Products & Services > Interpretive Planning > Long Range Interpretive Plans

Long-Range Interpretive Plans
Interpretive planning trip to Glacier National Park

HFC staff discuss wayside exhibits with park staff during an interpretive planning trip to Glacier National Park.

Interpretive planning workshop for the Potomac Heritage Trail

HFC interpretive planner Jack Spinnler facilitates an interpretive planning workshop for the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail.

  

Long-Range Interpretive Plans (LRIPs) provide a vision for the future (5-10 years) of interpretation, education, and visitor experience opportunities. They identify and analyze interpretation, education, and visitor experience goals and issues. They recommend the most effective, efficient, and practical ways to address those goals and issues. LRIPs address both non-personal services (interpretive media and facilities) and personal services (programs, personal contacts). Plans match interpretive media to messages to make sure they work well individually and collectively. The interpretive planning process is sensitive to which park resource experiences should be made accessible to visitors. Negative impacts on resources are minimized, and active stewardship is encouraged.

An LRIP is a component of a Comprehensive Interpretive Plan (CIP). The other components are an Annual Implementation Plan and an Interpretive Database.

An LRIP team is normally led by an experienced interpretive and educational planner. Park staff are an essential component of the planning team. Other team members may include staff from neighboring parks, interpretive and educational media specialists, subject matter experts, regional office specialists, partners, and stakeholders. Parks are responsible for accomplishing their LRIPs, and the decision-making authority in most regions is the park superintendent.

There are several questions to consider before deciding on how to get your LRIP done, including:

  • Why are you planning? What results do you want?
  • What will you do differently after the completion of the plan?
  • Will the plan address mostly personal or non-personal services?
  • Who will write and produce the plan?
  • How much time are you and your staff willing to spend?
  • Do you have funding? If so, how much?
  • How does this fit with other activities going on in and around the park?
  • Do you have a GMP in progress or about to start?

Sample Long Range Interpretive Plans

We have digital copies of nearly all of the Long Range Interpretive Plans we have recently produced. Here's a selection of our most recent LRIPs:

Northeast Region

National Capital Region

Southeast Region

Midwest Region

Intermountain Region

Pacific West Region

Alaska Region

For Long Range Interpretive Plans produced by individual parks, contractors or regional offices, contact the park.

  
Author: Harpers Ferry Center
Last Updated: Wednesday, 15-Apr-2009 08:21:58 Eastern Daylight Time
http://www.nps.gov/hfc/products/ip-lrip.htm