We visited Utah State University (USU), Logan. Christopher Monz invited us to discuss our projects CultEs, ESArctic and Connect. We have had 4 days full of work and joy, with a lot of progress on planning our upcoming fieldwork in Varangerhalvøya and Jotunheimen national parks. We had the pleasure to present our project on a guest lecture.
Vera Hausner, our project leader broke the ice and introduced students to the Norwegian context and presented them our project. The PhD student Sigrid Engen talked about her work on analyzing exemptions on protected areas in Norland and Sogn og Fjordane area. Students got an insight on differences between Norway and USA with regard to protected areas and the use citizens do of them. The last presenter was Lorena Munoz, also a PhD student, who talked about spatial mapping of visitors’ values in Norway.
We also learnt from the American protected area system, which is quite different from the Norwegian system. Christopher Monz and Ashley D’Antonio introduced us to the US park system and monitoring approaches using SamplePoint software. Abigail Kidd and Robin Graham showed their work on GPS tracking for tourism monitoring.
Our time in USU was amazing, and we are looking forward to meeting our colleagues again. Big thanks to Christopher Monz, Ashley D’Antonio, Abigail Kidd and Robin Graham for making our stay so wonderful!
Exciting news are coming, stay tuned!