Scope It Out

Learning about Lake James State Park can seem like a Herculian task. With nearly 4,000 acres and 33 miles of shoreline to explore, even our well-trained rangers sometimes enlist help in interpreting the park’s cultural history and natural wonders to visitors. This can take the form of posting informational displays, recruiting knowledgeable volunteers, or hosting group events.

One impactful method of interpretation used by rangers is to show visitors a new point of view. Technology in particular helps reveal these fresh perspectives. For instance, ground-penetrating radar can reveal a stand of trees to conceal a former church site. Novice field biologists can use apps like iNaturalist to identify species on the fly. For a visually dramatic effect, however, park rangers will utilize optical scopes to bring natural resources into vivid, awe-inspiring relief. then zoom into their tiniest detail, from the jagged sharpness of an ant’s mandibles to prisms of light trapped in a grain of sand. Critters and features unnoticed by 20/20 vision become miniature works of art when a closer look is taken. With the help of a little technology, rangers can interpret the park’s natural and cultural treasures in a striking manner, thereby amplifying the experience of visitors. Even those who bike the trails regularly or have boated on the lake for generations can gain a richer appreciation of the area in this way. We encourage visitors to zoom in to what’s near and far and see where their new vantage point takes them.

Very close to becoming a Dark Sky Park, Lake James boasts little light pollution, so rangers leading nighttime stargazing programs use telescopes to view moons, planets, stars, and galaxies light years away. Often people remember their first look at the moon’s craters or Saturn’s rings as a high point in their early outdoor experiences.

In contrast, rangers focus the park’s new electron microscope on objects close enough to touch and then zoom into their tiniest detail, from the jagged sharpness of an ant’s mandibles to prisms of light trapped in a grain of sand. Critters and features unnoticed by 20/20 vision become miniature works of art when a closer look is taken.

With the help of a little technology, rangers can interpret the park’s natural and cultural treasures in a striking manner, thereby amplifying the experience of visitors. Even those who bike the trails regularly or have boated on the lake for generations can gain a richer appreciation of the area in this way. We encourage visitors to zoom in to what’s near and far and see where their new vantage point takes them.