The numbers for 2015 are in and they’re impressive; there were 305 million visits to the national parks last year. And while it’s wonderful that so many people are interested in the parks, these numbers also present challenges. National parks are to be enjoyed, but they must also be protected.
Even when they don’t mean to, park visitors can cause impacts by trampling vegetation, disturbing wildlife and contributing to crowding.
When the National Park Service was established in 1916 it focused on attracting visitors to the national parks to create a constituency.
A range of attractions were built in the national parks, including strikingly beautiful roads and grand hotels. Other attractions included golf courses, ski areas, tunnels through sequoia trees, grandstands where visitors could watch bears being fed and the nightly “firefall” in which the burning embers of a bonfire were pushed over the edge of Glacier Point in Yosemite to drift down into the Valley.
Now, of course, many of these artificial attractions are no longer considered appropriate and have been eliminated — though some controversial activities remain, such as snowmobiling in a few parks. But to protect the parks and the quality of the visitor experience, the National Park Service has had to become more sophisticated.
Educational programs teach visitors how to limit their impacts by staying on maintained trails, disposing of trash properly, and leaving what they find. Shuttle bus systems are being introduced to minimize the impacts of cars, including air pollution, collisions with animals, traffic congestion, and the need for more and larger parking lots (Some critics have suggested that the National Park Service might be more appropriately called the National Parking Service.)
Where needed, limits have been placed on use. For example, the wilderness portions of most parks require a permit for camping and the number of permits is limited to protect resources and offer opportunities for solitude. In extreme situations, such as hiking Mt. Whitney, visitors are required to use special bags to carry out their own human waste.
The objective of management is not to limit use, but to limit the impacts of use. Of course, it’s up to all of us who love the national parks to help protect them.
To learn the seven principles of how to be a responsible national park visitor, check out Leave No Trace — so we can all help ensure that we have room for as many visitors as possible.
