Monday, October 02, 2006
No Fun Allowed
Overnight stays in national parks fell 20 percent, to 13.8 million, between 1995 and 2005, and are down another 4.3 percent for the first eight months of 2006.
Among the declines in the 10-year period, tent camping dropped 23 percent, backcountry camping fell 24 percent and RV camping was down 31 percent.
"Camping is one of those areas that is a concern to us," said Butch Street, a statistician for the National Park Service who compiles the figures each year. "That is definitely going down.
"Let's face it: It's hard to protect the parks if no one is interested in them."
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4391721
I love that last line about it being hard to protect the parks if no one is interested in them. I thought that was goal of the park service -- keep people out of the parks, and that way they (the parks) are protected. Rules, regulations, park fees used to create improved areas and then only those improved areas can be used -- all of the old places a person could camp can no longer be used. This is what the environmentalist trend leads to -- keeping the public away from nature. I'm just surprised the article did not list global warming as a probable reason for the decline.
Among the declines in the 10-year period, tent camping dropped 23 percent, backcountry camping fell 24 percent and RV camping was down 31 percent.
"Camping is one of those areas that is a concern to us," said Butch Street, a statistician for the National Park Service who compiles the figures each year. "That is definitely going down.
"Let's face it: It's hard to protect the parks if no one is interested in them."
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4391721
I love that last line about it being hard to protect the parks if no one is interested in them. I thought that was goal of the park service -- keep people out of the parks, and that way they (the parks) are protected. Rules, regulations, park fees used to create improved areas and then only those improved areas can be used -- all of the old places a person could camp can no longer be used. This is what the environmentalist trend leads to -- keeping the public away from nature. I'm just surprised the article did not list global warming as a probable reason for the decline.
// posted by Zerin Hood @ 8:32 PM 
