George Wright Society ParkForum

By Nate Moody

October 20-23, 2025, the University of Idaho Parks and Recreation Lab (PRL) travelled across the Bitterroot Mountains to Missoula, Montana for the annual George Wright Society ParkForum meeting. In total, five members of the PRL came and presented a mixture of posters and presentations. The meeting allowed PRL students and faculty a chance to network with other national and international parks and protected areas managers, researchers, and students. Here are some highlights.

During the poster session on Tuesday, PhD student Natalia Jaramillo and master’s student Brey Weygandt were able to share their respective research projects. As a first-time conference presenter, Brey Weygandt shared a poster titled A Rapid Review of Participatory GIS Scholarship Centering Tribal Sovereignty. The rapid literature

review demonstrated the limited amount of contemporary scholarship focused on Indigenous geospatial data sovereignty and mapping efforts.  Natalia presented Harnessing Remote Sensing Technologies to Monitor Tourism Impacts in the Antarctic Peninsula, as a look into how future tourism research in Antarctica may be conducted.

Also on Tuesday, professor and PRL founder Dr. Chris Zajchowski shared the results of a study titled Assessing the Impact of Idaho House Bill 93 on Idaho State Parks which discussed concerns with recent legislative changes that could affect revenue at smaller Idaho State Parks. In addition, Dr. Zajchowski presented prairie conservation issues in Balancing Prairie Stewardship and Recreation Access.

Amber Hawes, a first-year PhD student shared results from her master’s studies titled Do Themes Improve Visitor Outcomes In Interpretive Programs? This presentation brought attention to thematic components that help improve parks interpretation.

Finally, Nate Moody, instructor faculty in Natural Resources and Society reported on findings from an ongoing case study of the wildland recreation industry titled, Outfitter perceptions of workforce development on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.