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| Suzanne Lewis Speaker Notes |
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Notes from Suzanne Lewis, Superintendent, Yellowstone National Park
Dimensions of Regional Leadership Conference
Jackson Lake Lodge, Grand Teton National Park
May 24, 2006
The Economics of Preservation
A. Introduction
1. Examining this question since 1990
2. My preparation asked me/ forced me to look back at what I thought I knew.
3. Bring forward to you my thoughts, questions and things that keep me up at night or go bump in the night
B. Area(s) of interest we have in common
1. Travel and Tourism (Diane has addressed some of these issues)
What we all know…
Revenues have increased overall – yet park visitation is flat for all intents and purposes – people spending less time but more money? Increased local population may be helping sustain the revenues.
Travel will be influenced by the change in transportation costs – fuel and turmoil within the airline industry – what does that mean to this region? How is this region positioned to say when forced to make a choice of where to go – Why this is a good choice.
What we don’t know enough about….
As the demographics of this country and the worlds population continue to march in the directions that were long ago predicted and documented - Who will be our future visitors - How will this great ecosystem relate to those demographic changes - And perhaps most importantly, what will they want to see and do? Are traditional users of the 21st century representative of the non-traditional user values that will emerge? Focus for a moment on the children - Those future generations we are dedicated to - More and more we are learning that children are suffering from a “Nature Deficit Syndrome” - Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods is excellent reading to learn more about whether the children of today will be our visitors tomorrow.
One final thought in this arena. I don’t know who coined this phrase but I want to pass it along in this context…perhaps a mantra for this ecosystem today and tomorrow might be “No Child Left Inside” when visiting the Greater Yellowstone area.
2. Economic Impacts on Surrounding Communities
• No longer in dispute the absolute bond that exists. We are the “extended family” - public lands people and communities. We know the primary expenditures.
• Let’s think about the secondary expenditures associated with the family. Appropriated Federal dollars being spent in these communities. Payroll in excess of $20 million annually, local purchases to operate and maintain the parks significantly more than $10 million.
• What are the trends in Federal dollars? Forecast decreases as well as shifts away from federal jobs to contractors and cooperators.
• What are the impacts of those kinds of shifts and trends?
• Not unlike the transitions that communities go through in significant changes to military base operations.
• What will that mean - look like - change in our economy?
3. Community and Amenity Values
• Tremendous success in the past two decades in understanding the dollar value associated with quality of life or power of place. And what was once thought to be immeasurable. Clean air, clean water, wild lands, wildlife, open space…
• All of us are here because we know and benefit from these values. They are the “drivers” in this ecosystem.
These interests form the foundation upon which we must find new ways to act in concert with each other in preserving the very assets that add and underpin so many values in this ecosystem.
1. Preservation requires and demand management: those actions necessary to meet the goals of sustaining the whole.
2. There are limits to the amount of change this ecosystem can sustain and still produce high economic value. Let me offer that we should not fear using the word or discussing these limits. In fact this ecosystem should capitalize and engage in this dialogue. Understanding the acceptable limits of change and the unacceptable limits of change within this ecosystem will set it apart from and ahead of other ecosystems/communities. Being bold enough to engage in this dialogue as an ecosystem would be a forward step in thinking and acting transformationally and not just incrementally. Big words let’s look at what they could mean
An ecosystem approach to sustainable resources and economies would…
1. Do different things…not just do things differently.
2. Focus on sustained return…not just short term gains.
3. Act in partnership… not rely on the traditional hierarchical approach of government
4. Form integrated, seamless and transparent networks of leadership and community involvement…rather than allowing the critical issues and constituencies to remain fragmented and stovepiped.
5. Create new processes to meet our challenges…rely less on just improving the existing processes.
6. Pay more attention to cultural change during problem solving…and a little less to more structural and organizational change to problem solve.
In closing - I want to offer a few more concepts and thoughts.
• Are we willing to explore the meaning of “informed sacrifice” in this ecosystem?
• What might that mean in how we act and demonstrate the commitment to resource preservation and resource benefit?
• What does that mean to our shared sense of community?
• What would it say to the rest of the country and the world?
• How would that concept influence decision making at all levels in this ecosystem?
The NPS stands ready, willing and able to join you in these dialogues and to engage you in shaping the actions we must all take to ensure that this ecosystem remains a high quality, high-performing region that is:
• Mission driven
• Cooperative and collaborative
• Achieving excellence in environmental practices while producing economic results
• Dedicated to informed decision making throughout our communities that is based on a broad spectrum of science; economic, social, biological and physical
Thank You.
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