A volunteer ranger at North Cascades builds a talk around a map from about 1857

A hand-drawn map from about 1857 that treats waterways and trails alike, as ways to travel, became the centerpiece of a ranger talk at Lake Chelan National Recreation Area in Washington. The talk was given by an international volunteer who had come through the National Park Service's International Volunteers-in-Parks program (IVIP). An episode of the NPS podcast Conservation Diaries and a companion article describe the visit; this page draws on both and leaves out the people's names.

The program

IVIP brings people of different cultural, educational and professional backgrounds to work in national parks and programs. The Park Service gains from their knowledge and perspective, and the volunteers gain experience for careers in conservation. The program is open to all ages even though the podcast series features youth, and the State Department designates it an official exchange visa program. The podcast says IVIP coordinates opportunities for nearly 100 foreign nationals in many parks. It is one of several programs through which the Park Service shares its expertise with people around the world.

A remote post

The volunteer wanted experience in natural history and park management, and came to North Cascades National Park through the program. There the volunteer served as an interpretive ranger at Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, which North Cascades National Park manages. The recreation area is remote: it can be reached only by ferry, has no cell phone service, and receives its supplies by delivery. The park itself holds a rugged mountain landscape with 300 glaciers and many pristine lakes.

Interpretive rangers act as the human link between visitors and the park. In this role the volunteer ran campsite roves, taught Leave No Trace principles, issued backcountry permits, answered questions at the visitor center and gave talks. Because the team was small, the volunteer said, an extra pair of hands helped keep some services open.

The map talk

While digging through the park's archive collections, the volunteer found a photocopy of a map from about 1857, drawn by a Salish guide on an expedition to survey the Canadian border. It looked very different from a modern GPS map. According to the volunteer, it did not distinguish waterways from trails: both were shown as equal ways to travel, emphasizing practical use over a bird's-eye picture of the land.

That became an evening program built on one question: how do different styles of maps influence our imagination and exploration of place? It compared historic maps made by local Tribes with those drawn by early European and European American explorers, and asked whether people limit themselves to the beauty points a map notes. A second program was a drop-in table about how forests adapt to wildfire. The volunteer left the research and the wildfire resources for future rangers to use.

What the volunteer took away

The talk let the volunteer combine academic research with outdoor work and talking with people, which clarified a possible career in interpretation. The volunteer also called the exchange a good way to get to know a place's character, and recommends it to others.

Sources

• National Park Service, Conservation Diaries: International Volunteer, a Conservation Diaries podcast episode and article on North Cascades National Park; the volunteer's, the host's and the coordinator's names, photographs and biographies are left out, and the interviewee's words are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.