When authors sit down to write, their words are shaped by their passions and experiences. Let me tell you about mine. My passions are national parks and conservation. In terms of experience, I’m a professor emeritus of park and conservation policy at Texas A&M University and the former visiting chief social scientist of the U.S. National Park Service.
As a professor, I taught courses that used real-world case studies to illustrate larger social issues in conservation and park management. My classes covered such topics as the place of humans in nature, navigating tensions between protected areas and nearby communities, and interpreting contested or difficult history to the public.
But my career at Texas A&M was not continuous. For eight years, I led a national social science program that provided usable knowledge about people to national park managers, planners, and policymakers. This included counting park visitors, estimating their economic impacts, surveying visitors and non-visitors, and writing regional social science research plans.
However, my interest in national parks began even earlier than my professional career. As a college dropout, I worked two summers as a dishwasher, busboy, and server in a café within shouting distance of the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park. There, I met my future wife who shared my interest in national parks and convinced me to complete my education. Together, we’ve visited over 300 parks in the system. I’ve personally worked on social science projects in more than 30 of them. My book-in-progress, Americans and Their National Parks, is the product of those experiences, interests, and passions. Thanks for dropping by.
James Gramann, Redmond, Oregon
There are worse sins for a scientist than to be wrong. One of them is to be trivial.—Robert MacArthur