In a Panel Touching on Access, State Parks IT Director Talks Web Enhancements for Getting Outside

Illustrating the pink granite of Enchanted Rock and the crowded two-lane highway leading up to it, Jamie McClanahan likened it to an accessibility issue: If you can’t get to it, how can you use it or enjoy it?

“Everybody has their own story about what makes it enchanted, but it’s an amazing, humongous pink granite rock,” McClanahan said Wednesday in Austin during a Texas Digital Government Summit panel talk. “If you’ve been there, there’s one road to get there. We have folks who drive out ― they’re so excited to have their family in the car, and they’re ready to go ― and it’s met capacity. With that said, that was one area where we’ve pushed out an enhancement to our park system to allow folks to register online. Then they knew they had a spot to come into that park.”

The Save the Day Pass enhancement allows park visitors to choose an entrance time to ensure a shorter wait for 89 state parks. This service, implemented in 2018, is among one of many digital customer service initiatives that continue to be implemented.

Getting visitors physically into the park is one part of the puzzle, but public service IT includes creating ways to serve multiple users seeking recreation, providing hunting and fishing licenses and ensuring communications for park police and first responders who serve remote areas.

Other issues the state wants to address include:

• Visiting groups who may want to take advantage of interactive educational applications.
• Other users who may want to livestream a day of spelunking, only to find that it isn’t possible.
• Some older Texans who may want a fishing license but don’t want to use the online option.

“My dad is a hunter and fisherman. He and I were talking about ordering digital tags, and I’m so excited.” McClanahan said. “‘Hey, Dad, I love this,’ and he’s like, ‘I will never, ever, ever do a digital anything for my hunting and fishing licenses.’ He wants to touch the paper; he wants to have the map, because to him, that’s the experience.

“We have other constituents that are all about, ‘Why in the world do we still have to have a piece of paper when we could just do it on our phone?’ There’s a gap with how to bring those to our customers and ensure the experience is still there and it meets their needs.”

McClanahan has been the IT director at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for eight months and has been with the agency for about 20 years.