Park Planning Fellow

NPS UNIT: Intermountain Regional Office
LOCATION: Lakewood, CO

The Park Planning Fellow will be one fellow in a newly established cohort of interns that supports the national Park Planning and Special Studies (PPSS) Program and regional park planning programs. This outstanding opportunity affords the Park Planning Fellow in-depth exposure and involvement in the National Park Service's work to design and plan the future of national park units. In addition to being in a cohort with peers, the fellow will be supporting and collaborating with a professional community of NPS planners. The Park Planning Fellow will learn and contribute to how the NPS is addressing important issues facing the NPS and take a deep dive into the newly established guidance on general management planning. General management planning is informed by the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 and further articulated in NPS Management Policies 2.2 which states this type of planning sets the long-term goals for the park.

The National PPSS Program, based in Washington DC, and regional park planning programs provide national and regional guidance and assistance to all park units throughout the national park system in addressing their planning needs. The programs provide: 1) leadership, oversight, and guidance to the NPS's park planning community, 2) leadership, oversight, and technical assistance in the preparation of planning documents which articulate desired futures for the protection of park resources and the needed visitor services and facilities; and 3) support special resource studies for areas being considered for potential inclusion into the national park system.
The Park Planning Fellow position provides an opportunity to be involved in the administration of national or regional planning programs. The Park Planning Fellow will support park planning projects that will improve national park infrastructure, expand visitor access and opportunities, evaluate potential new park sites as authorized by Congress, and engage local communities and organizations in planning processes. This position will help NPS staff and partners cultivate strong relationships through park planning processes which involve working with many disciplines, park stakeholders, and members of the public.
Potential Trainings to be provided (as needed): GIS, Adobe Creative Suite, Planning and Environment and Public Comment (which is a tool to manage online public communications and comment analysis), weekly one-on-one trainings with various programs and divisions within the NPS (I.e., climate change response group; transportation, see DHA workplan for more information) general document l.

Work is performed primarily in an office setting in a large downtown city location with public transportation services nearby. Work may be performed either in-person at a remote duty station. Travel may be required for site and resource orientation, fieldwork, analysis of resources, site conditions and inspections, meetings with park staff and other agencies and groups, public meetings, and other purposes. Travel may include backcountry hiking, walking, stooping, bending and climbing. Some lifting and carrying of equipment and supplies during fieldwork may also be necessary.

The Park Planning Fellow will support the Park Planning and Environmental Quality Division of the Intermountain Regional Office with one or more priority planning projects for reconnaissance surveys, recently-established park units, park portfolio evaluations and planning, and may also assist with smaller efforts and projects as appropriate. Primary projects could include:
• Reconnaissance Surveys: The Intermountain Region will be conducting two reconnaissance surveys during 2023 that the fellow will assist with: one will evaluate the possibility of the January 8th Memorial to become an affiliated area of the NPS; the other will evaluate the Dearfield Homestead to become a unit of the NPS. The surveys will evaluate the National Significance, Suitability, Feasibility, and Need for NPS Management of each site.
• Amache National Historic Site Strategic Planning: Designated as a new unit of the national park system in 2022, Amache was one of ten incarceration camps established by the US Government during World War II to illegally detain Japanese Americans under Executive Order 9066. As the historic site transitions to NPS management, a strategic planning effort will help to define, prioritize, and direct tasks for various program areas over the next 3-5 years. Assistance with this effort will include pulling from civic engagement outcomes conducted under a recent study and ongoing foundation document process to inform the strategic plan and working with regional and park staff/partners to identify common goals.
• White Sands National Park Foundation Update: White Sands National Park was established in 2019 after new legislation changed the unit designation from a National Monument to a National Park and resulted in a modification to the boundaries of the unit. Because of the new designation and additional resources within the park, an update to the Foundation Document is required to provide the fundamental basis of all ongoing and future park planning.
• Preliminary Project Planning: There will be up to four preliminary project planning efforts in IMR including a site planning in Chisos Basin at Big Bend National Park, Trails Management Planning at Bryce Canyon National Park, an analysis of the high priority planning needs (including climbing, trail management, and Wilderness) at Colorado National Monument, and site planning at Yucca House National Monument.
• General Management Plan for Valles Caldera National Preserve (established in 2014): Located in the Jemez Mountains of north-central New Mexico at the intersection of two major fault systems, the park encompasses all of a volcanic caldera created by a spectacular volcanic eruption about 1.25 million years ago. The General Management Plan for Valles Caldera will establish comprehensive management guidance for the new park unit and incorporate key planning components such as access/circulation, frontcountry development concepts, wilderness stewardship and measures to protect the park's unique high-elevation ecosystems, geologic and landscape features. Assistance with this effort could include helping evaluate civic engagement outcomes, prepare for visitor use and management alternatives workshops, and/or contributing to wild and scenic river and wilderness eligibility assessments.
• Portfolio Planning: The fellow will assist the IMR Planning Portfolio Manager with Part 1 of assembling planning portfolio documents for at least three parks in the Intermountain Region. In addition, in conjunction with updating the park's foundation document, the fellow's time will be spent supporting the planning portfolio manager in conversations with White Sands National Park staff about inadequacies of their current planning portfolio and strategies to address the gaps.

The breakdown of time will be:

25% learning, admin, cohort support and sharing
55% individual projects
20% portfolio management

Learning Goals:
NPS policy and related legislation
• The role of park planning in the larger organization and exposure to the administration of the NPS
• NPS park planning structure, principles, skills
• NPS resource management structure, principles, skills
• Strategic problem-solving experiences and skills related to land management, park operations, and project management
• Civic engagement and public involvement methods employed by the NPS during planning processes
• Climate change impacts to national park resources and operations, and how the NPS is addressing climate change through planning
• Facilitation techniques