2009 - USDA Forest Service

Walking Stick
January 2009 Interpretive and Conservation Education Master Plan
• Interpreters will have portions of their time available to design additional
interpretive programs and develop special EYNF Interpretive events.
• More opportunities exist for developing a wider range of tours: some
could offer increased contact time in order to hike to multiple forest
attractions in a single tour, adding such locations as the Dwarf forest, and
the El Toro Wilderness Area.
• Another variant of this would provide special tours, e.g.; night time
nature trail tours or early morning bird identification hikes.
• Price range differentials for more complex tours should be derived and
set in place from inception.
• Using partners or outside providers to implement these tours could
prove to be a more cost effective consideration within the overall
interpretive program budget.
• The tours of duty of the two seasonal interpreters should be extended in
order to keep three interpreters available at a minimum during high season
and two interpreters available during the rest of the year. An analysis of the
present program situation and the proposed schedule shows that this could
be achieved by increasing their tours of duty from the current 180 work
days to 220 days, With this minimal change the variety of interpretive
offerings could be significantly increased, and customer satisfaction would
rise as there would always be at least one person available for visitor
service.
• This beneficial effect would conceivably “spill over” to the conservation
education program since both services are provided by the same staff
members.
Special events
Special events serve to reach out to target groups in the community, mark
important holidays, and to highlight high priority conservation themes, and
so on. By presenting these events we strive to attract larger groups of
forest visitors for educational and conservation purposes.
Table 14 - Special Events
Month Event Description ICE Staff – Task(s) Location
March International
Earth Week
Celebration
Conservation
Education Fair
organized by
IITF
El Yunque National Forest 68
Provide logistic
support
Botanical
Gardens and
related events at
EYNF