by Cris Collier
In a ritual as old as time: Dawn slips across the horizon along the prairie marshes of south-central Kansas.
Photo by Dan Witt.
And with those first rays of sunlight comes a thundering, primeval sound—deafening, glorious, and almost terrifying as islands made up of thousands of sandhill cranes, geese, and ducks suddenly dissolve in a flutter of wings and haunting calls to rise and fly to the surrounding fields of Barton and Stafford Counties.
Each year, theirs is a 7,000-mile journey that takes them from their summer nesting grounds of Canada, Alaska, and Siberia to winter retreats in New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico—and then, when the seasons change, back again.
The birds have been coming to the marshes for at least 9 million years. But in the past 20 years, the dynamics of that migration have changed as a growing number of birders from around the world also flock to the land to witness what many consider one of the best wildlife sights in the world.
And as they come, incorporating and interpreting what people see is becoming increasingly important.
There have been many changes in tourism over the past two decades I have worked in the industry. As president of the Great Bend Kansas Convention and Visitors Bureau, I’ve witnessed changes that have been dramatic and rapid. Initially bureau work was only about the marketing aspect of tourism. Now, our bureau work includes three tiers: marketing, political considerations, and product development. In 2005, we became designated as one of the first national scenic byways in Kansas.
Interpretive panels like this one create a consistent experience along the Wetlands and Wildlife National Scenic Byway.
The Kansas Wetlands and Wildlife National Scenic Byway consists of 77 miles along state and county roads in rural Kansas. This byway showcases the prairie wetlands located in the heart of the central flyway. Working on a national scenic byway presented several challenges. The byway comprises three counties, seven communities, and three wetlands of international importance.
The seven corridor communities for our byway range in size and population from 154 residents living in Hudson to 15,000 in Great Bend. Each of these communities has something to offer as a unique and authentic visitor experience.
We quickly discovered visitors, like the birds who come to the marshlands, don’t see or care about city limits, county lines, or other political boundaries. So the challenge was and still is to develop a seamless experience for the visitor while honoring these political and government boundaries.
This byway exists in rural Kansas. No single byway community, regardless of its size, can offer a unique “visitor package” on its own to attract tourists to the region. But each can and does contribute to the whole visitor experience. I’ve discovered through the years that there’s really not much difference between tourist amenities and “quality of life” factors people consider when making decisions about where to live.
The most important challenge we needed to address was how best to tell our story. Every community had its own ideas about what it needed and how it wanted to tell “the story.” We needed both an umbrella and structure. Attending our first National Association for Interpretation conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2006 was like having a light turned on. It was there we learned about interpreting our area. Interpretation provided the answer.
Visitors enjoy a guided birding field trip at Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area.
The development of an interpretive theme, subthemes, and story lines provided both the umbrella and structure we needed to move toward providing quality visitor experiences. This allows every community, attraction, and resource to consistently tell the story of the byway while still being able to tell their own individual and unique stories as outlined through subthemes and story lines.
Taking the interpretive approach has strengthened the many partnerships involved in the byway experience. It provides an avenue for communities to appropriately tell the story. Each is a significant and unique piece to the overall byway puzzle. This also removes some of the “threat” between communities and allows them to cross market. Since each community works from a different subtheme and set of story lines, they each provide something significantly unique. Our wetlands are wonderful and diverse, starting with their ownership and operation.
Quivira National Wildlife Refuge is a 22,135-acre property owned and operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Research indicates this saltwater marsh experiences approximately 60,000 visitors of a non-consumptive nature, primarily wildlife watching and photography, yearly.
The Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area is a 19,857-acre freshwater marsh owned and operated by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. It receives about 60,000 visits annually, equally split between consumptive and non-consumptive uses.
The Nature Conservancy Preserve at Cheyenne Bottoms consists of 7,694 acres managed exclusively for non-consumptive use.
These three wetlands provide the anchors at either end of this national byway. All three have been designated as wetlands of international importance. Yet, much like the corridor communities involved in the byway, each wetland has its own unique story to tell and management plan to implement and promote.
The lack of amenities present at the wildlife areas hampers visitation. Partnering with corridor communities helps to present those amenities to the visitors to improve the quality of their experience and possibly lengthen their stay in the region.
Our experience has been that interpretation lays the foundation. Working together to develop an interpretive plan built partnerships. All entities were honored in working to develop the overall best visitor experience possible for our region.
Happy and satisfied visitors stay longer, return often, and “spread the word” both about the joys of visiting our region and the importance and significance of the resources found here. This has raised the visibility of the tourism industry at the local, state, and national levels.
But one other change is also emerging—the nature of the experiences sought by visitors. Gone are the days when simply seeing an attraction was enough. Visitors now seek authentic experiences.
That’s what makes interpretation so essential in tourism. In the past, many attractions and museums managed presentations and programs more along the lines of “interpretainment” and “interpretorture.” But no more. Visitors now seek authenticity and connectedness with the resource.
Both staff and volunteers need to address that shift or find themselves experiencing sharp declines in visitation numbers. Marketing research indicates an increase in tourists seeking outdoor experiences ranging from extreme sports to wildlife watching.
Regardless of the type of outdoor experience they are seeking, all will have an enriched experience with the inclusion of interpretation. This is because a large part of what they are seeking is a connection to the resource.
By including interpretation into our product development and marketing, we hope to provide experiences that encourage visitors to stay longer, return often, and provide good word-of-mouth advertising. Additionally, by using the universal concepts of interpretation we can help visitors make that connection and hopefully assist with building a broader and stronger base for the sustainability of the resource through volunteerism and stewardship.
We believe that by providing the proper experiences, it will help visitors consider supporting friends groups, take part in hands-on conservation activities, and become an advocate for both the destination and the resource.
The development of advocates for a resource, a region, and a community is an essential and important aspect of the experience. We will continue to incorporate interpretation in our efforts because we believe it provides quality visitor experiences, builds essential partnerships, and creates sustainability for both our communities and our resources.
Our story is as old as time. Yet it changes every minute of every day.
In the height of the fall migration, visitors know when they visit the marshes at sunset, they are witnesses to rhythms of nature. The skies are filled with wave after wave of birds coming in to rest on our prairie marshes until weather pushes them on. Visitors are just as likely to see a buck strutting across the fields as they are to catch glimpses of whooping cranes feeding in fields and bald eagles soaring overhead.
This is our story.
This is our experience.
Cris Collier is the president/CEO of the Great Bend Convention & Visitors Bureau in Great Bend, Kansas. She can be contacted by email at cvb@visitgreatbend.com. Find the Great Bend CVB at www.visitgreatbend.com. Find the Kansas Wetlands & Wildlife National Scenic Byway at www.KansasWetlandsandWildlifeScenicByway.com.
