Been a long time since I was home. So frankly, I am not sure exactly how accurate this article is. Still, it troubles me, and I thought it worthy of discussion.
On the 100th anniversary of the national park system, Yellowstone offers the ultimate test of whether America's outdoor crown jewels are being used too much.
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Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. — Over the course of its venerable history, Yellowstone – America’s “wild wonderland” – has become the most iconic nature preserve on Earth, a place of pilgrimage for generations of travelers. Yet never before has the world’s first national park felt the squeeze of so much human adoration as this year.
On many days, traffic stretches for miles outside the busiest park entrance at West Yellowstone, Mont. Once motorists pass through the gate, they confront more congestion traveling to Old Faithful, often in the form of “wildlife jams” whenever there is a bull elk, grizzly bear, or buffalo roaming the roadside. These moments are usually accompanied by camera-clutching tourists lunging out of their cars and racing toward the animals as if they were cuddly denizens of a circus menagerie. Finally, upon reaching the famous geyser, the visitors find, in the middle of the remote West, a Yankee Stadium-sized parking lot that is often full.
^I guess the question would be why, or how did this happen?
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Last year, Yellowstone hit more than 4 million visits for the first time in history. It is poised to significantly surpass those numbers in 2016, the centennial year of the National Park Service. But behind all those cars and tour buses in the land of lodgepole pine looms a fundamental question: Is such soaring popularity good or bad for Yellowstone – and, more broadly, for the national park system as a whole? Can America’s outdoor crown jewels survive unmarred for another 100 years?
“The question many are asking,” says Mr. Wenk, “is can Yellowstone escape from being loved to death? My answer is yes, I believe it can. But Yellowstone won’t be saved if we stay on the same course.”
The National Park Service officially turns 100 years old Aug. 25. The much-hyped centennial is not only a birthday celebrating what the late writer Wallace Stegner called the best idea this country ever had. It is also a time of profound introspection, even worry, for an agency entrusted with overseeing one of the world’s most spectacular collections of outdoor sanctuaries.
Critics say the Park Service – beleaguered by deteriorating roads and buildings, threats to natural resources, overwhelming public use, and the potential effects of climate change – is ill-equipped to steward its 411 parks, cultural sites, and historical monuments forward another 100 years. They believe the sacred national park experience that so many people journey to see has already vanished at some of the most popular destinations and will only get worse without a serious infusion of money and a rededication to preservation.
“I think the National Park Service is facing a crisis of conscience and confidence,” says Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a vocal watchdog of public land-management agencies.
When (if) you read the entire article, you will see that the situation is not hopeless, but does require some serious soul searching, and possibly some questioning 'how much is too much'.
But my biggest question is this: The NPS is not only serving the American public, but a huge international audience. Seems that the Chinese are some of the biggest visitors, and not only to Yellowstone. In 2016, the NPS expects visitors to exceed 315 million.
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Visitors to the various units of the park system generate about $32 billion in economic activity each year and are responsible for at least 295,000 jobs, according to the Park Service. For every dollar the federal government spends on national parks, it generates $10 in economic activity.
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Yellowstone and Grand Teton alone produce more than $1 billion in regional tourism annually. The recovered populations of grizzly bears and wolves, which help make both parks arguably wilder than they were a century ago, are among the marquee attractions.
And yet
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...the chronic underfunding of the Park Service. It faces a $12 billion backlog of deferred maintenance – broken fences, bad roads, rickety buildings, damaged trails, deteriorated campsites. In Yellowstone alone, the amount of road reconstruction and building repair needed is estimated to be more than $600 million: Engineers say, at current funding rates, it will take 50 years to get it all done.
So the question is just where in hades is all the $$ they supposedly take in going to? Why is it not going into upkeep and repair of our parks?
Good article. Worth the read.
Enjoy