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There's been a great deal of talk about declining visitation within the National Park System. Many people, including those in the news media, have been speculating wildly in an effort to assign explanations to this observation. The travel and tourism industry have been the most successful in framing this issue and, as anyone who follows this subject knows, the reasons most frequently given to explain this phenomenon are:
1) Americans are fat couch potatoes,
2) Kids have become video-game addicts,
3) Parks are no fun,
4) Minorities find parks irrelevant and
5) it's difficult for National Parks to currently compete effectively for tourism dollars with theme parks and so parks need to be reinvented.
Let me shift the microscope slightly and focus attention upon the level of public support for an organization that is just as old as the NPS and which says they are working to "protect and enhance America's National Park System." It is an organization to which I belonged --- until quitting in disgust in 1998.
Quoted from the National Park and Conservation Association's "about us" webpage (2006)
In 85 years, we have grown to represent 300,000 members through our DC headquarters and 12 regional and field offices, all working to "protect and enhance America's National Park System for present and future generations."
I'm sorry, but that's not exactly an fully honest statement. NPCA's membership may indeed stand at 300,000 today. But in 1997, when Tom Kiernan became its President and guiding force, NPCA claimed 500,000 members (see appended article).
Contrast NPCA's 40% reduction in membership with the National Park Service's reported decline from 275,236,335 recreational visitors in 1997 to 273,488,751 in 2005 (the most current data available). That's less than a 1% reduction and may not even be statistically significant.
I'm going to state emphatically that the reasons commonly given to explain the decline in NPS visitation (and commonly reported in the press) -- are RUBBISH. They are part of a public relations campaign created by and for the travel/tourism industry. This PR campaign is a mass deception --- an exceedingly successful one, I might add. Two of the perpetrators of this fraud are the American Recreation Coalition and the Travel Industry Association.
As for the large decline in public support for NPCA, it is unquestionably real. I can't explain why other former NPCA supporters abandoned that iconic organization, but I can tell you why I did. NPCA is failing the parks and under Kiernan, NPCA better serves the interests of their corporate sponsors than the interests of parks, park visitors or park advocates.
For the sake of the National Park System, it's time for NPCA to change.
Scott
--- begin quoted 1997 article---
U.S. Newswire, Inc.
November 21, 1997
NPCA Names Thomas C. Kiernan as New President
The Board of Trustees of the National Parks and Conservation
Association (NPCA) today announced the appointment of Thomas C. Kiernan
as the new president of the nation's largest park advocacy group.
Kiernan, who has served since 1995 as president of the Audubon Society
of New Hampshire, brings to his new position a varied background that
includes leadership positions in government, business, consulting and
nonprofit environmental groups.
"Tom Kiernan is a leader with the talent and the vision to guide NPCA
and its 500,000 members into the future," said G. Robert Kerr, chairman
of the NPCA Board, in announcing the appointment. "His experience with
advocacy, coalition building, land and resource planning, and business
management provide exactly the variety of leadership skills we were
seeking."
"The national parks are a tremendous asset of the American people, but
they are under extreme political pressure and need advocates like NPCA
to assure they get the necessary support and funding," Kiernan said.
"NPCA and its staff have had a positive impact in protecting the parks
in the past, and I'm honored to be the one selected to help NPCA
continue to take on these challenges in the future."
Before joining the Audubon Society of New Hampshire, Kiernan was a co-
founder and principal of E (cubed) Ventures Inc., in Washington, D.C.,
where he worked to create a coalition of oil companies and
environmentalists to expedite Clean Air Act implementation. From 1989
to 1992, he served at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in
various capacities. While deputy assistant administrator at EPA, he
received the agency's highest management award for leading the
negotiating team that ended 12 years of litigation with broad state,
federal, business and environmental consensus on a $450 million
pollution control project at Grand Canyon National Park.
Kiernan also has served as assistant to the director at the Oregon
Department of Environmental Quality, as a senior management consultant
at Arthur Andersen & Co. in Denver, as co-founder and river manager
of the Rocky Mountain Outdoor Center in Howard, Colo., and as a trip
leader at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in Bryson City, N.C. He holds an
MBA with an emphasis in nonprofit management from Stanford University's
Graduate School of Business and a B.A. cum laude from Dartmouth College.
The National Parks and Conservation Association
is America's only private nonprofit citizen organization dedicated
solely to protecting, preserving and enhancing the U.S. National Park
System. An association of " Citizens Protecting America's Parks," NPCA
was founded in 1919 and today has nearly 500,000 members.
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- Activism 
