Audio
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and Snowdonia National Park in Wales Examine Challenges in the 21st Century
Transcript
(0:00) Music Intro
(0:11) Ranger Dean- Although National Parks have never been more popular, they’re facing a myriad of challenges in the 21st century. National Parks, by their very nature, belonged to the public and need to be accessible for people to connect or reconnect to nature, history and wilderness. But an ever-increasing number of visitors to these finite spaces is placing a strain on park infrastructure and resources around the globe. So, how do we balance making parks accessible to people while protecting these amazing places for future generations. Well, some of the strategies being tested are limiting the number of visitors through reservation systems, shuttle buses to reduce traffic and parking issues, and encouraging visitors to plan ahead to avoid crowds and times of peak visitation. To see just how widespread these issues are, I caught up with my good friend and colleague Helen Pye of Snowdonia National Park in Wales. We discussed this very topic from opposite sides of the globe and here's a little of our conversation.
(1:15) Ranger Dean- Helen, welcome and thank you so much for joining us. (1:18) Helen - Aloha and it's really lovely to speak to you. (1:21) Ranger Dean- And what time is it in Wales right now? I know it's about 9:00 AM in the morning here in Hawaiʻi. (1:25) Helen- So, it's just gone 8:00 o'clock in the evening here the sun is shining through the window and is a really lovely evening. But yeah, it's very strange speaking to somebody that's it's in the morning for you. (1:39) Ranger Dean- I love it. So, how do we say good evening in Welsh? (1:42) Helen- It's Noswaith dda. (1:46) Ranger Dean- I think I'm just gonna let our listeners practice that on their own. Welsh is is such a beautiful language though and thank you for sharing that. Helen, many of our listeners may not be familiar with Snowdonia National Park. Can you tell us a little about where it's located and when it was formed?
(2:05) Helen- Snowdonia National Park is located in North Wales, in the United Kingdom. It kind of covers the majority of the top third of Wales essentially, so it goes all the way from the coast up in the North, in a place called Colwyn. All the way kind of a third of the way down Wales to a place called Aberdyfi in the South. So, it was formed, established in 1951. So, this year we're actually celebrating our 70th anniversary. So, we've got lots of celebrations planned for that. It's a really beautiful National Park. Uhm. I grew up on the island of Anglesey, which is an island on the off the North Coast of Wales and remember growing up and hiking in the mountains because Snowdonia is very much a mixture of craggy mountains and peaks and but we've also got Celtic rainforests. We've got, you know, some incredible beaches. There's a real mix of landscape, really. I think a lot of people know Snowdonia for the highest mountain - Yr Wyddfa in Welsh. Many people know it as Snowden, so that's the highest mountain South of the Scottish border. So, it’s very, very popular. Over half a million people visiting Snowden every year and I think around 4 million a year visiting the National Park as a whole.
(3:38) Ranger Dean- I noticed as you were talking and that there's so many similarities between Snowdonia National Park and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. You spoke of beautiful landscapes with mountains, islands with rainforests, beaches. This beauty that seems to be deeply ingrained in all of us, attracts visitors from all around the globe. So, in your current role as the head of engagement, what do you have as a typical day for you?
(4:10) Helen- Umm…it's a bit bonkers by day, really. Uh, but It's probably not as fun as yours. Peering over the edge of volcanoes. I actually started out my career as a Ranger and a few years ago I was the Ranger on Snowden, the mountain I just talked about - Yr Wyddfa, and I've sort of worked my way up. So, I now manage about 20 people in the engagement team and it's an incredible group of people and we cover. I guess the main focus really is about kind of engagement with visitors with other partners who look after the National Park. But we also do quite a bit of work with volunteers. We do quite a bit of work on policy as well and visitor management. We've got these kinds of big challenges and how do we address those in the long term? So, one of the team is working on the National Park plan and they're also working on looking at kind of solving parking and transport issues in the area. So yes, it's really varied so you know, strategic work and management work, but I absolutely love my role because there's so many opportunities to kind of just look after the National Park and like you say, look after it for future generations.
(5:38) Ranger Dean-There's gonna be a number of our management team listening to this podcast and they can totally identify with the challenges you and your team are facing right now. We have major parking issues in times of peak visitation. We have overcrowded trails and visitor centers more and more common, but we also realize that these parks belong to the people and we need to take care of them for our children and our grandchildren. So, what would you say are the biggest challenges facing you and all of Snowdonia National Park right now?
(6:08) Helen- Yeah, I would say the ummm, our biggest challenges and certainly even more so in the last year, would be management of visitors and the impacts on the National Park really. We do an incredible amount of work to work on reducing litter. We do a lot of work on educating visitors about how and when to visit, what the rules of the countryside are, and we've been having a lot of challenges this year with people fly camping, so camping anywhere and everywhere really without permission. So, it's been yeah, quite a challenge on that front and because there are so many visitors as well. You know the parking and transport issues, so there's a huge volume of cars coming into the National Park, so we're kind of looking at ways that we can make that a lot more sustainable. So how can we encourage people, you know, put the infrastructure in place to encourage people to kind of leave their cars and come in via transport public transport, so there's a lot of work going on in in the popular northern areas with the National Park at the minute to try and solve that.
(7:21) Ranger Dean-Thanks for sharing that Helen. I think it's important that at this time in our history we acknowledge these problems, not just at our two parks, but as a global phenomenon. When working traffic control, I'd sometimes hear visitors say “well, back in 1960 when we visited, we didn't have these problems.” I'd have to try and be sympathetic, but without saying, Well, back in 1960 the population of the entire planet was only about 3 billion people. Today, we're rapidly approaching 8 billion. It's not exactly the same thing, and it's something all of our parks are facing. Not only our two national parks but worldwide. Let's just say that I'm planning to visit Snowdonia National Park. What do you think is the best way for me to prepare for the trip and what would you want visitors to know before they come there?
(7:59) Helen- So, I think the first thing is about, thinking about what are the things to do that are gonna enable you to experience, the things that really makes Snowdonia special. Because I think there's some things that you know everybody knows about, like “must climb to the top of Yr Wyddfa, Snowden.“ You know that's gotta be ticked off the bucket list. For those of us who live and work in the National Park, there are other things that make the area just incredible and kind of set it apart from other places. So, I think maybe one of the things that that people don't necessarily know about, but when they discover they find amazing, is the incredible cultures and the language of the area. So, over 60% of the population in Snowdonia are Welsh speakers. So, the majority of the of many of the communities that's their day-to-day language. But that's not necessarily very well known outside of that area or outside of Wales, really. So quite often people visit and they're like…”What…what’s this language?” So, so we're always trying to kind of engage with visitors to say, hey, you know, learn a few words of Welsh before you visit, because you know that will really, you know enamor the local people to the fact that you're trying that out, and I think also language connects you to place as well. So, there are links then into the culture of the area. A few years ago, the National Park had the privilege of being able to buy the home of a very important Welsh poet called Hedd Wyn who died in the war and we now look after that home for future generations. So, I think first kind of discovering the cultural side of things and then just starting to kind of tick your way through the other things that make the area so special. You know, the Celtic rainforests are incredible, they’re like sort of ancient oak woodlands in in deep ravine gorges where there's some incredible biodiversity. I guess in terms of other things to think about, it's just about planning ahead because it always, I think, takes people by surprise a bit that everybody else also wants to visit this amazing place. So, it's about kind of looking ahead, booking parking, you know, booking your accommodation and just making sure you've got everything organized beforehand.
(10:38) Ranger Dean-That's really great advice. There's always such deeper levels when you visit a special place. Climbing a mountain maybe the reason for your trip but finding a connection to Welsh culture and Celtic rainforests just makes it so much more. I want to thank my guest today, Helen Pye. She’s the head of engagement at Snowdonia National Park in Wales. If you would like to learn more about Snowdonia, or better yet, plan a visit. They have an incredible website, beautiful photography. Snowdonia is a place of great natural beauty, mountains, beaches and Celtic rainforests. But also, a place of great cultural significance for the Welsh people. Thank you so much for being with us, Helen, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us today.
(11:22) Helen-Thank you so much. It's been so lovely to speak to you.
(11:24) Music Outro
Description
Although national parks have never been more popular, they’re facing a myriad of challenges in the 21st Century. National parks, by their very nature, belong to the public and need to be accessible for people to connect to nature, history, and culture. But an ever-increasing number of visitors to these finite spaces is placing a strain on park infrastructure and resources worldwide. Ranger Dean catches up with Helen Pye of Snowdonia National Park in Wales to see how they're meeting the challenge.
Credit
Dean Gallagher
Date Created
09/08/2021
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