Colby Parkinson, National (Park) Treasure
From a solar-powered tiny house in McCarthy, Alaska inside of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, America’s largest national park, Colby Parkinson, Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management (RPTM) Ph.D. student with a dual-title in Social Data Analytics (SoDA), shared his comparison to time spent living and working in Washington, D.C. “I think my basement townhome apartment in D.C. was about the size of this house.”
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is the largest area managed by the National Park Service, larger than six Yellowstones. Colby spent the summer between McCarthy and Chitina, Alaska conducting research in pursuit of his Ph.D., nestled between some of the highest points and largest glaciers in the United States and Canada. It was his third time conducting research in the area and the third national park that he conducted field research in during his Ph.D. Each of his projects have focused on different elements of visitor use management with an emphasis on human behavior in or near parks and protected areas.
Colby left his hometown of Boise, Idaho to attend college at American University. He majored in Public Relations and Strategic Communication with a minor in Sociology. After graduation, he worked for two years in D.C. doing strategic communications with the North American Association for Environmental Education and operations management for a small political advertising firm.
“I remember taking courses like RPTM 433W (Program Evaluation and Research in Recreation Services) during my undergraduate studies. As I learned more about graduate school, I was excited to learn that I could earn a degree, and do science and research, as a career,” said Colby.
Next, it was off to Oregon State University for a master's degree in Forest Ecosystems and Society in the College of Forestry. His master’s research looked at the mental health benefits of participating in outdoor recreation and leisure during COVID-19. While at Oregon State, he was advised by Assistant Professor Dr. Sharon Shen, who earned a Ph.D. from Penn State in Leisure Studies in 2010. Dr. Shen encouraged Colby to apply to Penn State’s RPTM Ph.D. program.
With a dual title in RPTM and SoDA at Penn State, two of Colby’s projects have looked at how people use parks and how they use the space in the parks. At the Grand Canyon, Colby’s work focused on where visitors go and how long they stay in various areas of the park. He drew comparisons between a random sample of visitors who carried GPS devices that near-continuously recorded their location to a sample of thousands of visitors who were tracked through a third party via their cell phones and other personal devices over two summers. These comparisons were intended to help validate the use of emerging technology for tracking visitor use.
Similarly, at Grand Teton National Park, Colby’s research examined cyclists' behaviors in the multi-use pathway and roadways in the park using GPS device tracking, such as where, how far, and how fast the cyclists go within the park. An avid mountain biker himself, Colby is identifying the relationship between variables that may explain cycling behavior in the park, such as the use of conventional bikes versus e-bikes, as well as skill level and age.
In Alaska, Colby’s work examined locals, visitors, and emergency responders’ responses to natural disasters in the more than 60-mile McCarthy Road Corridor that runs through Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. “Within and adjacent to the park, there are several small communities and dwellings. We knew that the locals are broadly well-trained and aware of disaster planning, but wanted to learn more about park visitor understanding and preparation and its interrelationship with the responses of residents, commercial operators providing services for their own guests, state and local responders, and visitors to adjacent state and native lands.” Colby and his team collaborated with civil engineers at Oregon State on developing simulations that model natural disaster progression and individual’s responses to inform preparation and training across agencies and levels of governance.
“The people who live in Alaska understand the risk and have an idea of how to best respond,” said Colby. “Visitors may not.” Colby has been interested in learning about the local communities within and adjacent to the park boundaries and how they may face challenges as a result of the relatively high volume of visitors they take in compared to the size of their communities. For example, the most popular area in the park is Kennecott Mines National Historic Landmark, which is a remnant of the booming copper industry from the 20th century that attracts hundreds of visitors on summer days and drove the early development of some of the communities in the area. The landmark has dozens of neighboring state residents and several businesses whose emergency response could be impacted by the presence of so many visitors.
Colby has attended Penn State using a mix of fellowships and research and teaching assistantships. He brings his skills and experience to the classroom by teaching RPTM 433.
Colby enjoys mountain biking and spends a lot of time in Pennsylvania's Rothrock State Forest, just a few miles outside of campus. He likes to spend time with his dog, Teddy.
Studying people and their behaviors within the spaces and programs in the outdoors is Colby Parkinson’s passion. In RPTM, passions can turn into careers.