When it comes to our National Wildlife Refuges, great care is put into the preservation and stewardship of the natural resources located therein. But popular opinion and the relationship of the public to these wild places is a crucial step to ensuring that this kind of natural resource management can continue to occur. This insight has informed efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to expand its educational outreach. In this spirit, Riley Vance, a GBI Interpretive Research Fellow, was deployed as part of a collaboration with USFWS to create Interpretive Thematic Matrices (ITMs) for the Inland Northwest National Wildlife Refuge Complex in eastern Washington. What is an ITM? Riley explained: “Put simply, an interpretive theme matrix is a document that guides all public outreach and visitor services, from brochures and signage, to programs and events. The matrices serve as a guide for refuge managers, visitor services staff, and volunteers to guide decision making and available resources for community engagement and refuge programming. You can use an interpretive theme matrix to connect refuge management efforts to the public in a way that is relevant, compelling, and understandable.”
Riley, who had previously served with GBI as a Desert Tortoise Surveyor based out of Las Vegas, worked on this project from June to September, with the goal of producing ITMs for each of the three National Wildlife Refuges (NWR) in the Inland Northwest complex: Kootenai NWR, Little Pend Oreille NWR, and Turnbull NWR. “I spent about one month at each refuge getting to know the space, gathering information, completing informal surveys with visitors, holding scoping sessions with staff and volunteers, and analyzing the information gathered to determine key resources and features at each refuge that eventually became subject matters within my final drafts,” she reported.
From here, Riley sought to organize the gathered information into six components that constitute the matrices: theme, supporting ideas & concepts, tangibles, intangibles, universals, and target audience. Riley offered a detailed explanation of the purpose of each of these components: “The themes state the reason(s) why someone should care about or for a resource. Themes help explain why your site’s story is relevant to people. Supporting ideas & concepts give support as to why you should care about a theme, what ideas are present, what needs to be explained, and provide background information for the stories we want to tell. A tangible is something you can experience with one or more of your five senses. A tangible is something you can see, touch, smell, taste or hear. Examples of a tangible could be an animal or a landscape, or a specific species of wildflower. Intangibles are abstract ideas, concepts, and feelings, such as biodiversity, community, or a sense of wonder. Universal concepts are also intangible, abstract concepts, however these are concepts that everyone can relate to, even if it is perceived differently from person to person. Examples of universal concepts could be love, change, survival, or beauty.”
If this sounds like a lot of coverage, it is! But this kind of detail ensures that the matrices will be of lasting value for managers, staff, and volunteers. In putting the ITMs together, Riley not only had to draw on her previous experience to complete this “daunting and exciting task,” but also develop plenty of new skills. “I learned how to independently conduct surveys and scoping sessions, and how to take the information gathered and pull out the takeaways,” she told us. “I learned how incredible our National Wildlife System is, and what amazing work is being done to protect, preserve, and restore lands that offer crucial habitats to so many incredible species of plants and wildlife. I gained skills in working independently in general, as I was a team of one. A lot of my work was self-structured, which challenged me in a way that grew my task-delegation and problem-solving skills.”
Despite, or perhaps because, of the challenges faced, Riley loved her time working with GBI and USFWS, about which she said, “whether working on desert tortoise surveys in the beautiful and rugged Mojave Desert, or creating documents for National Wildlife Refuges, I have learned so many new things, met so many incredible people and professionals, and found community with like-minded people who care. I made memories to last a lifetime, working, camping and recreating with my team who became friends for life.” She particularly singled out her “incredible mentor,” Joshua Contois, USFWS Supervisory Park Ranger, who “made an effort to show me my own potential and how he believed I could use the work I did this summer to grow my resume and propel my career. I have a lot of gratitude for him, for the Great Basin Institute, and for all the GBI workers I have met along the way that have an unwavering dedication to our one precious planet.”
The gratitude goes both ways, and Joshua Contois offered his own accolades: “I want to thank Riley for her outstanding effort on this project. I recognize that juggling moves between three different refuges in as many months, learning the resources at each, and producing quality products is no easy feat. Riley handled every aspect of her fellowship with professionalism and enthusiasm. She has effectuated a quality product that will last for years to come. It is my hope that the matrices shared here with you will be used as a model for other refuges in the region.”
