Ultimately, the goal of this curriculum is to help youth strengthen their relationships with nature and provide them with tools necessary to foster change. I think many ecologists hope their work has that kind of impact, and we all recognize the power of science communication in helping the public learn about important scientific topics (Kappel and Holmen 2019, Zerzan 2019). Because of this, there seems to be a growing request by employers (academic institutions, governmental or nongovernmental organizations, etc.) for scholars and scientists who are able to communicate their science to various audiences (https://neuronline.sfn.org/outreach/how-science-communication-can-improve-your-career). Especially as we begin to acknowledge that community buy-in and support are key to conservation and climate change efforts (Kappel and Holmen 2019), this call for science communication skills will only grow (Brownell et al. 2013). As someone whose work revolves around wildlife management, science communication is both an incredibly important and a very exciting aspect of what I do. For my research, I'm interested in how people's perceptions about wildlife influence how they interact with wildlife. So I talk to people a lot about science and nature and use this information to better understand wildlife management issues. A whole slew of things, like our cultures and early experiences, are vital to shaping our relationships with nature and how we understand science (Kahan 2012, Hendricks 2017, Kappel and Holmen 2019). The national parks offer scientists the special chance to cultivate and share experiences within beautiful natural spaces that can shape how people connect with nature. Classrooms are critical spaces for knowledge production around climate change work (Rousell and Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles 2020). Through established relationships with community schools, national parks give scientists the opportunity to incorporate our on the ground science into students' curriculum, ultimately helping them better understand the science through relevancy and real-world examples and within nature. For an informed public with a commitment and responsibility toward fighting for climate justice, sharing our science with school-aged audiences is key (Kuo et al. 2019, Rousell and Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles 2020). My experience at HAVO helped me realize that working in a park is a unique, compelling experience for anyone who wants to do and share their science with local communities. Even more, the national parks provide so many different ways for current students to do this. If you are interested in science communication or science education, or even just hoping to get experience in them for your resume, contact a park or an internship of interest and get involved. The experiences we can cultivate for the public, either directly with our own science communication or by using park interpreters and educators to share the science we conduct, have the potential to shape people's understanding of science in ways that better our future. I am a Climate Change Adaptation Scientist for the Schoodic Institute, a close partner of Acadia National Park (ANP). Over the past 7 years, I worked closely with ANP to test methods for adapting natural resource management to climate change. I built my relationship with the park through two unique fellowships designed to foster partnerships between academic scientists and conservation practitioners. Such partnerships are all too rare in conservation biology (Bertuol-Garcia et al. 2017), especially for early career scientists, but are critical for early career scientists to build the relationships necessary for meaningful science communication. The first of these fellowships (the Second Century Stewardship Fellowship) provides funding for research that advances conservation science and supports stewardship of resources in ANP. The fellowship provides training and opportunities for science communication and many opportunities for meaningful engagement with park staff. I became an SCS fellow as a Ph.D. student and evaluated the importance of cool locations on the landscape (i.e., refugia) for biodiversity conservation under climate change (Nadeau et al. 2022). As a fellow, I received training in science communication and used that training to communicate my science broadly, including producing a video about my research for an NPS website (https://www.nps.gov/articles/acadia_freshwater_puddles.htm), having meaningful engagement with park visitors about climate change, providing a workshop about a unique ecosystem in the park for park interpreters, and working with staff from the Schoodic Institute to develop and present a workshop for local K-12 teachers trying to incorporate climate change into their curriculum (https://thinkingaboutschools.com/2017/06/30/teaching-toward-the-future-adaptation-and-climate-change/). The second fellowship (the David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship) is a postdoctoral fellowship administered by the Society of Conservation Biology that seeks to develop future world leaders that successfully link conservation science and application. Each Smith Fellow has a mentoring team composed of both academic scientists and conservation practitioners and receives training to build leadership and communication skills. I leveraged my existing relationship with Acadia National Park and the Schoodic Institute to build my practitioner mentoring team. As a fellow, I evaluated how managing genetic diversity can mitigate the impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations in multiple ecosystems. Through my relationship with the park, I was able to lead a delegation of U.S. Congressional representatives through an active field experiment on Cadillac Mountain and demonstrate the many values of doing research in National Parks. I also worked with journalists and writers to produce popular articles and radio stories about my research. My experience doing science in ANP changed the course of my career and taught me that meaningful science communication starts with strong relationships, which parks offer in many different ways. First, effective science communication takes practice in real-world situations, yet opportunities for meaningful practice are rare for many early career scientists (Rubega et al. 2021). By building a relationship with ANP and its partners, I found many opportunities for practice, especially because I made it clear to multiple park staff that I was interested and willing to engage in an array of science communication opportunities. This willingness and persistent messaging is a lesson I would impart to other young scientists. Second, not only do parks offer opportunities for science communication but they also have staff with diverse communication expertise. I learned that it was important to build relationships with diverse staff members (e.g., interpreters who engage visitors, education specialists who engage teachers and students, resource managers in charge of stewarding the park) to maximize my learning and science communication opportunities. Last, parks have relationships with many partners, including local communities, journalists, members of U.S. Congress, and tribal nations. Building these relationships takes years, and few early career scientists have had time to build such relationships on their own. Building a relationship with ANP and being open to many different science communication opportunities therefore provided access to opportunities that would have been very difficult to achieve on my own. If you are interested in applied science or science communication, I encourage you to start building a relationship with the diverse staff and partners at your favorite National Park, perhaps by applying for one of the fellowships or internships described above. In the summer of 2021, I worked as a Mosaics in Science intern for an Inventory and Monitoring network in one of the NPS's 32 regions. Inventory and Monitoring (I&M) networks, stationed across the nation, conduct long-term monitoring of the beloved parks' natural resources (https://www.nps.gov/im/networks.htm). Their work can be explained as the “heart monitor” for park units, analyzing the “vital signs,” or health, of the park's plants, animals, and ecosystems in order to inform individual park management. My position as the Science Communication intern at the Mojave Desert Inventory and Monitoring Network (MOJN) allowed me to participate in ecological monitoring projects across the Mojave and Great Basin Deserts and to present said research to the public. Although MOJN is a key scientific source for highly visited NPS units, like Joshua Tree National Park and Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, MOJN, like most I&M networks, struggles to build public awareness of their work. With just over a handful of permanent staff and no affiliation with a specific park, there are few opportunities for I&M monitoring and research to be accessed by non-specialists. During my internship, I worked to improve accessibility using research briefs and social media. Research briefs and social media posts are valuable tools for improving the accessibility and readability of scientific research. For scientists who conduct place-based studies, like those in I&M networks, there are limited opportunities for face-to-face interactions with the public. Research briefs, however, begin to fill this need by providing non-specialists with readable yet thorough overviews of their existing work (Merson et al. 2020). For MOJN, I produced project summaries, research briefs that introduce the threats to a natural resource, the methods utilized in examining this threat, and the management applications of the information gathered. The project summaries along with other research briefs are easily accessed online under each of MOJN's monitoring efforts (https://www.nps.gov/im/mojn/monitoring.htm). Publicly available, these briefs can be accessed by both specialists and nonspecialists but are mostly used internally, as park staff hope to get a concise picture of the I&M research conducted at their parks. Without improved public awareness of MOJN (and I&M networks as a whole), I&M project briefs remain underutilized. So, my focus was to improve public awareness through developing MOJN's social media presence. I believed that by improving the public perception of MOJN, as evidenced by an increased online following, MOJN's research could not only impact park management but the knowledge and behavior of the general public. Utilizing social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram forced me to engage with an audience of different backgrounds, ages, and levels of expertise while maintaining the integrity of the research. I worked on creating impactful photography (such as a side-by-side comparison of the Lake Mead water levels in 1956 to the bathtub rings in 2021), drawing the audience to learn about a natural resource, the cultural heritage of the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts, and/or the status of MOJN's research projects. Quippy captions were also a must and were written to inspire personal reflection and action. Many times, followers would reach out to find ways to get involved or would offer personal connections to the post content. Developing scientific bodies like I&M networks to be public entities for engagement and inspiration is increasingly important as the public's confidence in scientists fluctuates (Funk et al. 2019). Before MOJN, I contributed to a long-term monitoring project as an undergraduate, extracting and analyzing contaminants in a community's rainwater. Although my research aimed to improve public awareness of local water resources, I found myself isolated in the ivory tower of academia, in a space with few opportunities to engage with the public in a relevant way. I realized that in order for my research to have influence beyond the lab, I needed to learn how to clearly present the who, what, how, and why of my research. I began to seek out opportunities to improve my science communication skills. The I&M networks, and the National Park Service as a whole, provided that opportunity and introduced me to the diverse ways in which science and community can engage with each other. I encourage scientists, especially student scientists who desire more engagement with their communities, to pursue these internships and fellowships, explore the science communication toolbox, and bring forward a more accessible science. Public engagement with science is essential for a vibrant democracy, support for research and scientific knowledge building, and our public lands. Given the great range of opportunities, this is an exciting time for early career scientists to make research a part of public life. National parks need science, and they support scientists who bring research into the public realm. Our experiences have shown us how research in emotionally engaging places, like national parks, can help change the narrative of what science looks like, who can do it, and how public audiences place it in their own lives. These experiences provide opportunities for writing, speaking, and photographing in order to inform, convince, and inspire a broad range of public audiences; from young children to members of Congress. We know that the work is a fun and meaningful part of our identities as scientists. We believe it is a meaningful and important contribution to public life. We encourage all ESA Bulletin readers, especially students and early career ecologists, to make national parks part of their scientific careers. It is easy to take action by applying for an internship or research fellowship, conducting permitted field research in parks, or pitching stories about your research to Park Science. Join us! All authors contributed equally to conceptualizing, writing, and editing this article. The authors are listed alphabetically by their last name.