July 29, 2025 • 49 mins
"Every park has trees and trails. What makes people come back is you."
Notable Moments
[00:03:05] – Starting the keynote, the outhouse story that sparked an award
[00:07:24] – Transition from financial analyst to ranger life
[00:14:07] – Pandemic pressure and park visitation boom
[00:19:02] – Shifting from surviving to thriving post-2020
[00:26:49] – Importance of all roles: field and office
[00:30:01] – Why park staff are the defining feature of any park
[00:33:20] – Difference between “learned” and “earned” park stories
[00:38:27] – Parks’ impact on quality of life, not just economy
[00:42:41] – Michigan’s leadership in innovation and conservation
[00:47:44] – The importance of gatherings like in-service
Jody Maberry delivers his full keynote from the Michigan DNR in-service gathering, reflecting on the theme “Back to the Future of Parks.” He shares memorable stories and lessons from his time as a park ranger, during the pandemic, and how park professionals can shape the future of outdoor spaces. With humor, humility, and heartfelt appreciation, this talk highlights the power of people, the importance of public lands, and the irreplaceable value of every role in the park system.
Read the blog for more from this episode.
Resources
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Welcome to the Park Leader Show. I'm your host, Jody
Mayberry, and this episode, we're going to take the
stage together. Back in 2004,
Michigan Department of Natural Resources invited me
to come and speak at their In Service gathering. It was
Fantastic to spend three days with 700
(00:26):
friends from parks in the great state of Michigan. One of my
favorite things is to. Speak at park events.
When I arrived in Michigan, I had the chance to tour
a few parks before the inservice gathering. And
then I had the pleasure to be the keynote speaker at the event. It
was wonderful. The Lieutenant Governor spoke before I took the
(00:48):
stage. So, of course, now I claim that the
Lieutenant Governor was my opening act. That might not be true, but it
makes me feel good to say that I was introduced by
Rowdy Perry. So I want to give a special mention to Rowdy.
He's a fantastic park ranger in Michigan. He's doing
great work there. So with this episode, I'm going to share
(01:10):
my entire presentation to Michigan dnr, Michigan State
Parks. I'm going to share the whole thing with you. The theme of In Service
was Back to the Future. So my presentation
sticks with that theme. And you're going to hear the whole audio of the
presentation in full, no edits. I'm even
leaving in the awkward spot where I make a joke about my shoes and
(01:33):
no one laughs. It is one
of the best feelings you can get when you say something and 700 people
in a room laugh. It's also very awkward when you make a joke
and the room has that many people and nobody laughs. But you can't win them
all. I guess there will be some references to names that you
don't know unless you're in Michigan. And then maybe you'll love to hear those names.
(01:56):
There are a couple of audio glitches, but
I'm leaving the entire presentation intact for you to hear.
Before we get on stage, let me say, if you want me to speak
to your team, to your people, to your agency, get in
touch. I love speaking to park people and I want to come
and talk to your group. Talk to your agency. I've
(02:19):
been lucky enough to do this for Michigan and Nevada
and, and a few other agencies. So
please do reach out. You can reach me@jody park leaders.com
j o d y parkleaders.com
we're going to pick up directly after
Rowdy Perry introduces me, and the audience
(02:41):
welcomes me on the stage. And then at the end, the episode
ends with the applause from the audience. So there's. There's Nothing
at the end other than applause. I'm not going to come back and talk to
you, but I am going to give you this wonderful
presentation. Now let's get to work with back to
the future of parks.
(03:05):
Thank you, Rowdy. Thank you.
All right. Thank you for that introduction, Rowdy. I
had the pleasure of touring some parks with
Rowdy and other staff the last couple of days
and touring some new parks. It made me
remember when I was a ranger and I
(03:27):
got a job at a different park all the way across the state.
And you've been to new parks and you do a tour and
you don't know it real well. And then I was out driving by
myself, and I saw an outhouse
door propped open, which over in Spokane, we
didn't. It's Spokane, by the way, not Spokane. Over in
(03:49):
Spokane, we didn't do it that way. But I thought, well, I better. I better
check out what's going on here. So I stopped my truck, and I
walked over, and it's propped up, propped open. And I.
I see a guy in the outhouse, and he has a stick
down the. Down the hole. And I said, park
ranger, what are you doing here? And he's like, well, I'm
(04:11):
kind of embarrassed, but I dropped my jacket down there.
I know. He said, I dropped my jacket down there. I
said, look, we only pump that thing out, like,
once, maybe twice a year. You don't want that jacket. It's gonna be
so nasty. And he said, no, I'm not concerned about the jacket,
but there's a sandwich in the pocket.
(04:35):
Yeah. So, speaking of outhouses, what's up with Michigan
and outhouses? You've had two people get stuck in outhouses. Now,
I thought that only happened in Washington state. We had that where a
lady dropped her phone down the hole,
and she got out a stick and tried to dig it out, and she fell
in. I know. I thought it only happened out there, but you've
(04:57):
beat us. You've got two. My favorite outhouse story. This whole talk
is not about outhouses. My favorite outhouse story, though.
When I worked at Riverside State park in Spokane, we had a
ranger, Audra Sims. She was fantastic.
She was friendly to all the staff, knew all the neighbors
of the park, talked to all the visitors. And one
(05:20):
day she was going to a boat launch just to check the
outhouse to see if it had toilet paper in and out.
So she wouldn't be there long. So she popped out of her truck
and went into the outhouse. Look at the toilet paper. It looked Good. And she
turned around to leave. And the handle was broken
because it was in and out. She left her truck door open.
(05:43):
She left the truck running. She left her cell phone on
the seat. And our vault toilets are. Are
concrete, so her radio wouldn't even work.
And the story I was told by Ranger Jeremy
Jalali, I cannot verify this as true.
Jeremy Jalali told me that Audra climbed down the hole looking for a
(06:06):
way out. I don't know if it's true, but what
it did lead to was at
our region training much like this. But
we would have regions and then an annual one where everyone got together.
I asked, could I have a little time to talk?
And they said, yes. And I got to go. Right after the director and
(06:29):
I presented Audra with the Outhouse Award.
It was a wooden outhouse with our logo on the front that someone
had handmade. It was beautiful. And that started
an Outhouse Award for the eastern region, that
whoever had done the silliest thing, the stupidest thing, whatever,
would win the Outhouse Award. So that. That
(06:51):
all came from the story of Audra getting stuck in
that house. Now, Rowdy told you that I'm Jody Mayberry. He did
a good job at introducing me, telling you I have a background in
parks, because otherwise you might be like, what's a guy up there wearing
shoes like that talking to us about parks for? But I will tell you, it
can be as hard to break in dress shoes as it can a pair of
(07:12):
danners. But anyway,
I was a park ranger for eight years. But before I was a park ranger,
I was a financial analyst at a commercial bank.
My job was to measure interest rate risk.
That was as exciting as it sounds to you right now.
(07:33):
And then I became a park ranger. It was a
wonderful eight years, but it started off
rocky. My very first day, someone drowned in the river.
Later in the week, we had someone found dead in the
park under a bridge. Later that week, I had my first
(07:54):
very bloody incident in the campground. And two weeks
before, I was a financial analyst sitting at my desk, I
thought it was going to be chipmunks and hugging trees.
I did hug a tree a couple times. It was never chipmunks. I did have
a squirrel incident. But we can talk about that piece later.
(08:15):
It was a wonderful, wonderful eight years as
a park ranger. Because I was a financial
analyst. I came in from the outside
with a unique perspective because to me, it was business
and numbers. I just loved parks. I loved being
outside. And that's what I brought, is just a
(08:37):
fresh perspective. I Didn't know anything about running a park. I
didn't know anything about being a law enforcement officer. But after
eight wonderful years, I left as an insider
with now an outside perspective. Because I love
parks today as much as I did the day I became a park ranger.
And it was just a wonderful,
(08:59):
wonderful time. And I, I got to do. Rowdy mentioned that
I rode my bike all day. That was a two year stint I had as
the lead ranger of the Centennial Trail. And it was wonderful
riding your bike all day. Everything you needed was in your bag.
If I had to arrest somebody, well, you can't take someone
to jail on the handlebars of your bike. So I got to call someone
(09:22):
else to come and do it. All around. It was great.
But then I left parks. I went back to school
and got an MBA and had an office job and
all that. But I really missed parks. And I thought, how can
I stay connected to parks without going back
and working as a park ranger? I found out they don't like it if you
(09:45):
show up in green pants and just start answering questions for
visitors. If you're not on staff or volunteer, that's not
appreciated. So I started a podcast called the
Park Leader show, and it was really geared towards
me early in my career, the types of
conversations that I wanted to have with people, the types of conversations
(10:08):
that really made a difference as I was coming in because I didn't
know anything about park, so I had to get all my information from other
people because I didn't know how to manage a park or
numbers do what they're supposed to and people don't usually.
So it was really a unique situation for me. That's why I started
(10:28):
the Park Leader show, so other people could be
involved in those conversations. Before Rowdy
mentioned it, has anyone heard of the Park Leader Show? Oh,
a few. Several. All right, very good. Well, now the rest of you
have. Have heard of it, so you can subscribe to it. It's
anywhere you listen to podcasts. And that show has,
(10:50):
has been very interesting. Your, your director was on
a number of years ago. There's been other directors. There's been people from
parks, city parks, county parks. And it's, it's not
just a, it's for park professionals and, and
it's wonderful conversations about
what, what we're dealing with in parks. And then that, that led to
(11:14):
other podcasts like creating Disney magic and whatnot. But the
Park Leader show has been going for 10 years now. There are a lot of
conversations about parks and with the
theme of
the Theme of Back to the Future really
got me thinking about what were we talking about?
(11:38):
But what? Well, first, I want to return to Audra's story.
Not to talk about outhouses, but to say what I really
liked about that story is
even though Audra was uncomfortable in that outhouse
and we joked with her a lot,
she really made a difference. And what I forgot to tell
(12:01):
you is that a park visitor had saw her drive in,
and she always waved at people and smiled. Well,
that person, after it had been like two hours, thought, I didn't see
Audra come back by. So he drove down to the boat launch and
found Audra's door open and the truck running and her stuck in
the outhouse. So that's how she got out. I really
(12:24):
like that piece because it shows how much
the community cares for. For us in parks, and
they care about the staff and they care about the parks and the work that
we do. And it shows the dedication of
park professionals. Audra had an awkward
couple of hours, but she was really
(12:45):
dedicated to her job. That's why she was trying to
squeeze so much in and make sure that the park visitors
had toilet paper. And it also shows the community that. That we
have with each other, that we could joke with Audra about
it. We could start an outhouse award that, to my knowledge, is still going all
these years later. And that's what I
(13:08):
just really like that story because it is a good
example of what we have here in parks that we're lucky enough to
have. But the last
few years kind of shook us. How many people were
with parks before? 20. 20.
Okay. Little more than half the room. So also, so I can visualize it,
(13:30):
how many have joined the parks just within the last couple of
years? All right. A little under half the room.
So some of you will hear this and think, ah, I remember
that, and others, maybe this will help you have
context of what we went through in park. But when the
rest of the country shut down, we still came to
(13:54):
work every day, at least in the field. I know
offices. If you had office jobs, sometimes you were lucky enough to get to work
from home. In the field. We still came to work every day
all through the pandemic. And when the rest of
the residents of Michigan could not go to work, what did they do?
They came to see us. Us, because we were there in
(14:17):
parks, and people discovered
parks for the first time. Many of them did. People that had never been to
parks had nothing else going on. And so they came to see
us, and they. They learned about how
Wonderful Michigan state parks are. And I heard stories over the last
couple days of people that had never kayaked
(14:39):
before bought kayaks because I've got nothing else to do.
People that hadn't spent much time on a bike bought
bikes, and people that hadn't hiked were out
hiking and they thought, well, I'm fit, and they would do a lot
of miles they weren't prepared for. That put a lot of strain on
staff, because now we had to respond to a lot more than
(15:02):
that. We typically hadn't had to because usually
people that were visiting us in parks were
used to being there. They were used to recreating. So with the
idea of Back to the Future, I looked at the park
leader show and what were we talking about in
2019 before the pandemic?
(15:23):
And I wrote some of these down so I would know. These
were some of the topics. We talked about staying relevant.
Our parks still going to be relevant to
citizens in the future. Well, the pandemic sure
made us relevant, but also staff, are we relevant
enough where we can retain people that we can recruit
(15:46):
new people? We talked about outdoors as
medication, people getting out in the outdoors to relax to
de stress. We talked about the next generation of
park, park professionals. That. That was a big topic, but
there are many people in here that are already the next generation
of park professionals. We talked about turning visitors
(16:10):
into fans. So we, we get a lot of visitors, but how do we make
sure that they're fans that show up and support us no
matter what we do for. For programs or whatnot? I realize when I, I
stand over here, you miss me. You just see I hide behind an eagle.
We were talking about conservation,
and we were talking about accessibility, making the park
(16:34):
available for everybody. How do we attract
more people to the park, and how do
we attract diverse audiences to the park?
You know, my granny used to always say, be careful what you ask
for because you might get it. And. And we got. Yeah, My,
(16:54):
my. Speaking of my granny, I'm. I talk about
Washington State because that's where I've lived for a long time. But I'm originally from
Peoria, Illinois, which is why I, I made Rowdy
correct himself when he said I was from the suburbs of Chicago
because there's Chicagoland and there's Illinois, and I'm from Illinois.
Yeah. But being from the Midwest, I, I actually
(17:18):
understand Midwest talk. So I know pretty good is the
highest compliment you can get if you send
a text or email with exclamation points. I wonder
what's going on with you. And if we're
talking and you say, welp, I know that's my clue that it's time to go.
So I get all that talk. And I
(17:40):
also know that if I come to your house to visit, we have. Have to
say goodbye three times. Yep. So I've been there.
Okay, so once the pandemic started, what did we
Talk about in 2020 on the Park Leader
Show? We talked about how will Covid change
parks. That was on everybody's mind because it was
(18:01):
such a big deal. We didn't know what to do. We talked about leading during
a crisis. We talked about online
interpretation. That was a shift because
we talk about interpretation a lot. Now we're talking about, how do you do it
online? Because that was so different than what we were doing.
And I do think there are some things that we picked up that
(18:23):
are still used today that maybe we wouldn't have got to
if we hadn't been forced to do it. We talked about park priorities.
Now that we have this going on, what are the priorities? How
do we manage what we have? We have so many visitors, and we don't have
staff. We don't have extra money, but we've got a lot of extra people
visiting us. And we talked about rediscovering parks
(18:47):
in tough times. That is not just park visitors
either. That was us. It was
such a stressful time that understanding why you
got into this in the first place was valuable.
It helped us park staff get
through it all because that. It was. It just was.
(19:10):
It just was an awkward time for. For all of us to get through.
And I know you felt it here in Michigan because people already
loved their parks up here. But did you. Did you catch the shift in
the topics? We went from talking about the future of
parks to talking about surviving, just getting through this. We
went from talking about getting better in what we do
(19:33):
to just getting through this. That. That was a topic.
The reason I turned to the Park Leader show to understand is because we have
guests on there that talk about the relevant
topics and what's going on out in parks. So when
I look back at conversations we are having, I know that those must have been
the hot items during that time. But the good
(19:55):
news is that we adapted and we got
through it. And we guided visitors and
our communities through what was a tough time for them, too. And
we gave them all a place to be as we
just kept trying to get through this. And what comes next?
Usually when parks have something big go on,
(20:18):
like a storm that knocks down a lot of trees, yeah.
It strains your resources and. And it's really stressful. But there is an
end point. You know, as soon as we clean up these trees,
then the emergency is over. But we didn't have
that with this. We didn't know when it was going to end. We didn't know
what would change afterwards. But we gave
(20:40):
people a place to be during that. As I said
before, people discovered or rediscovered parks,
which was wonderful. And now it's time to return to the topics we
were talking about in 2009. And I'm seeing that already
in Michigan, I got to spend two days touring
some. Some parks. Mike took me to
(21:03):
the outdoor Adventure center, which was fantastic.
I've not seen anything like that. You should be very proud of that. We went
to. I'm drawing a blank on the name
Milliken. Yeah. Yes. We
did some of the river walk. We did Belle Isle. And then
yesterday, I got to do two more state parks.
(21:26):
Island Lake and. Oh, Rowdy's gonna be
upset. I'm Brighton. Yes. Thank you. I should
have just asked you from the beginning. Yeah. So
that was wonderful to get the chance to see
your parks. And I took note of some of the things
(21:47):
that stood out to me while I toured your parks.
A dedicated staff that stood out right away.
Every park I was at where I got the chance to talk to
staff, it came out how dedicated they were.
At the Outdoor Adventure Center, Mike and I stopped to talk
to some people, and. And of course,
(22:10):
he's very popular there, so they all wanted to talk
to him. But then when he would ask them questions, they would talk about
what they were looking forward to. I want to do interpretive programs.
We need to get into schools. Let's get schools out here. That was so encouraging
to see. That was the very first
thing I noticed. And then being here talking to the people I've got to talk
(22:33):
to, just seeing how dedicated the staff here
is. A deep love for Michigan parks.
That's from. From you and from visitors. I could
just feel it when people would talk to me
during these tours. They would just. They were so happy to show
off what you have to offer at Michigan, and then to
(22:55):
see people using your parks and just see how
much they loved it, from dog walkers to. There was an event going on
at a gun range, and people were so happy to be there. Just
a wide variety. So we saw a lot of good stuff. I saw
innovation in interpretation, some really interesting
programs and displays I had not seen anywhere
(23:17):
else. That was really neat to see innovation in education
and innovation in trails. I'M not telling you
anything you don't know, but Michigan has more rails to
trails than any other state. And I could
tell how trails is just part of what you do here.
And I'm a big hiker. Washington State is.
(23:40):
There's a lot of hiking there. So that was really great for. For me to
see the staff is ready to serve people and
make the parks better. And that. That's what I was
going to talk about. What we need to. We need to get back into that.
And then I did these tours and I thought, gosh, Michigan
doesn't need to hear that. They're already doing it. They're already serving people
(24:02):
again. They're already trying to just make the
parks better. And not the mindset isn't, let's get
through this. I saw great care for the resources
and great care for the people. Some of the
conservation projects I saw were so interesting.
I learned so much and then realized how much
(24:25):
care you put into not just focusing on
recreation or camping, that you
really are conserving the parks and the public
lands. And it's fabulous.
Recreation is such a part of the culture of.
Of Michigan. It is so neat to see. And DNR as
(24:47):
a whole captures that
recreation, whether it's parks or
outdoor activities like biking or canoeing. Even on.
I will say I was even surprised to see
how state parks with the recreation areas
embraces hunting and archery and all the other
(25:11):
items that you do. But that's because it's such a part of
the culture of the state of Michigan. But you. You have embraced it and
that's wonderful. So now that we've gotten past
the last few years and you are all ready to serve people
and you're ready to do what comes next and get
(25:31):
better. Where. Where do we go from there? And
you're your director. I was really interested hearing him talk
about. Part of. It's up to you that you have to
make the decision to what are you going to
individually. A lot of the direction will come from the
top. Much of it, though, will also come from you
(25:53):
that you decide what is it going to be,
what comes next. So think about that. What type of
experience do you want visitors
to have? How many? Just so I can understand
who. I know that we've got quite a mix. Who here are park
rangers? All right. A lot of park rangers.
(26:16):
What about. And I don't know in. In Michigan if it's separated or
not. Who here is interpreters? All
right. Not. Not nearly as many interpreters. All right. You
do good work. Okay. What about
Maintenance and what? All
right, there we go.
(26:40):
And what about office staff?
Okay. Yeah. So when.
When I was a park ranger, I
mentioned I had previously been a financial analyst, and we had a
budget analyst quit during a hiring freeze.
(27:01):
So how lucky was it for our northwest
region that they had a financial analyst out in the field wearing a park
ranger uniform? So I got to go play budget
analyst during the week and park ranger during the weekend for a little while,
and it really opened my eyes to
how much the staff in the office does and
(27:23):
how little.
This can't possibly be this way in Michigan, so I only speak for Washington
State. How little we actually think of you in the field
because we have visitors in front of us. We have bathrooms to clean.
We have things that are breaking, and you just want us to file reports,
(27:44):
turn them in on time, and. And
so we don't. That showed me how much
work actually goes in on the backside. So park
rangers in uniform can be out in the field.
So I just realized that the
experience that a park visitor has
(28:07):
starts often from someone sitting at a desk.
And in the field, you can. You can't forget that. Also, if
you're sitting at a desk, you can't forget that your job, ultimately, is to make
sure a visitor has a great experience. So when it comes to you
individually, what can you do? Whether you sit
in an office, whether you're interpreting, whether you're out in the field,
(28:30):
what personally can you do to make
a difference for the park visitor? Because that's
ultimately who we're here for. We're either here to make sure they have a great
time, or we are here to
protect and preserve something for them, but they still want
to come and use it. And every.
(28:51):
Every park has trees. Every park
has trails. So what is it that makes people come back?
If you work out in the field in a park, every other park out
there is, in a way, your competition,
because you want them to come to your park, but they may want to go
(29:12):
to another park. But also going to the mall or
buying a Netflix subscription is your competition,
because they could choose that over coming to your park and
spending their time with you and spending their money with you.
So if every park has trees and trails, what is it
that set one park out from
(29:35):
another park or from anything else they could spend their time and money
on? Yes, that is probably. Probably
someone said me, if you didn't hear it, which is actually
my very first point. The first thing that sets one
park away out from another or from going to
see a movie is staff in it is you.
(29:57):
People come to see you quite often.
That's why they keep coming back, because you make sure
that they have a great experience. And if
it wasn't for you, maybe they go to another park. If it wasn't
for you, maybe they go to a movie instead of the park.
And that is what makes the difference. And
(30:20):
sometimes a park visitor will only
have one interaction with park staff. And it may be very
brief, but that little interaction can make
all the difference. And that interaction can even be with
volunteers, because volunteers make such a
difference. In our park, it can be with someone at the welcome station,
(30:42):
but the staff is part of what makes
a difference and parks. So that's what you have to think
about when you're out there, that this
could be their first time visiting parks. This could be
their first interaction with parks. Rowdy mentioned that I get
to work with a lot of Disney people, and a very
(31:05):
common question at Disney is, what time is the three
o' clock parade? Which
seems very similar. Silly. At first I thought it was very
silly. And then I find out that's not really what
they're asking. What they're asking is, what
time does the three o' clock parade come by where I'm sitting?
(31:28):
Because it starts at 3 o' clock here, but it could be 3:40 by
the time it gets to where you're sitting. And
I think of what my initial reaction was when I heard that, like,
well, they just answered their own question. And out in the field, we could
get that same question 100 times in a day.
Where is the bathroom? Where is the trailhead? The same question
(31:51):
over and over. But we just have to act like it's the first time we've
ever heard it, because it could be the first time they've ever asked it.
But staff is the first part that
sets us different from any other park or community
competition. The next is service,
which is different than staff, because staff is, is who you
(32:14):
hire, how you train them, do you. Do you hire right? Do
you train right, do you treat them right? That's all part of staff.
Service is what we do when we interact with
our, our visitors. And they, those two
go hand in hand. Because if you're hiring right and training right and
treating right, then they will take care of our people, our
(32:36):
visitors. So if you have a leadership role, if you take
care of your people, they will take care of the visitor. So that
should be your focus, taking care of people so they can take care of
visitor. And the last
piece, so we had staff, we had service, and then we
have stories and I have found that that
(32:58):
parks and getting to work with with some Disney people, I've
realized this is true in themed parks too. There are
wide gaps in difference between natural parks and themed parks.
There are also a lot of similarities, and stories
is one of them. And I found there are two types of stories in
our parks. There are learned stories. That's the stories
(33:21):
that we tell people, whether it's the interpreters telling a story,
a park ranger telling a story. It could be
brochures, it could be signs. All
of that is part of a story that they come to your park and they
learn and then they go home and they tell other people
and hopefully those people come back. The other is earned stories. Those
(33:43):
are stories that people have to participate in some way
to get a story that then they go back and tell people about.
About. So an earn story could be an activity.
So I saw a lot of activities. I got to pet a horse named
Winston. So you could ride Winston. That was
at one of the state parks that has a stable. You could ride
(34:06):
Winston. You could go kayaking, you could ride a bike,
hike a trail. Those are the type of stories that someone will earn
at your park and then go back and tell other people, people about
it. So if we look at what,
what keeps people coming back. Well, I think you all did
something right during the pandemic because the
(34:29):
numbers I saw, your attendance is up by
32% since 2020, since
this all started. So people came to the park and
you treated them so well that they keep coming back,
which is celebrated, of course, but it also
creates some issues because you don't have.
(34:51):
You probably didn't get 32% more staff, 32% more
dollars. You probably didn't. So that
has led to the issues that come with
a 32% increase in a lot
of things that come from. From
so many visitors that you now have to deal with. But
(35:14):
if you're. If you've got the good staff, if you've got good service,
then it works out. People will keep coming back.
And Michigan has such a. The
parks recreation is such a driver of
economics in this state. And I
(35:36):
remember when. So after being. I worked for
a luxury home builder, but not probably not in the way you think. I
wasn't swinging a hammer. You didn't want me doing that. Well, they didn't want me
doing that. I worked at, I did marketing for them.
I went back to school, got an mba, worked for them.
And we had a project where we were
(35:58):
in a small town and we started Building floating homes
because we had a good shipyard, and then they could get tugged down to
Seattle. So we did a study because we wanted the
city to show the impact we were having. Someone from
Seattle would build a home in Port Townsend in the shipyard, and
then let's say they spent a million dollars on a home and then it was
(36:21):
tugged away. And they don't live in our community, but a million
dollars from outside our community came in. When
we wanted to show the county and the city the impact we were
having, we did a report. And the information that
I found was that for every
dollar that comes into your community from outside, your community
(36:44):
is recirculated three to seven
times. So if someone comes to
your park and they spend $10 on the way
in at the grocery store, then that what they've really
spent is 30 to $70 of impact,
because the grocery store then uses that
(37:06):
money to buy something local or pay staff, and the staff will. Will go and
buy something. And you impact that. The
work that you do drives the local economy around
your parks. And I heard you, you're getting a new
park, right? 104. So that'll be a
boost to that impact or that community, as
(37:30):
the park has an economic impact.
And you all are the drivers of that. But it goes so much further than
an economic impact, because look at
who comes to your parks. It's teachers,
it's doctors, construction workers. It's people
that have tough jobs, and they
(37:53):
come to you to recreate, to reduce stress.
Sometimes they work all week just to come and see you.
And that's what gets them through the next few days
of working, is coming to visit you.
So, yes, there's an economic driver, but the work you do
drives so much more than economics
(38:17):
because it drives the spirit. The essence of
Michigan is outdoor recreation. That's part of the culture here.
And you allow people to come and do that. That's
what makes the quality of life good in Michigan
is being able to go outdoors and kayak
or k canoe or just go for a hike or walk
(38:40):
your dog. That is.
To me, that's bigger than an economic impact because that
allows people to go home feeling refreshed. I spent a weekend at
the park, and now I can go back and do the
job that maybe they don't even like. Believe
it or not, a lot of people don't like their jobs as much as you
(39:01):
do, so they come to you to get a little more
enjoyment. And
that is one of the things I want to
focus on. One is the impact that you have
Economically and community wise. But then also,
your system as a whole is pretty incredible. And you may
(39:24):
not realize it because you're in it every day, but
Michigan State Parks is held up across
the country as a premier park system.
And maybe you know that, but I get to talk to a
lot of people from across the country at different park systems,
state park systems and county parks, national parks. And
(39:48):
they all know about you and they know the good work you do because
you. Your
innovation in the way that you serve people and protect
resources gets noticed. And
it's really easy to give Ron the credit because he's
director, but I know he wouldn't give you the. He wouldn't give himself
(40:09):
the credit. He would give you the credit because you're out there doing the
work and you're out there coming up with ideas. I was so
impressed to see that that happens here in Michigan, that
you can get ideas in the field and propose
them and get money to fund your ideas and make things
happen. That's not always common in park
(40:31):
systems.
Michigan State Parks and DNR
leads the way in many aspects of
parks and recreation. The things that you. You do, people
watch and see how it goes so they can
copy it in a lot of ways. You go first
(40:53):
so other park systems can follow behind you,
and they see what works and what doesn't. They see the
successes that you have had, they see the good staff
and they follow on some of that.
And you have done so some
(41:14):
work in conservation. And even though
there are, each state has different
needs and different environments, still some of the
work that you're doing is just amazing. And I
got to visit the greenhouse and see all
the trees that spread out, not just to Michigan State Parks, but
(41:37):
the other areas as well. Just
incredible. I got to go to the tree
cooler, the tree freezer. Do you know about that? That was
amazing. I didn't appreciate it that Rowdy locked me in there,
but it was really neat to see that if
there's a diseased tree, you have a big cooler. That you put the. Cut up
(42:00):
the tree and put it in there, and then you can study it.
That's really neat. It's not neat with the door shut and the lights off,
but it is really neat.
So I think the most important part, though,
even though other state park systems
look to you more importantly, you
(42:23):
are the caretakers of the most special places
in Michigan in a. In a state
that loves their outdoor recreation. You're the ones
that make it available for them. You're the ones that keep it running
for them. And, And I. I just think you
that that is so noticeable in a state like this.
(42:47):
You are the guides that help the people of
Michigan understand their stories, which is really important.
You have such a. Such a rich history here,
and so many people learn about it from you. You
heard the Lieutenant governor talk about how he never had the chance
to learn that he had never been to a state park. But now
(43:09):
there's the Outdoor Adventure center right there in
Detroit. And that very well could be the first step
to bringing someone from Detroit to
eventually the Olympic Peninsula. That's how it ripples out.
I did something in the Outdoor Adventure Center. Now I want to go
fishing. Now I want to go camping. And
(43:32):
that will create a ripple that eventually people
may go to other states, but it all
starts at the Outdoor Adventure center, which is
pretty cool. And speaking of the Upper Peninsula, I,
I. Many years ago, I
was there on vacation, and in the Ottawa National Forest,
(43:55):
I slid off the road and totaled my Ford Bronco 2.
For all I know, it's still there. If you are at one of those
parks and you want to check it out, it was beautiful,
but that was not a Michigan experience I cared
for, but it still was, I guess, authentic.
(44:15):
So you. You are the keepers of stories. You
help guide people to understand the history
of Michigan, and you're keeping the
culture of Michigan alive. That is one of the things that has stood out to
me the most, that outdoor recreation
is so much a part of the culture of not just
(44:37):
you, because you work in it, but the state as a whole.
Any. Anything outdoors, you've
provided for them, and that is wonderful. Hunting, fishing,
canoeing. So much of it is. Is done here in
Michigan. That's what people live here for. And I don't think
I understood that to the extent I live in a western
(44:59):
state where outdoor recreation is a really big deal,
but it's more hiking and that sort
of thing where the outdoors is just part of Michigan.
And that. That is really neat to see.
So over the next couple of days,
(45:20):
you heard some good talks today. I know tomorrow your workshops
start and you'll learn more specifics.
But I want you to keep in mind of.
Of who you are and what you do
and how many people are counting on you, because no
matter what part of Michigan you're in, there are people that cannot
(45:42):
wait for Friday to get here so they can come and see you.
And they're all counting on you to be there for them. They're
counting on you to have the park open
and clean and trails and recreation
ready for Them. And is isn't it interesting that
bathrooms is came up earlier is one of the most important
(46:05):
pieces in recreation. One of
the more entertaining letters we got
when I was a park ranger, someone wrote in with
very precise detail about when he sat on the toilet.
He had the shift 7 degrees to the right because the toilet paper
holder was in the way. And he felt strongly enough
(46:27):
about it that he wrote a letter.
So bathrooms matter. Bathrooms are often the first
thing people see when they visit your park because they've been driving a long way
and they're often the last thing people see before they leave.
So it gives you a chance to make a good first impression
and a good last impression is the bathrooms.
(46:51):
Well, the last thing I want to remind you
that you are the linchpin State
parks is the linchpin of Department of Natural Resources. And
Department of Natural Resources is what makes
Michigan so special is all the outdoor recreation,
all the lands and services and stories that you
(47:13):
protect and that that's all you. And
I'm so delighted to have been invited to come and talk to
you in in this gathering that you've had.
I remember in service as such a special
time to get to see people that you haven't seen in a long time.
I bet many of you have seen friends
(47:35):
that maybe worked with them. Maybe you just knew them that you haven't seen in
years and you finally get to see them here and that's
really cool. And gatherings like this allow you to
one, build relationships, strengthen
relationships and share ideas with each
other. You may find a problem that you have someone
(47:58):
in way up north has solved it. Maybe someone
at a metro park has seen that happen and you'll hear
what they did. Or maybe the rangers out in the UP
have figured something out and they just didn't even think to
mention it. And there are several other parks that have the same problem.
That's what I think is so special about inservice and
(48:21):
I'm just so delighted that you invited me to come and talk to you.
I will be here today and tomorrow and I don't fly home until Wednesday.
So please do come and talk to me. I'm got a
bunch of park leader show swag that I I
I'm sure I will run out but I've got a lot that
I'm happy to give to you but it's such a pleasure to meet all of
(48:44):
you and such an honor to be asked to come and talk to you. Thank
you so much.
Welcome to the Park Leader Show. I'm your host, Jody
Mayberry, and this episode, we're going to take the
stage together. Back in 2004,
Michigan Department of Natural Resources invited me
to come and speak at their In Service gathering. It was
Fantastic to spend three days with 700
(00:26):
friends from parks in the great state of Michigan. One of my
favorite things is to. Speak at park events.
When I arrived in Michigan, I had the chance to tour
a few parks before the inservice gathering. And
then I had the pleasure to be the keynote speaker at the event. It
was wonderful. The Lieutenant Governor spoke before I took the
(00:48):
stage. So, of course, now I claim that the
Lieutenant Governor was my opening act. That might not be true, but it
makes me feel good to say that I was introduced by
Rowdy Perry. So I want to give a special mention to Rowdy.
He's a fantastic park ranger in Michigan. He's doing
great work there. So with this episode, I'm going to share
(01:10):
my entire presentation to Michigan dnr, Michigan State
Parks. I'm going to share the whole thing with you. The theme of In Service
was Back to the Future. So my presentation
sticks with that theme. And you're going to hear the whole audio of the
presentation in full, no edits. I'm even
leaving in the awkward spot where I make a joke about my shoes and
(01:33):
no one laughs. It is one
of the best feelings you can get when you say something and 700 people
in a room laugh. It's also very awkward when you make a joke
and the room has that many people and nobody laughs. But you can't win them
all. I guess there will be some references to names that you
don't know unless you're in Michigan. And then maybe you'll love to hear those names.
(01:56):
There are a couple of audio glitches, but
I'm leaving the entire presentation intact for you to hear.
Before we get on stage, let me say, if you want me to speak
to your team, to your people, to your agency, get in
touch. I love speaking to park people and I want to come
and talk to your group. Talk to your agency. I've
(02:19):
been lucky enough to do this for Michigan and Nevada
and, and a few other agencies. So
please do reach out. You can reach me@jody park leaders.com
j o d y parkleaders.com
we're going to pick up directly after
Rowdy Perry introduces me, and the audience
(02:41):
welcomes me on the stage. And then at the end, the episode
ends with the applause from the audience. So there's. There's Nothing
at the end other than applause. I'm not going to come back and talk to
you, but I am going to give you this wonderful
presentation. Now let's get to work with back to
the future of parks.
(03:05):
Thank you, Rowdy. Thank you.
All right. Thank you for that introduction, Rowdy. I
had the pleasure of touring some parks with
Rowdy and other staff the last couple of days
and touring some new parks. It made me
remember when I was a ranger and I
(03:27):
got a job at a different park all the way across the state.
And you've been to new parks and you do a tour and
you don't know it real well. And then I was out driving by
myself, and I saw an outhouse
door propped open, which over in Spokane, we
didn't. It's Spokane, by the way, not Spokane. Over in
(03:49):
Spokane, we didn't do it that way. But I thought, well, I better. I better
check out what's going on here. So I stopped my truck, and I
walked over, and it's propped up, propped open. And I.
I see a guy in the outhouse, and he has a stick
down the. Down the hole. And I said, park
ranger, what are you doing here? And he's like, well, I'm
(04:11):
kind of embarrassed, but I dropped my jacket down there.
I know. He said, I dropped my jacket down there. I
said, look, we only pump that thing out, like,
once, maybe twice a year. You don't want that jacket. It's gonna be
so nasty. And he said, no, I'm not concerned about the jacket,
but there's a sandwich in the pocket.
(04:35):
Yeah. So, speaking of outhouses, what's up with Michigan
and outhouses? You've had two people get stuck in outhouses. Now,
I thought that only happened in Washington state. We had that where a
lady dropped her phone down the hole,
and she got out a stick and tried to dig it out, and she fell
in. I know. I thought it only happened out there, but you've
(04:57):
beat us. You've got two. My favorite outhouse story. This whole talk
is not about outhouses. My favorite outhouse story, though.
When I worked at Riverside State park in Spokane, we had a
ranger, Audra Sims. She was fantastic.
She was friendly to all the staff, knew all the neighbors
of the park, talked to all the visitors. And one
(05:20):
day she was going to a boat launch just to check the
outhouse to see if it had toilet paper in and out.
So she wouldn't be there long. So she popped out of her truck
and went into the outhouse. Look at the toilet paper. It looked Good. And she
turned around to leave. And the handle was broken
because it was in and out. She left her truck door open.
(05:43):
She left the truck running. She left her cell phone on
the seat. And our vault toilets are. Are
concrete, so her radio wouldn't even work.
And the story I was told by Ranger Jeremy
Jalali, I cannot verify this as true.
Jeremy Jalali told me that Audra climbed down the hole looking for a
(06:06):
way out. I don't know if it's true, but what
it did lead to was at
our region training much like this. But
we would have regions and then an annual one where everyone got together.
I asked, could I have a little time to talk?
And they said, yes. And I got to go. Right after the director and
(06:29):
I presented Audra with the Outhouse Award.
It was a wooden outhouse with our logo on the front that someone
had handmade. It was beautiful. And that started
an Outhouse Award for the eastern region, that
whoever had done the silliest thing, the stupidest thing, whatever,
would win the Outhouse Award. So that. That
(06:51):
all came from the story of Audra getting stuck in
that house. Now, Rowdy told you that I'm Jody Mayberry. He did
a good job at introducing me, telling you I have a background in
parks, because otherwise you might be like, what's a guy up there wearing
shoes like that talking to us about parks for? But I will tell you, it
can be as hard to break in dress shoes as it can a pair of
(07:12):
danners. But anyway,
I was a park ranger for eight years. But before I was a park ranger,
I was a financial analyst at a commercial bank.
My job was to measure interest rate risk.
That was as exciting as it sounds to you right now.
(07:33):
And then I became a park ranger. It was a
wonderful eight years, but it started off
rocky. My very first day, someone drowned in the river.
Later in the week, we had someone found dead in the
park under a bridge. Later that week, I had my first
(07:54):
very bloody incident in the campground. And two weeks
before, I was a financial analyst sitting at my desk, I
thought it was going to be chipmunks and hugging trees.
I did hug a tree a couple times. It was never chipmunks. I did have
a squirrel incident. But we can talk about that piece later.
(08:15):
It was a wonderful, wonderful eight years as
a park ranger. Because I was a financial
analyst. I came in from the outside
with a unique perspective because to me, it was business
and numbers. I just loved parks. I loved being
outside. And that's what I brought, is just a
(08:37):
fresh perspective. I Didn't know anything about running a park. I
didn't know anything about being a law enforcement officer. But after
eight wonderful years, I left as an insider
with now an outside perspective. Because I love
parks today as much as I did the day I became a park ranger.
And it was just a wonderful,
(08:59):
wonderful time. And I, I got to do. Rowdy mentioned that
I rode my bike all day. That was a two year stint I had as
the lead ranger of the Centennial Trail. And it was wonderful
riding your bike all day. Everything you needed was in your bag.
If I had to arrest somebody, well, you can't take someone
to jail on the handlebars of your bike. So I got to call someone
(09:22):
else to come and do it. All around. It was great.
But then I left parks. I went back to school
and got an MBA and had an office job and
all that. But I really missed parks. And I thought, how can
I stay connected to parks without going back
and working as a park ranger? I found out they don't like it if you
(09:45):
show up in green pants and just start answering questions for
visitors. If you're not on staff or volunteer, that's not
appreciated. So I started a podcast called the
Park Leader show, and it was really geared towards
me early in my career, the types of
conversations that I wanted to have with people, the types of conversations
(10:08):
that really made a difference as I was coming in because I didn't
know anything about park, so I had to get all my information from other
people because I didn't know how to manage a park or
numbers do what they're supposed to and people don't usually.
So it was really a unique situation for me. That's why I started
(10:28):
the Park Leader show, so other people could be
involved in those conversations. Before Rowdy
mentioned it, has anyone heard of the Park Leader Show? Oh,
a few. Several. All right, very good. Well, now the rest of you
have. Have heard of it, so you can subscribe to it. It's
anywhere you listen to podcasts. And that show has,
(10:50):
has been very interesting. Your, your director was on
a number of years ago. There's been other directors. There's been people from
parks, city parks, county parks. And it's, it's not
just a, it's for park professionals and, and
it's wonderful conversations about
what, what we're dealing with in parks. And then that, that led to
(11:14):
other podcasts like creating Disney magic and whatnot. But the
Park Leader show has been going for 10 years now. There are a lot of
conversations about parks and with the
theme of
the Theme of Back to the Future really
got me thinking about what were we talking about?
(11:38):
But what? Well, first, I want to return to Audra's story.
Not to talk about outhouses, but to say what I really
liked about that story is
even though Audra was uncomfortable in that outhouse
and we joked with her a lot,
she really made a difference. And what I forgot to tell
(12:01):
you is that a park visitor had saw her drive in,
and she always waved at people and smiled. Well,
that person, after it had been like two hours, thought, I didn't see
Audra come back by. So he drove down to the boat launch and
found Audra's door open and the truck running and her stuck in
the outhouse. So that's how she got out. I really
(12:24):
like that piece because it shows how much
the community cares for. For us in parks, and
they care about the staff and they care about the parks and the work that
we do. And it shows the dedication of
park professionals. Audra had an awkward
couple of hours, but she was really
(12:45):
dedicated to her job. That's why she was trying to
squeeze so much in and make sure that the park visitors
had toilet paper. And it also shows the community that. That we
have with each other, that we could joke with Audra about
it. We could start an outhouse award that, to my knowledge, is still going all
these years later. And that's what I
(13:08):
just really like that story because it is a good
example of what we have here in parks that we're lucky enough to
have. But the last
few years kind of shook us. How many people were
with parks before? 20. 20.
Okay. Little more than half the room. So also, so I can visualize it,
(13:30):
how many have joined the parks just within the last couple of
years? All right. A little under half the room.
So some of you will hear this and think, ah, I remember
that, and others, maybe this will help you have
context of what we went through in park. But when the
rest of the country shut down, we still came to
(13:54):
work every day, at least in the field. I know
offices. If you had office jobs, sometimes you were lucky enough to get to work
from home. In the field. We still came to work every day
all through the pandemic. And when the rest of
the residents of Michigan could not go to work, what did they do?
They came to see us. Us, because we were there in
(14:17):
parks, and people discovered
parks for the first time. Many of them did. People that had never been to
parks had nothing else going on. And so they came to see
us, and they. They learned about how
Wonderful Michigan state parks are. And I heard stories over the last
couple days of people that had never kayaked
(14:39):
before bought kayaks because I've got nothing else to do.
People that hadn't spent much time on a bike bought
bikes, and people that hadn't hiked were out
hiking and they thought, well, I'm fit, and they would do a lot
of miles they weren't prepared for. That put a lot of strain on
staff, because now we had to respond to a lot more than
(15:02):
that. We typically hadn't had to because usually
people that were visiting us in parks were
used to being there. They were used to recreating. So with the
idea of Back to the Future, I looked at the park
leader show and what were we talking about in
2019 before the pandemic?
(15:23):
And I wrote some of these down so I would know. These
were some of the topics. We talked about staying relevant.
Our parks still going to be relevant to
citizens in the future. Well, the pandemic sure
made us relevant, but also staff, are we relevant
enough where we can retain people that we can recruit
(15:46):
new people? We talked about outdoors as
medication, people getting out in the outdoors to relax to
de stress. We talked about the next generation of
park, park professionals. That. That was a big topic, but
there are many people in here that are already the next generation
of park professionals. We talked about turning visitors
(16:10):
into fans. So we, we get a lot of visitors, but how do we make
sure that they're fans that show up and support us no
matter what we do for. For programs or whatnot? I realize when I, I
stand over here, you miss me. You just see I hide behind an eagle.
We were talking about conservation,
and we were talking about accessibility, making the park
(16:34):
available for everybody. How do we attract
more people to the park, and how do
we attract diverse audiences to the park?
You know, my granny used to always say, be careful what you ask
for because you might get it. And. And we got. Yeah, My,
(16:54):
my. Speaking of my granny, I'm. I talk about
Washington State because that's where I've lived for a long time. But I'm originally from
Peoria, Illinois, which is why I, I made Rowdy
correct himself when he said I was from the suburbs of Chicago
because there's Chicagoland and there's Illinois, and I'm from Illinois.
Yeah. But being from the Midwest, I, I actually
(17:18):
understand Midwest talk. So I know pretty good is the
highest compliment you can get if you send
a text or email with exclamation points. I wonder
what's going on with you. And if we're
talking and you say, welp, I know that's my clue that it's time to go.
So I get all that talk. And I
(17:40):
also know that if I come to your house to visit, we have. Have to
say goodbye three times. Yep. So I've been there.
Okay, so once the pandemic started, what did we
Talk about in 2020 on the Park Leader
Show? We talked about how will Covid change
parks. That was on everybody's mind because it was
(18:01):
such a big deal. We didn't know what to do. We talked about leading during
a crisis. We talked about online
interpretation. That was a shift because
we talk about interpretation a lot. Now we're talking about, how do you do it
online? Because that was so different than what we were doing.
And I do think there are some things that we picked up that
(18:23):
are still used today that maybe we wouldn't have got to
if we hadn't been forced to do it. We talked about park priorities.
Now that we have this going on, what are the priorities? How
do we manage what we have? We have so many visitors, and we don't have
staff. We don't have extra money, but we've got a lot of extra people
visiting us. And we talked about rediscovering parks
(18:47):
in tough times. That is not just park visitors
either. That was us. It was
such a stressful time that understanding why you
got into this in the first place was valuable.
It helped us park staff get
through it all because that. It was. It just was.
(19:10):
It just was an awkward time for. For all of us to get through.
And I know you felt it here in Michigan because people already
loved their parks up here. But did you. Did you catch the shift in
the topics? We went from talking about the future of
parks to talking about surviving, just getting through this. We
went from talking about getting better in what we do
(19:33):
to just getting through this. That. That was a topic.
The reason I turned to the Park Leader show to understand is because we have
guests on there that talk about the relevant
topics and what's going on out in parks. So when
I look back at conversations we are having, I know that those must have been
the hot items during that time. But the good
(19:55):
news is that we adapted and we got
through it. And we guided visitors and
our communities through what was a tough time for them, too. And
we gave them all a place to be as we
just kept trying to get through this. And what comes next?
Usually when parks have something big go on,
(20:18):
like a storm that knocks down a lot of trees, yeah.
It strains your resources and. And it's really stressful. But there is an
end point. You know, as soon as we clean up these trees,
then the emergency is over. But we didn't have
that with this. We didn't know when it was going to end. We didn't know
what would change afterwards. But we gave
(20:40):
people a place to be during that. As I said
before, people discovered or rediscovered parks,
which was wonderful. And now it's time to return to the topics we
were talking about in 2009. And I'm seeing that already
in Michigan, I got to spend two days touring
some. Some parks. Mike took me to
(21:03):
the outdoor Adventure center, which was fantastic.
I've not seen anything like that. You should be very proud of that. We went
to. I'm drawing a blank on the name
Milliken. Yeah. Yes. We
did some of the river walk. We did Belle Isle. And then
yesterday, I got to do two more state parks.
(21:26):
Island Lake and. Oh, Rowdy's gonna be
upset. I'm Brighton. Yes. Thank you. I should
have just asked you from the beginning. Yeah. So
that was wonderful to get the chance to see
your parks. And I took note of some of the things
(21:47):
that stood out to me while I toured your parks.
A dedicated staff that stood out right away.
Every park I was at where I got the chance to talk to
staff, it came out how dedicated they were.
At the Outdoor Adventure Center, Mike and I stopped to talk
to some people, and. And of course,
(22:10):
he's very popular there, so they all wanted to talk
to him. But then when he would ask them questions, they would talk about
what they were looking forward to. I want to do interpretive programs.
We need to get into schools. Let's get schools out here. That was so encouraging
to see. That was the very first
thing I noticed. And then being here talking to the people I've got to talk
(22:33):
to, just seeing how dedicated the staff here
is. A deep love for Michigan parks.
That's from. From you and from visitors. I could
just feel it when people would talk to me
during these tours. They would just. They were so happy to show
off what you have to offer at Michigan, and then to
(22:55):
see people using your parks and just see how
much they loved it, from dog walkers to. There was an event going on
at a gun range, and people were so happy to be there. Just
a wide variety. So we saw a lot of good stuff. I saw
innovation in interpretation, some really interesting
programs and displays I had not seen anywhere
(23:17):
else. That was really neat to see innovation in education
and innovation in trails. I'M not telling you
anything you don't know, but Michigan has more rails to
trails than any other state. And I could
tell how trails is just part of what you do here.
And I'm a big hiker. Washington State is.
(23:40):
There's a lot of hiking there. So that was really great for. For me to
see the staff is ready to serve people and
make the parks better. And that. That's what I was
going to talk about. What we need to. We need to get back into that.
And then I did these tours and I thought, gosh, Michigan
doesn't need to hear that. They're already doing it. They're already serving people
(24:02):
again. They're already trying to just make the
parks better. And not the mindset isn't, let's get
through this. I saw great care for the resources
and great care for the people. Some of the
conservation projects I saw were so interesting.
I learned so much and then realized how much
(24:25):
care you put into not just focusing on
recreation or camping, that you
really are conserving the parks and the public
lands. And it's fabulous.
Recreation is such a part of the culture of.
Of Michigan. It is so neat to see. And DNR as
(24:47):
a whole captures that
recreation, whether it's parks or
outdoor activities like biking or canoeing. Even on.
I will say I was even surprised to see
how state parks with the recreation areas
embraces hunting and archery and all the other
(25:11):
items that you do. But that's because it's such a part of
the culture of the state of Michigan. But you. You have embraced it and
that's wonderful. So now that we've gotten past
the last few years and you are all ready to serve people
and you're ready to do what comes next and get
(25:31):
better. Where. Where do we go from there? And
you're your director. I was really interested hearing him talk
about. Part of. It's up to you that you have to
make the decision to what are you going to
individually. A lot of the direction will come from the
top. Much of it, though, will also come from you
(25:53):
that you decide what is it going to be,
what comes next. So think about that. What type of
experience do you want visitors
to have? How many? Just so I can understand
who. I know that we've got quite a mix. Who here are park
rangers? All right. A lot of park rangers.
(26:16):
What about. And I don't know in. In Michigan if it's separated or
not. Who here is interpreters? All
right. Not. Not nearly as many interpreters. All right. You
do good work. Okay. What about
Maintenance and what? All
right, there we go.
(26:40):
And what about office staff?
Okay. Yeah. So when.
When I was a park ranger, I
mentioned I had previously been a financial analyst, and we had a
budget analyst quit during a hiring freeze.
(27:01):
So how lucky was it for our northwest
region that they had a financial analyst out in the field wearing a park
ranger uniform? So I got to go play budget
analyst during the week and park ranger during the weekend for a little while,
and it really opened my eyes to
how much the staff in the office does and
(27:23):
how little.
This can't possibly be this way in Michigan, so I only speak for Washington
State. How little we actually think of you in the field
because we have visitors in front of us. We have bathrooms to clean.
We have things that are breaking, and you just want us to file reports,
(27:44):
turn them in on time, and. And
so we don't. That showed me how much
work actually goes in on the backside. So park
rangers in uniform can be out in the field.
So I just realized that the
experience that a park visitor has
(28:07):
starts often from someone sitting at a desk.
And in the field, you can. You can't forget that. Also, if
you're sitting at a desk, you can't forget that your job, ultimately, is to make
sure a visitor has a great experience. So when it comes to you
individually, what can you do? Whether you sit
in an office, whether you're interpreting, whether you're out in the field,
(28:30):
what personally can you do to make
a difference for the park visitor? Because that's
ultimately who we're here for. We're either here to make sure they have a great
time, or we are here to
protect and preserve something for them, but they still want
to come and use it. And every.
(28:51):
Every park has trees. Every park
has trails. So what is it that makes people come back?
If you work out in the field in a park, every other park out
there is, in a way, your competition,
because you want them to come to your park, but they may want to go
(29:12):
to another park. But also going to the mall or
buying a Netflix subscription is your competition,
because they could choose that over coming to your park and
spending their time with you and spending their money with you.
So if every park has trees and trails, what is it
that set one park out from
(29:35):
another park or from anything else they could spend their time and money
on? Yes, that is probably. Probably
someone said me, if you didn't hear it, which is actually
my very first point. The first thing that sets one
park away out from another or from going to
see a movie is staff in it is you.
(29:57):
People come to see you quite often.
That's why they keep coming back, because you make sure
that they have a great experience. And if
it wasn't for you, maybe they go to another park. If it wasn't
for you, maybe they go to a movie instead of the park.
And that is what makes the difference. And
(30:20):
sometimes a park visitor will only
have one interaction with park staff. And it may be very
brief, but that little interaction can make
all the difference. And that interaction can even be with
volunteers, because volunteers make such a
difference. In our park, it can be with someone at the welcome station,
(30:42):
but the staff is part of what makes
a difference and parks. So that's what you have to think
about when you're out there, that this
could be their first time visiting parks. This could be
their first interaction with parks. Rowdy mentioned that I get
to work with a lot of Disney people, and a very
(31:05):
common question at Disney is, what time is the three
o' clock parade? Which
seems very similar. Silly. At first I thought it was very
silly. And then I find out that's not really what
they're asking. What they're asking is, what
time does the three o' clock parade come by where I'm sitting?
(31:28):
Because it starts at 3 o' clock here, but it could be 3:40 by
the time it gets to where you're sitting. And
I think of what my initial reaction was when I heard that, like,
well, they just answered their own question. And out in the field, we could
get that same question 100 times in a day.
Where is the bathroom? Where is the trailhead? The same question
(31:51):
over and over. But we just have to act like it's the first time we've
ever heard it, because it could be the first time they've ever asked it.
But staff is the first part that
sets us different from any other park or community
competition. The next is service,
which is different than staff, because staff is, is who you
(32:14):
hire, how you train them, do you. Do you hire right? Do
you train right, do you treat them right? That's all part of staff.
Service is what we do when we interact with
our, our visitors. And they, those two
go hand in hand. Because if you're hiring right and training right and
treating right, then they will take care of our people, our
(32:36):
visitors. So if you have a leadership role, if you take
care of your people, they will take care of the visitor. So that
should be your focus, taking care of people so they can take care of
visitor. And the last
piece, so we had staff, we had service, and then we
have stories and I have found that that
(32:58):
parks and getting to work with with some Disney people, I've
realized this is true in themed parks too. There are
wide gaps in difference between natural parks and themed parks.
There are also a lot of similarities, and stories
is one of them. And I found there are two types of stories in
our parks. There are learned stories. That's the stories
(33:21):
that we tell people, whether it's the interpreters telling a story,
a park ranger telling a story. It could be
brochures, it could be signs. All
of that is part of a story that they come to your park and they
learn and then they go home and they tell other people
and hopefully those people come back. The other is earned stories. Those
(33:43):
are stories that people have to participate in some way
to get a story that then they go back and tell people about.
About. So an earn story could be an activity.
So I saw a lot of activities. I got to pet a horse named
Winston. So you could ride Winston. That was
at one of the state parks that has a stable. You could ride
(34:06):
Winston. You could go kayaking, you could ride a bike,
hike a trail. Those are the type of stories that someone will earn
at your park and then go back and tell other people, people about
it. So if we look at what,
what keeps people coming back. Well, I think you all did
something right during the pandemic because the
(34:29):
numbers I saw, your attendance is up by
32% since 2020, since
this all started. So people came to the park and
you treated them so well that they keep coming back,
which is celebrated, of course, but it also
creates some issues because you don't have.
(34:51):
You probably didn't get 32% more staff, 32% more
dollars. You probably didn't. So that
has led to the issues that come with
a 32% increase in a lot
of things that come from. From
so many visitors that you now have to deal with. But
(35:14):
if you're. If you've got the good staff, if you've got good service,
then it works out. People will keep coming back.
And Michigan has such a. The
parks recreation is such a driver of
economics in this state. And I
(35:36):
remember when. So after being. I worked for
a luxury home builder, but not probably not in the way you think. I
wasn't swinging a hammer. You didn't want me doing that. Well, they didn't want me
doing that. I worked at, I did marketing for them.
I went back to school, got an mba, worked for them.
And we had a project where we were
(35:58):
in a small town and we started Building floating homes
because we had a good shipyard, and then they could get tugged down to
Seattle. So we did a study because we wanted the
city to show the impact we were having. Someone from
Seattle would build a home in Port Townsend in the shipyard, and
then let's say they spent a million dollars on a home and then it was
(36:21):
tugged away. And they don't live in our community, but a million
dollars from outside our community came in. When
we wanted to show the county and the city the impact we were
having, we did a report. And the information that
I found was that for every
dollar that comes into your community from outside, your community
(36:44):
is recirculated three to seven
times. So if someone comes to
your park and they spend $10 on the way
in at the grocery store, then that what they've really
spent is 30 to $70 of impact,
because the grocery store then uses that
(37:06):
money to buy something local or pay staff, and the staff will. Will go and
buy something. And you impact that. The
work that you do drives the local economy around
your parks. And I heard you, you're getting a new
park, right? 104. So that'll be a
boost to that impact or that community, as
(37:30):
the park has an economic impact.
And you all are the drivers of that. But it goes so much further than
an economic impact, because look at
who comes to your parks. It's teachers,
it's doctors, construction workers. It's people
that have tough jobs, and they
(37:53):
come to you to recreate, to reduce stress.
Sometimes they work all week just to come and see you.
And that's what gets them through the next few days
of working, is coming to visit you.
So, yes, there's an economic driver, but the work you do
drives so much more than economics
(38:17):
because it drives the spirit. The essence of
Michigan is outdoor recreation. That's part of the culture here.
And you allow people to come and do that. That's
what makes the quality of life good in Michigan
is being able to go outdoors and kayak
or k canoe or just go for a hike or walk
(38:40):
your dog. That is.
To me, that's bigger than an economic impact because that
allows people to go home feeling refreshed. I spent a weekend at
the park, and now I can go back and do the
job that maybe they don't even like. Believe
it or not, a lot of people don't like their jobs as much as you
(39:01):
do, so they come to you to get a little more
enjoyment. And
that is one of the things I want to
focus on. One is the impact that you have
Economically and community wise. But then also,
your system as a whole is pretty incredible. And you may
(39:24):
not realize it because you're in it every day, but
Michigan State Parks is held up across
the country as a premier park system.
And maybe you know that, but I get to talk to a
lot of people from across the country at different park systems,
state park systems and county parks, national parks. And
(39:48):
they all know about you and they know the good work you do because
you. Your
innovation in the way that you serve people and protect
resources gets noticed. And
it's really easy to give Ron the credit because he's
director, but I know he wouldn't give you the. He wouldn't give himself
(40:09):
the credit. He would give you the credit because you're out there doing the
work and you're out there coming up with ideas. I was so
impressed to see that that happens here in Michigan, that
you can get ideas in the field and propose
them and get money to fund your ideas and make things
happen. That's not always common in park
(40:31):
systems.
Michigan State Parks and DNR
leads the way in many aspects of
parks and recreation. The things that you. You do, people
watch and see how it goes so they can
copy it in a lot of ways. You go first
(40:53):
so other park systems can follow behind you,
and they see what works and what doesn't. They see the
successes that you have had, they see the good staff
and they follow on some of that.
And you have done so some
(41:14):
work in conservation. And even though
there are, each state has different
needs and different environments, still some of the
work that you're doing is just amazing. And I
got to visit the greenhouse and see all
the trees that spread out, not just to Michigan State Parks, but
(41:37):
the other areas as well. Just
incredible. I got to go to the tree
cooler, the tree freezer. Do you know about that? That was
amazing. I didn't appreciate it that Rowdy locked me in there,
but it was really neat to see that if
there's a diseased tree, you have a big cooler. That you put the. Cut up
(42:00):
the tree and put it in there, and then you can study it.
That's really neat. It's not neat with the door shut and the lights off,
but it is really neat.
So I think the most important part, though,
even though other state park systems
look to you more importantly, you
(42:23):
are the caretakers of the most special places
in Michigan in a. In a state
that loves their outdoor recreation. You're the ones
that make it available for them. You're the ones that keep it running
for them. And, And I. I just think you
that that is so noticeable in a state like this.
(42:47):
You are the guides that help the people of
Michigan understand their stories, which is really important.
You have such a. Such a rich history here,
and so many people learn about it from you. You
heard the Lieutenant governor talk about how he never had the chance
to learn that he had never been to a state park. But now
(43:09):
there's the Outdoor Adventure center right there in
Detroit. And that very well could be the first step
to bringing someone from Detroit to
eventually the Olympic Peninsula. That's how it ripples out.
I did something in the Outdoor Adventure Center. Now I want to go
fishing. Now I want to go camping. And
(43:32):
that will create a ripple that eventually people
may go to other states, but it all
starts at the Outdoor Adventure center, which is
pretty cool. And speaking of the Upper Peninsula, I,
I. Many years ago, I
was there on vacation, and in the Ottawa National Forest,
(43:55):
I slid off the road and totaled my Ford Bronco 2.
For all I know, it's still there. If you are at one of those
parks and you want to check it out, it was beautiful,
but that was not a Michigan experience I cared
for, but it still was, I guess, authentic.
(44:15):
So you. You are the keepers of stories. You
help guide people to understand the history
of Michigan, and you're keeping the
culture of Michigan alive. That is one of the things that has stood out to
me the most, that outdoor recreation
is so much a part of the culture of not just
(44:37):
you, because you work in it, but the state as a whole.
Any. Anything outdoors, you've
provided for them, and that is wonderful. Hunting, fishing,
canoeing. So much of it is. Is done here in
Michigan. That's what people live here for. And I don't think
I understood that to the extent I live in a western
(44:59):
state where outdoor recreation is a really big deal,
but it's more hiking and that sort
of thing where the outdoors is just part of Michigan.
And that. That is really neat to see.
So over the next couple of days,
(45:20):
you heard some good talks today. I know tomorrow your workshops
start and you'll learn more specifics.
But I want you to keep in mind of.
Of who you are and what you do
and how many people are counting on you, because no
matter what part of Michigan you're in, there are people that cannot
(45:42):
wait for Friday to get here so they can come and see you.
And they're all counting on you to be there for them. They're
counting on you to have the park open
and clean and trails and recreation
ready for Them. And is isn't it interesting that
bathrooms is came up earlier is one of the most important
(46:05):
pieces in recreation. One of
the more entertaining letters we got
when I was a park ranger, someone wrote in with
very precise detail about when he sat on the toilet.
He had the shift 7 degrees to the right because the toilet paper
holder was in the way. And he felt strongly enough
(46:27):
about it that he wrote a letter.
So bathrooms matter. Bathrooms are often the first
thing people see when they visit your park because they've been driving a long way
and they're often the last thing people see before they leave.
So it gives you a chance to make a good first impression
and a good last impression is the bathrooms.
(46:51):
Well, the last thing I want to remind you
that you are the linchpin State
parks is the linchpin of Department of Natural Resources. And
Department of Natural Resources is what makes
Michigan so special is all the outdoor recreation,
all the lands and services and stories that you
(47:13):
protect and that that's all you. And
I'm so delighted to have been invited to come and talk to
you in in this gathering that you've had.
I remember in service as such a special
time to get to see people that you haven't seen in a long time.
I bet many of you have seen friends
(47:35):
that maybe worked with them. Maybe you just knew them that you haven't seen in
years and you finally get to see them here and that's
really cool. And gatherings like this allow you to
one, build relationships, strengthen
relationships and share ideas with each
other. You may find a problem that you have someone
(47:58):
in way up north has solved it. Maybe someone
at a metro park has seen that happen and you'll hear
what they did. Or maybe the rangers out in the UP
have figured something out and they just didn't even think to
mention it. And there are several other parks that have the same problem.
That's what I think is so special about inservice and
(48:21):
I'm just so delighted that you invited me to come and talk to you.
I will be here today and tomorrow and I don't fly home until Wednesday.
So please do come and talk to me. I'm got a
bunch of park leader show swag that I I
I'm sure I will run out but I've got a lot that
I'm happy to give to you but it's such a pleasure to meet all of
(48:44):
you and such an honor to be asked to come and talk to you. Thank
you so much.
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