By: Kalee Paxton
Serving with the Monongahela National Forest in Marlinton
People say a picture is worth a thousand words, so a painting must be worth a million. When it comes to designing interpretive signs, you can only have so many words before you lose your audience and that is why using art is so important to getting your message across and have an audience actually receive it. Interpretation in itself is an art and has a process all on its own. Each interpretive sign you see has its own inspirations, passions and messages it is trying to portray, and an artist/designer behind it trying to share all these things. It’s a process that I have had the opportunity to experience and want to share with you now.
Environmental interpretation is something I am very passionate about. It should be; I spent five years working to get a degree in that field. I also am an artist who mainly draws wildlife. During my two terms here with AFNHA, I have had the amazing opportunity to pair up my knowledge with my talents to accomplish a literal dream of mine: designing and implementing my own interpretive signs.
When I moved to West Virginia to work with the US Forest Service, I was excited to learn that the watershed team I would be working with was looking to implement signage on the Mon. My supervisor asked if this was a project I would be interested in and I was ecstatic. The goal of these signs would be to bring awareness to the plight of a federally listed fish species: the candy darter. I had no idea this fish existed, but instantly feel in love with this small, brightly colored fish and was amazed to learn that it could only be found in the streams of West Virginia. And so, I went to work.
Like any good project, mine began with a lot of research and collaboration. My job as an interpreter is to take all the science jargon and copious amount of information and boil it all down so it’s digestible. I spent several months drawing fish, creating draft after draft, editing, designing and redesigning until I came up with my final product:
Designing the signs was only half the battle. The next step was scoping out where the best places to put my signs would be. Here the research continued. I had to determine what locations would make the most sense for the signs to be at; They would need to be near streams that were good candy dart habitat that would also reach the most people possible. I traveled to many recreation sites on the forest, taking photos and making evaluations before presenting this information to my supervisor and getting clearance from the recreation teams that it was okay for me to put up signage at these places. After all the waiting, ordering and assembly, my signs were finally ready for their debut. I enjoyed getting out with both the Marlinton and Gauley Recreation teams to put up my signs and be part of that process as well. It was an amazing feeling to see almost two years’ worth of work finally become a tangible accomplishment that I now get to share with the public.
Maybe this was more than you ever cared to learn about the process of putting up interpretive signs, but maybe this has helped you look at interpretive signs a little differently! And maybe now you too have an appreciation for candy darters! Whatever you walked away with, I have done my job.
