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For years we have heard that 'Our National Parks are being loved to death' and it seems that with each repetition, the National Park Service builds some high-priced facility or hardens some trail or constructs something (whatever-it-may be) --- to 'solve the problem'.
The NPS is wrong and their solutions are killing the parks and driving away visitors... (full statistics available at http://www2.nature.nps.gov/stats)
Why, as the appended article states, is National Park visitation declining? It is NOT because of 9-11. It is NOT because of the sour economy. It is NOT even a short-term problem. And, let's be honest, declining visitation is not necessarily a problem at all, not unless you happen to be in the tourism business.
Declining visitation is the public's way of demonstrating their disapproval of park mismanagement! Visitors (referred to as "customers" by the NPS) are simply voting with their feet and dollars.
In 1987, National Park historian Michael Frome delivered a speech in Des Moines, Iowa titled: "Protecting the Golden Goose" in which he warned:
"It grieves me that national park administrators themselves tend to lose sight of their mandate and mission. As I observed on a recent visit to Virgin Islands National Park, the emphasis in management is on serving development and tourism without concern for preservation of the natural ecosystem....The emphasis needs to be on protecting and enhancing the quality and character of each park, and letting dollar values follow. When the desires of business interests for profit are allowed to dominate, the beauty will be lost - inevitably, and without fail."
Is there anything equivocal in the words "inevitably and without fail"?? Let's not let the NPS shift the blame. They are a big part of the problem and they must accept responsibility for their actions.
Scott
-- begin quoted ---
National parks log a decline in visitors
By John Keahey - The Salt Lake Tribune
The number of visitors to the nation's parks is declining -- down
nearly 8 percent for the first five months of the year, compared with
the same period in 2002, according to National Park Service documents
obtained by an environmental group.
This should be a signal for park officials "to shift away from edifice
building" and "to invest in reversing the decline in the integrity and
quality of park resources," said Frank Buono, a former park manager and
current board member of Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility (PEER).
Buono's comments were included in a news release the Washington,
D.C.-based group released Thursday, along with visitation numbers
gleaned from NPS Web sites.
According to an executive summary prepared for NPS employees and
obtained by PEER, national park visitation numbers declined from 97
million to 90 million for the first five months of 2003, compared to
the same period a year earlier.
This is the third year of such declines for the parks.
Foreign visitors in particular are staying away because of global
warfare and economic uncertainty, the Park Service contends. However,
the three-year decline isn't enough to show visitor numbers for Utah's
13 national park facilities are in a long-term downward spiral, said
Cordell Roy, the Park Service's Utah coordinator.
And Roy challenges PEER's argument that resource protection plays second fiddle to edifice building.
"It's our job" to protect resources, he said. He also discounts PEER's
contention that politicians are more interested in building structures
within their districts than in "reversing the decline in the integrity
and quality of park resources."
"That is not my experience," Roy said. "[Politicians] ask us: 'What are
your needs?' We tell them, based on our deliberative processes. They
don't come to us dangling facilities before us."
Visits to most of Utah's national parks and monuments are down, but by
a much smaller percentage than the national number -- between 2 percent
and 4 percent.
But Zion National Park in southwest Utah has experienced no such decline.
Visitors there increased 16.2 percent during 2002 over the previous
year, according to Roxie Sherwin, spokeswoman for the St. George Area
Visitor and Convention Bureau.
"We feel we are one of the few areas not hurt by 9-11," she said. While
foreign-visitor numbers may be down, more regional visitors are coming
into the southern Utah area, where most NPS areas in Utah are centered.
"We are within the drive market of Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Southern
California and even Denver," Sherwin said. "Visitation from those areas
is up dramatically."
Phil Brueck, NPS deputy superintendent for the Southeast Utah Group
that includes Arches and Canyonlands national parks and two national
monuments, agrees that regional-visitor numbers are up while foreign
visitors are declining.
"The cycle goes back and forth," Brueck said, adding that visitor
numbers would have to decline more dramatically and for more years than
the past three to show a significant trend.
The NPS's executive summary, written by Tom Wade of the NPS's
statistics office and sent to park information officers nationwide, is
less optimistic.
"The downward trend that began in 2000 is continuing as inclement
weather, global warfare and especially the uncertain economic
conditions are resulting in a disturbing future for visitation to the
NPS," the memorandum said. "The NPS has had a total decline of almost
16.8 million recreation visits since January 2000."
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