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By Michael
Doyle
The Fresno Bee - November 30, 1998
WASHINGTON - Yosemite National Park is a guinea pig in a national experiment
designed to subtly change how visitors tour parks.
Signs - those guideposts that plant information in the midst of nature - are
the surprisingly important test subject.
"It's amazing what a big deal they are," National Parks Service spokesman
David Barna marveled.
Using two Yosemite Valley campgrounds, North Pines and Lower Pines, as the
test bed, the park service is remaking its signs with new frames, colors,
materials and typefaces. If officials like the results, the Yosemite changes
probably will spread to other national parks.
"We're using Yosemite as a starting place to see what works and what doesn't,"
Yosemite spokesman Kendell Thompson said.
Yosemite's a natural for such an experiment. The park has some 2,000 signs,
and Yosemite Valley provides a compact testing area, said Denis Galvin, deputy
park service director.
The sign project follows about five years of sometimes laborious study. It's
serious business: Major parks such as Yosemite have landscape architects whose
job responsibilities include that of designated "signage officer."
About a week ago, Galvin was in Yosemite strictly to discuss the sign issue
with Western park officials.
Though park highways' signs have long been standardized, other signs have
varied from site to site.
"They've tended to be homemade, and been slapped up by the chief ranger,"
Galvin said.
The park service wants to find a uniform system for designing, building and
installing signs. It will cost money in the short run - Galvin said it would
take $1.3 million to equip all of Yosemite with the test signs now at the
Pines campgrounds - but was likely to save money and visual clutter in the
long run.
"You wouldn't have as many signs," Galvin said, "and they would last twice
as long."
Park officials divide signs into two types: directional and informational.
Each is getting special attention in the Yosemite experiment.
Informational signs advise visitors of things such as campground pet rules
and bear warnings. To make them more eye-catching, officials are trying prerusted
steel frames. They're also testing replaceable panels to simplify the process
of updating information.
The directional signs point visitors toward trail heads, horse stables and
other park facilities. The test signs are gussied up with a darker shade of
brown, a vivid typeface that makes the print more readable and easily recognizable
international symbols.
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