Workshop

The Role of Environmental History in the National Parks

Date: Friday, March 12, 2010

Time: 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Place: Portland Hilton Hotel for morning session

Cost: Free

Sign-Up: This is a free event, and does not appear on the Portland conference registration form. Participation is limited to 50 people. NOTE: As of January 11, 2010, the afternoon session (site visit) is closed. To sign up for the morning session and/or to get on the waiting list for the afternoon site visit, e-mail director@aseh.net. Open to all conference attendees, including ASEH and NCPH.

Morning Session Speakers:

Timothy Babalis, National Park Service

Rebecca Conard, Middle Tennessee State University

Rolf Diamant, National Park Service

Jim Feldman, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh

Mark Fiege, Colorado State University

Phil Scarpino, IUPUI

Mark Spence, HistoryCraft, Oregon

Objectives:

It is the mission of the NPS to interpret the nation’s past – and the work of the Second Century Commission and the Ken Burns series reflect on the role of the national parks in this mission. The workshop in Portland is an opportunity to bring environmental history into this discussion – and is a preliminary step toward forming a national panel of environmental historians to analyze the national parks and the role of our scholarship in public interpretation.

We hope to publish the talks, in part to establish a record of these proceedings. In addition, the workshop, including the discussions, will be transcribed. We would like to look back on this event in 20 years as the foundation of a significant dialogue about the public interpretation of historical issues, in much the same way the NPS conferences in the early 20^th century provided the groundwork for discussion.

Preliminary Topics:

1. State of the field in environmental history with regard to national parks.

2. Why environmental history is essential to park management.

The afternoon will be devoted to a site visit: Historic Columbia River Highway, including Multnomah Falls

Board bus at 12:00 PM; box lunches provided. Site visit speakers: Larry Lipin, Pacific University, Oregon and Bob Hadlow, Oregon Department of Transportation.

Note: Workshop will be limited to 50 people for morning and afternoon sections (owing to need for discussion, amount of food and coffee available, and seats on the bus). Sign-up info. will be available on this website November 2009.

Sponsored by the National Park Service

Click here for more detailed list of workshop presentations.

Click here for itinerary for afternoon site visit to historic Columbia River Highway.