As technology has changed around us, it has created a tremendous opportunity for interpretation. 

Brad Krey, Interpretation and Education Programs Manager for California State Parks, joins the Park Leaders Show to discuss how California is using technology to take the park to kids. 

One concern we have in parks is remaining relevant. People will protect what they care about. They will care about what they learn about. In order to stay relevant, we need to continue helping kids learn about parks, wildlife, and wild places. 

California State Parks has used video streaming to bring the park directly into classrooms. One interpretive staff member uses video conferences to introduce students to park resources. The kids may be nowhere near the park, but they are giving a connection to the park. The video session is live and in real time, which allows students to ask questions. 

Once kids are connected to the park through one of these video interpretive session, it may be years before it pays off. But a seed is planted. 

California is leading the way in finding innovative solutions to tell stories. Brad Krey shares how any park can use distance learning to tell stories to kids all over the country. Long distance interpretation will help your park remain relevant now, and 20 years from now when today's kids have families of their own. 

Don't limit your interpretation to pamphlets, signs, information boards, and in-person interpretive talks. Reach outside the boundaries of your park and help kids learn about the plants, animals, and even park rangers found in your park. 

Often, on the Park Leaders Show, I ask people about their history with the outdoors and why they became a park ranger. One day, we will hear a park ranger tell the story of how an in-classroom interpretative video conference is what inspired him to become a park ranger. 

Wild Jobs are all around us, but often go unnoticed.

John Griffith returns to the Park Leaders Show to tell us about his new show, Wild Jobs, on Animal Planet.

Griffith uses the show to highlight conservation and the hard work done at wildlife sanctuaries and animal hospitals.

Getting a show with Animal Plant started years ago when John uploaded his first video to YouTube. The video went viral and made John a YouTube star because of his dancing. John used his dancing to turn attention to his true love, conservation.

Now, his love for conservation gave him an opportunity to host Animal Planet's first digital show. In each episode, John spends the day working with people who care for animals. You will enjoy watching John do a variety of jobs from trimming porcupine toenails to changing monkey diapers.

Dylan Mroszczyk-McDonald returns to the Park Leaders Show to continue the discussion about leadership and culture in parks. 

Dylan is a park ranger at Acadia National Park.

In this episode, we discuss innovative leadership and the impact it can have on the culture of parks. 

To some degree, we are doing the same job park rangers were doing 60 years ago. We are trying to protect and preserve parks. 

With innovation, we can hold true to our history and mission while bringing in positive changes and best practices from organizations and movements found around us. 

Innovation brings tension with it to people in parks who feel an obligation to hold on to our tradition and heritage. 

Change throughout an entire agency begins with a single individual making a change. You can start the long progress of making change by having difficult conversations about leadership and culture in parks. 

You can listen to the first episode in the series here. 

Being a park ranger is an admirable job. Many people grow up dreaming of becoming a park ranger. 

Yet, too many people leave parks, and walk away from their dream, because of poor leadership or an unhealthy culture. 

Dylan Mroszczyk-McDonald, a park ranger at Acadia National Park, joins host Jody Maberry on the Park Leaders Show to examine some of the challenges parks face with leadership and culture. 

For the future of parks, we need to be able to not only attract but also retain a diverse staff. 

The front line supervisor has the biggest impact on employees and our ability to accomplish the mission of parks. By shifting the focus of parks away from the visitor and the resources and towards building leaders, we can begin to build a culture where people are willing to spend decades serving others. 

The greater the employee experience, the greater the experience visitors will have.