IU's Eppley Institute receives National Park Service award

After a 15-year affiliation, the National Park Service awarded IU’s Eppley Institute for Parks and Public Lands with its first ever Excellence in Partnership Award at a ceremony last week. \nThe award, which came as a surprise to the Eppley staff, was given due to Eppley’s contributions to the National Park Service in teaching software development, staff and volunteer training and research, said Betsy Dodson, National Park Service park facility management training manager. \n“Eppley has reflected a very strong partnership, not just with the Facility Management division but with others as well,” Dodson said. “They have worked with such a broad audience that they’re really on a national level as far as contribution is concerned.”\nThe Eppley Institute is part of the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation’s Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies. It provides continuing education through classroom and online courses for resource protection and environmental training for organizations on national, state and local levels. \n“They have allowed us to accomplish more by providing support for our Web site and grading written portions of exams in our training programs,” Dodson said. “It has been a strong and balanced partnership.” \nAlthough expansion was always the mission of Eppley Executive Director Steve Wolter, he admits he didn’t foresee a level of progress this noteworthy. \n“When I first started as assistant director in 1997, we had only two full-time employees,” he said. “Now we have 15 full-time faculty and staff, 30 to 35 hourly positions and four graduate assistants working for us. It is a little amazing.” \nWolter, who took over the executive spot in 2003, expressed his pride in the new honor, which came unexpectedly at a graduation ceremony for National Park Service certification recipients. With attendees thinking the ceremony was over, the members from the National Park Service began to thank Eppley for it’s contributions and then announced they received the award.\nDodson, who has worked directly with Eppley for the past eight years, said it was no surprise who the recipient of the first Excellence in Partnership Award would be. \n“(The award) was initiated primarily through our office,” she said. “The Chief Facility Manager and myself worked together to come up with an idea to honor the supportive partnership we’ve had with them all this time. We moved forward to make the award happen.” \nDodson also credits Wolter as a key proponent behind the success of the Eppley-National Park Service association. \n“He brings 12 years of experience in the field,” Dodson said. “His understanding of where we are going is great. We didn’t have to educate him. He came in fully trained. What he did was to find the right place Eppley can support National Park Service. Every (Eppley) staff member has been a wonderful addition to our program.” \nThe award comes at a great time for Eppley, Wolter said, as the Institute has begun to further its research in environmental protection. Projects such as studies on the effect of off-road vehicles on beaches and collaboration with communities surrounding the Indiana Dunes are part of this summer’s focus. \nWith the recent energy crisis, mining for fossil fuels has come dangerously close to national parks – something Wolter said is just a fraction of the threat against the environment. \n“Environmental resource pressure will continue to grow,” he said. “All that we can hope to do is help the management and policy makers of these parks come up with responses for these pressures and expand their protection.”