National parks are overwhelmed with visitors and it’s not just affecting the parks!
- NPG
- June 21, 2021
- NPG Commentary
- 6 Comments
June 22, 2021
National Parks and Many Small Towns Struggle with Huge Numbers of Visitors
Officially organized under one umbrella with the passage of the National Park Service Organic Act, the U.S. National Park System is made up of hundreds of National Historic Sites, National Lakeshores, National Scenic Trails, and National Monuments. Included in this system, and likely among the most popular, are the 63 National Parks spread across the United States. Most of us have fond memories of visiting such places with our families when we were younger. For the environmental crowd these were life-changing experiences.
Today, unfortunately, we may be loving them to death. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal tells of the serious trouble associated with ever-larger crowds attempting to visit the national treasures. As pandemic-weary travelers begin to venture out, the National Parks seem like a great option as we can remain outdoors and maintain some distance from others. Unfortunately, many hopeful visitors are turned away as early as 9 AM because the parks are already at full capacity. In addition to overwhelming the parks, visitors are parking along access roads and camping in restricted areas – and leaving behind the waste that results from it. Some are venturing off the main roads and getting stuck as their vehicles are not equipped for such rugged terrain.
The small towns near the parks are also struggling as huge numbers of visitors are frequenting smaller shops and restaurants that are not equipped for the increase in patrons.
According to the article, “Some tourists say their visits are less enjoyable, as they spend their days in hours-long lines and, when they finally get to popular attractions like the free-standing Delicate Arch in Arches, are surrounded by Disneyland-caliber crowds.”
At NPG, we recognize that many people desire to visit parks of all types and sizes, including the ultimate experience of visiting one of our country’s National Parks. We also recognize, however, that the parks rarely increase in size or number but the population of the U.S. has increased by more than 230 million since the creation of the National Park Service back in 1916. 
NPG recently published an advertisement in the USA Today National Parks special edition in hopes of conveying our message to the millions of Americans who love these special places. We encourage you to forward this email to all of your park-loving friends and ask them to think about population size and growth the next time they visit a park.
Our nation’s treasured areas were designated as such to be protected from development and environmental ruin. Let’s be sure the massive numbers of visitors do not lead to their decay.
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Kathleene Parker
Candice, for heaven sakes, IT ISN’T BIRTH RATES that are the main U.S. problem! Or, perhaps you’re trying to be politically correct, by downplaying the immigration hot potato? And, yes, I agree with you completely about international overpopulation, but we cannot continue in any form to be a safety valve to a global birthrate that ADDS ROUGHLY 80 MILLION PEOPLE A YEAR! Roughly 92 percent of ALL U.S. growth–and it is EXPLODING OUR POPULATION–is immigration, so don’t put it in ANY WAY onto our birth rate. Overall Americans have behaved responsibly when it comes to population, but all of that has been overridden by an irresponsible immigration approach, one that I submit is being driven by Wall Street and cheap-labor advocates and NOT by a majority of the American people with Biden’s absurd new approach taking an already ghastly 30 MILLION INCREASE A DECADE into an increase, if it continues, of nearly 38 MILLION people a decade! And, as I defined in my September 2020 paper on the media, our now-deregulated media are keeping population growth from being acknowledged and INCLUDED IN THE IMMIGRATION debate. And to Mary, let me response as one who knows and understands many of our parks well. Our parks were established as PRESERVES, NOT as amusement parks. The destruction I have seen to the ecosystems in many our parks is indefensible and, IF WE CAN’T PROTECT THE RESOURCE, shut the parks down until that protection is in place! I’m thinking of Mesa Verde in my native Colorado. Do you think, Mary, that it is okay for the resource or for the visitor for anyone visiting the park to have to STAND IN LINE FOR HOURS for a ticket to see one park?
Parallax
@Candace, thank you for your comment which hits the target, but misses the bullseye.
The big reason for the miss is thinking the uniparty in DC acts on its constituents’ best interest. Nothing can be further from the truth.
The plan being unfolded today was laid out back in 1966. Look up the Cloward-Piven Strategy for details
Phil Leininger
Candice McDermitts comments are very accurate and right on.
Robert C. Michael
Thank you, Candace McDermott, for your superb letter. I couldn’t have done better myself. I live in Colorado and the same things are happening here…..now in summer one is required to make an online reservation to enter Rocky Mountain National Park. Part of me understands why this is necessary and part of me thinks this really sucks. So long, “freedom of the hills”……… Why is America required to welcome in the “wretched refuse” of the world’s “teeming shores” when we have plenty of homegrown poverty? Ever heard of Appalachia? Pine Ridge Indian Reservation? South Side Chicago? Let’s put our own house in order before “resettling” endless “refugees”.
Candice McDermott
“Falling birth rates” is a fallacy. Birth rates have actually risen but the locations of the births have occurred outside Minnesota and the U.S.
With the blessing of our elected leaders and business owners, Minnesota’s media reports that birth rates are down, implying that people should produce more children/consumers. The intent is to encourage local spending to recoup revenues lost during Covid and the G.Floyd riots, and continuing to promote flawed philosophies that resulted in $billions in damage and violence.
Fleeing conflicts back home that resulted from overpopulation struggles for resources, refugees and immigrants brought large families here through family re-unification, and often birth 8-12 children that they cannot afford who therefore require taxpayer-subsidized assistance. Told that they can expect to have everything without actually working for it, they elect leaders who give them freebies at taxpayer expense. Pollution increases, but the climate-change efforts actually focus only on monetary losses of humans’ accoutrements such as patio furniture, cars, etc., during storms/ floods/ fires. Human-caused global warming in cities is, IMO, a result of higher buildings that increase the square footage of warmable surface area. Why are we accommodating more humans who warm the planet, using more of its resources, and add more waste?
I have contacted my elected leaders but have have received only form-letter responses that do not address any topic. In 50 years of voting not a single person I know — friends, families, colleagues — has EVER been contacted for feedback by elected officials. (The single exception was President Trump.) They refuse to seek our opinions, seeming to prefer only their political party pals to garner federal funding (also our tax money) for various projects. Our taxes have been raised to erect massive numbers of subsidized high-rise, high-density apartment buildings along the expensive, now crime-ridden transit system that residents cannot now safely ride. More schools and roads are being built to accommodate the growing population.
Internationally, overpopulated and chaotic countries cry for aid and receive it, yet their people are not required to commit to smaller families or wise/responsible use of resources, or held accountable when the aid money mysteriously disappears. The situations never change. Perhaps it is time to practice Tough Love, and require these populations to remain home to fight their own battles to make the effort to save their countries and cultures meaningful, and make them tired of constant conflict. It is unethical to send American military to fight — and die — to fight other countries’ battles. Here in Minnesota, Somali refugees dissatisfied with such efforts traveled back home to fight American forces who thought they were fighting for Somalia!
We’re stumbling over each other in Minneapolis. Violent crime is in the news daily yet police have been cut when it should be increased commensurate to the increasing population. The situation is unsustainable.
Mary
No park should be closed ever. How can anyone even think about closing them. Many families go to the parks which is really great. Do not know who is wanting to close them but they should be fired,