A New Energy/Education Partnership: Shenandoah National Park and Energy-Oriented Students at JMU

Abstract

Energy consump tion at our nat ional parks is a growing conce rn .
Faced wit h tighter bu dge ts, national parks are cha lle nged with re du cing
ene rgy cons u mp tion at their facilities. This is not an easy task. With some
excep tions, ene rgy mana gers at nati on al park s, like man y in the pr ivate
sector, are occupied with day-to-d ay crises and have little tim e or re-
sou rces available to ana lyze ene rgy con sumpti on dat a or deve lop stra te-
gic p lans for imp leme n ting cost sav ing, ene rgy conse rva tion mea sur es.
One currently unu sed reso urce that could provide assistance to
pa rk ene rgy manage rs is local uni versity stu dents . Like Jame s Madison
University, ma ny universities through out the coun try have ene rgy or
e nvironmenta l progra ms where large ca dr es of stude nts are in tere sted in
obtaining "real world ex per ience"