Its beginning was a planning workshop for the units under the previous Pacific Northwest Regional Office. The Alaska River Management Symposium in Anchorage, jointly sponsored by the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Forest Service, is another biennial workshop. It is held principally for outfitters, land managers, and academic and public interest groups. The annual two-day Beringia Days Conference in Alaska focuses on Russian and Alaskan regional biological and cultural richness and research issues. Others, such as Acadia, Shenandoah, and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks and New River Gorge National River, are planning their biennial 1999 workshops.
Many participants belong to the ranks of park staff and affiliated academic scientists.
Registration revealed that attendance by representatives of other federal and state government agencies, private organizations, students, citizens, and other groups interested in the welfare of national parks has increased yearly. From all appearances in 1998, resource stewardship conferences are eminently important sources of information for park staff who must meet the ever-mounting challenges of resource management now and into the next millennium. Attendees of the Guadalupe Mountains science conference participated in field trips, presentations, and poster sessions.