Have you ever explored the great outdoors? Do you want to learn how to properly care for our public lands? Look no further than the Be Wild campaign, launched by us, Salt Lake City Public Lands Department. The Be Wild campaign, an acronym for Welcome, Inclusive Spaces, Limit your Impact, and Do what you can, is designed to increase awareness of responsible ways to care for our outside community. Be Wild is not only an acronym but a way of life when it comes to exploring and enjoying public lands. In this blog post, we will dive deeper into the campaign with insight from Tyler Fonarow, Recreational Trails Manager, Foothills Ranger Kyle Webster, and Jordan River Ranger Lead Owen Carroll. Learn about their roles in the campaign and their perspective on the importance of caring for our public lands.
How did the Be WILD campaign begin?
Answer: Tyler Fonarow, Recreational Trails Manager
Be Wild started as an initial conversation among the public lands team, during Covid when we had an explosion of new users who needed more information on how to care for our parks and foothills. We knew that we needed a campaign that would disseminate the message. Fast forward to 2022, our Park Rangers had their perspective on this, so they helped us develop the language needed for the campaign. We wanted more than just a sign and here you go, we wanted to disseminate the right message and overall build on our community. We have decided to do more of a soft launch for this campaign just because we wanted to get the community’s input and feedback regarding our message, etiquette, verbiage, signs, and campaign overall. We are looking forward to the next few months of talking to the community about what they like.
What’s the duration of this campaign? Or is this more of a permanent thing?
Answer: Tyler Fonarow, Recreational Trails Manager
The piloting and soft launch of this campaign will last during the fall and early winter just for us to get adequate feedback and data from the community. And from there, the goal is for it to be permanent branding, signage, and marketing messaging, so when someone goes to a trail, or park entrance, they see the Be Wild campaign, or if something else comes along they could potentially elevate it. But we want something specific enough to give people an understanding of these things, and broad enough to be general across the board.
Is there a survey for the Be Wild campaign for the community?
Answer: Tyler Fonarow, Recreational Trails Manager
Not now, however, that is a part of our planning process to get that taken care of. Once we have some anecdotal feedback from the community, then we will create a formal survey to measure its efficiency. But in the meantime, the Rangers are working on other ways to interact with the community. For example, one of our rangers Haley, put together a “Foothills Footprint quiz” as a teaching tool for the community to understand their impact and teach them about how to properly take care of their outdoor community. We are hoping that through social media, QR codes, and the Ranger visits we can prepare for a future survey. We meet bi-weekly to discuss community feedback, so we know how to better create a survey that will give us data that we can use.
Have we received any community feedback?
Answer: Kyle Webster, Foothills Ranger
At the moment we have not received any specific feedback regarding the Be Wild campaign yet. However, I have handed out some of our marketing materials such as cards, etc., and it seems to be viewed as a good idea.
Answer: Owen Carroll, Jordan River Ranger Lead
That’s pretty much the same for me right now.
Answer: Tyler Fonarow, Recreational Trails Manager
It’s very important to note that public lands have received down time visitation when it’s extremely hot. We know that our team is in the process of tabling at more populated events to get the word out. It’s very important to note within this campaign that we are not just serving people that use public lands, but for the people that don’t, so we can fully understand why they don’t, so we can further educate them on public lands. For example, we are tabling at the 9th and 9th street fair, the Avenue Street Fair in September or Yoga in the Park on Sundays, and Yappy Hour events, in which we can have a targeted opportunity to speak with people as opposed to if someone is trying to ask people questions or educate them in the middle of a hike.
Moving on to the Ranger's perspective; what is your perspective, and goals for the campaign?
Answer: Kyle Webster, Foothills Ranger
Our underlying goal is to educate people. And with that education, essentially the community can make better decisions, for everyone. We also overall want people to feel welcome and have a good time recreating and hiking responsibly.
Answer: Owen Carroll, Jordan River Ranger Lead
Piggybacking from Kyle. Especially within the recreational landscape of pre-covid and after covid. Everyone has their ideas of recreation. And we got so accustomed to separation during covid, that everyone now has a slightly different idea, and could potentially step on other’s toes. The nice thing about this campaign is it gives everyone a unified idea. So instead of people saying or possibly thinking, “I’m walking “my” dog, I’m going on “my” bike ride, I’m going on “my” run, I’m joining this community of people out in this park or trail while I do my activity.
Answer: Tyler Fonarow, Recreational Trails Manager
The goal for our Park Ranger program, which was launched last year, is for them to be seen as a resource to the community. Having them out there educating our community regarding our spaces. And with the Be Wild campaign, there are ordinances we want people to comply with, but we want people to know it’s not just black and white. We are trying to educate and build a stronger community in which we are more inclusive in all our spaces.
Is there anything else you all want to express about the Be Wild campaign?
Answer: Owen Carroll, Jordan River Ranger Lead
As a Ranger, this honestly does not feel as different from what we all have been doing already. But with the Be Wild campaign, we now have concrete messaging across the board. So, when someone is having a Be Wild conversation on the Jordan River Parkway, has one on the Foothills, Liberty Park, or any trail, hopefully, it’ll start putting together those pieces of these are all different facets of the same bigger central resource for our community in Salt Lake, and changing the community’s mindset that these are separate.
Answer: Kyle Webster, Foothills Ranger
I think it would be good to see this specific education and will build the community to be more considerate when they are on trails. And for them to think more about their impact on the land rather than how the land can impact them. Hopefully, this will get people to think more about this.
Answer: Tyler Fonarow, Recreational Trails Manager
Through this campaign, we are wanting to start a dialogue with the community and develop a common language and a clear message. And if we can get more people dialoguing, and fully understanding the message, then this will increase awareness of how to properly care for our outside community.
In conclusion, the Be Wild campaign is an important initiative for promoting responsible outdoor behavior. By welcoming visitors, creating inclusive spaces, limiting impact, and doing what we can through stewardship, we can all enjoy our shared public lands while protecting them for future generations. Thank you to Tyler Fonarow, Kyle Webster, and Owen Carroll for sharing their insights about this responsible campaign.
If you have any feedback for the Be WILD campaign email us at publiclands@slcgov.com
For more information and updates about the Be Wild campaign check out the website below.