(gentle music)
- Zion's been a national park for over a hundred years now
and we've paid attention to soundscapes
for a lot of that time.
I think when people are here,
the goal is to have them have a national park experience,
to be immersed in the landscape
and to experience something
that they don't usually experience
in the course of their day to day.
Soundscape at Zion matters because
it's an integral part of what we're trying to protect here
and what visitors come here to experience and to see.
There are sounds that you can hear in parks
that are distinctive to those parks.
Here I think some of the key sounds are the Canyon Wren.
When you're up in those canyons
and you hear that descending trill,
you know you're outside in Canyon Country
and that's a real indicator.
I think the other key sounds here
are some of the sounds associated with
how the canyon was made.
Wind sounds and water sounds,
also the lack of sounds.
The spaces in between, the quiet
and when you can hear what's going on and what's around you.
Soundscape is important for park visitors
and they notice it and they pay attention to it
and that's one of the things that they comment on
is what they hear as well as what they saw here.
We manage it partly for the visitor experience
but it's also an important natural resource for the animals
that live in the park as well,
to protect that space that they hunt in,
that they mate in, that they live in
so that they can all hear what they need to hear.
So we've been running the shuttle system here at Zion
for about 20 years.
It's a great visitor management tool
and it's a great way to let more people see the canyon
and it does reduce the sound up there.
Our fleet is getting old.
We need to replace the shuttles
and we started to do that with electric shuttles
with the idea being that those vehicles are much quieter
so that you won't be able to hear and notice
even the shuttles
and that will really expand that noise free interval
and reduce the sound upcanyon.
So we've started that fleet replacement.
We do have two electric shuttles in the fleet right now
and we're working on pulling funding together
and bringing those online as we phase out the current fleet.
It's gonna take a little while
and we've had to do some testing with various shuttles
in the park to find ones that can run in Zion heat
all day long up the canyon.
It'll be exciting cause they really are quieter.
It's fun when we've had,
when we've been running the test ones
or the new ones in the canyon
because it does really decrease their presence
and their impact
and it lets people that are riding the shuttles
focus on the park and what they can see
and they hear more
rather than being able to hear the shuttle noise.
(bird chirping)
So visitors to Zion National Park
can take some of what they have gained here,
visiting the park, home with them
and I think part of what that is,
is just that paying attention and noticing.
I'm hearing the sounds, knowing why they're important.
Learning to recognize a bird call
or just to listen to the trees for a minute
and hear what's going on and they can do that,
not only here at the park
where we try to provide really good examples of it,
but at other places in their city park near their house
and they can listen for birdsong
and can retain that connection to natural sounds
in natural places.
(gentle music)