The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impacted opportunities for internships in parks, recreation, tourism, and sports. The government mandated numerous agencies to close. Many agencies that remained open reduced staff, froze budgets, shifted programs online, and discontinued internships. The senior internship for Parks, Recreation, and Tourism…

Visitation to some of the most popular national parks in the United States has surged in recent years, but in many national park units, attendance has declined even as the U.S. population increases. Changing demographics, patterns of visitation, maintenance needs, and inconsistent federal support raise questions about national parks' relevance to…

I have been teaching an information technology course in recreation, parks & tourism partially online (hybrid format) for nearly a decade; however, I never taught it fully online until the shift to emergency remote instruction during the pandemic. What I found was that some of my previous reasons for not wanting to teach fully online were…

Accreditation is a critical process in maintaining standards of consistency and excellence in the academic preparation of students for their chosen profession. While academic programs, professional associations, and credentialing organizations all recognize the importance of programmatic accreditation in recreational therapy professional…

Volunteer science programs are designed to increase public understanding and appreciation of science by creating opportunities for the public to engage in science. This research assesses the impact of Map of Life-Denali on its volunteers. This program calls on park visitors to record wildlife observations while they visit Denali National Park and…

Purpose: While the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and visions for sustainability education apply to many methods, they can be hard to put into practice. This study aims to concern an undergraduate geography course designed not only to teach geographical methods but also to engage with the multi-scalar nature of the SDGs and apply them to…

Park managers use personal interpretation to achieve a variety of outcomes for park visitors and the natural environment. This project examines whether these outcomes are achieved, the factors influencing how the outcomes are achieved, and the overlap among these factors across the outcomes. Based on interviews with visitors in three Alberta…

Aldo Leopold is widely regarded as one of the founders of the modern field of ecology. He was also a skilled woodsman, hunter, and a proponent of personal development through time in the outdoors. In this essay, we focus on how Leopold viewed certain benefits concomitant with immersive outdoor experiences. Guided by his 1943 essay, "The…

The discipline of knowledge management (KM) considers knowledge as potentially the most valuable organisational asset that must be shared among staff and stakeholders and even communities in order to yield considerable returns and benefits. However, in a real-world context, managers in industries such as high technology, manufacturing and finance…

This article provides a response to the article "Leisure Studies is for Experience, Not Industry," by Harmon (2018). In responding to Harmon's critique, I address two important issues; both could be expanded into full-length articles but are treated only briefly in this response. First, it is critical to clearly understand and…

This article explores the activity of canyoning in the natural territory of the Mercantour National Park (France). The investigation refers to the sociology of logics of action to understand the disparity of its development. The 85 canyons are explored according to their interest and their use. The interviews conducted with professionals and other…

The third edition of "A Career with Meaning" offers new perspectives on the field and updates on trends and research related to each career area. Of note is the renewed emphasis in our field and thus on understanding the role recreation and leisure play in promoting health and wellness, sustainability, and social justice. The book uses…

Conservation education can be fostered through formal and informal learning. An increasing number of zoological facilities with conservation missions have provided experiential learning venues characterized by self-directed, self-motivated and diversified learning experience integrated with fun and entertainment. In this paper, we develop an…

In this paper we discuss the intractability of the "great divide" between higher education and professional practice in parks, recreation, and tourism. We begin by drawing parallels between our field and other professional fields to demonstrate that the issue is not ours alone; indeed, it is common to most professional fields. We then…

Promotion with tenure is often the ultimate goal for PhD students who choose to pursue a career in higher education. Extensive mentorship is provided for tenure-track faculty to smooth the path toward promotion with tenure, but most faculty members achieve this goal relatively early in their careers, leaving years if not decades ahead in a tenured…