Draft Interpretive Plan Join the adventure! - Captain John Smith ...

Map Folders or Brochure
Produce a simple foldout map and guide to help first-time users of the trail find their way.
Such a folder may be the only publication that is needed to guide users on short day-use
trails and overnight trails of 50 miles or less. Revise and update these handy tools when
you print a new supply. Depending on your financial resources, distribute them as free
publications or sales items.
Map and Guides
Create a water trail map and guide about the trail after testing the waters with the simple
foldout map. You may find that a larger publication is both needed and desired by users
to convey practical visit information in greater depth and to provide boaters with detailed
inset maps of certain areas (such as directions to access points, water hazard areas, and
dam portages). To widen the appeal of the map and guide, it could contain interpretive
essays and features about the area’s natural, historical, and recreational features.
Depending on the number of pages, use of color, and other factors, map and guides can
be costly to develop and print. Selling map and guides can be an important source of
revenue for your water trail. This revenue can be used to fund a reprint of the map and
guide and development of water trail facilities.
Websites
Develop a website so potential users can download and print out the water trail map and
basic information to plan their trip. . Increasingly, websites are the first places people
search to get travel and recreation information. Keep the website up to date and, as time
permits, add links to local outfitters, area accommodations, points of interest, and related
sites.
Signs
Produce orientation, interpretive and wayfinding signs to increase the public’s awareness
of the trail, to direct visitors, to identify sites, and to indicate hazards. Hire a professional
design firm to create a signage plan for the whole trail, so the signs will have a consistent
appearance from one end to the other. The sign plan will also provide formats and
instructions for adding and replacing signs in the future.
Wayside Exhibits
Install wayside exhibits at launch sites to provide orientation information, a map of the
trail, safety tips, and regulations. As funds permit, produce wayside exhibits that interpret
natural and human history stories related to stopping-off sites along the trail. Hire
professionals to design and fabricate the exhibits and bases, so they convey a consistent,
standard approach that will enhance the trail’s identity.
Developing Wayfinding Guides
Unlike a clear path through the woods, a water trail is a nebulous entity. But, oddly
enough, identifying the watery route in a map folder and guidebook, on signs and
exhibits, and on the World Wide Web bring a sense of reality to the trail. These
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