Our National Parks

 

I am grateful to have visited a great many of our nation’s parks in my travels. I have seen all the great ones and several of the more obscure. I’m sure when people marked their ballots for Donald J. Trump, they didn’t foresee his promised “Great America” as one with a decimated National Parks System and where visiting our beautiful parks would now be a challenge.

Last year over 332 million people visited our national parks setting a new record. Our parks are beautiful, educational, and a source of pride for most Americans. Even with chronic shortages of staff and funding, the herculean efforts of parks personnel have made visits memorable and fun.

Now, with the meataxe butchering of the federal government and the random and thoughtless firings of park personnel, park visitors can expect longer entry waits, closed trails, uncleaned toilets, and uncollected trash. The money that used to fund our parks will now be made available to provide tax breaks for the very wealthy.

Given the surge in popularity during the summer season, many parks rely on recruiting seasonal workers to assist in the daunting workload. This year however, issues like a lack of affordable housing and funding will mean that places like Acadia NP that normally has 22 summer workers, will have fewer than 4.

The Grand Canyon has recently seen entrance wait times of 90 minutes or longer will now have warnings to avoid the South Entrance (the most popular) between the hours of 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. With canyon floor temperatures regularly over 100 degrees, take plenty of water because, if you run into a medical issue, help may be a long way off.

Olympic NP in Washington has two very popular destinations, Hurricane Ridge and the Hoh Rain Forest. Luckily, I have already seen both of these destinations because access roads will be severely limited and delays up to three hours can be expected. Without staff with radios providing access information, expect this year’s delays to be even longer.

Yosemite NP in Northern California has been understaffed for years before the latest cuts and access now will not be guaranteed without implementing a timed-reservation system. With just weeks to go before the peak season starts, that system has been placed on hold by the Interior Department. Without some means of controlling the crowds, traffic and parking overflows can damage the delicate ecosystem as well as diminish the experience for visitors.

Yes, I can say I have been to Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, Carlsbad, Bryce, Zion, Badlands, Capital Reef, Olympic, Arches, Death Valley, Hawaii Volcanoes, Glacier Bay, Crater Lake, Sequoia, Petrified Forest, Redwood, Mt. Ranier, Joshua Tree, Everglades, North Cascades, Saguaro, Denali, and Great Smokies along with National Preserves, Monuments , Historic Sites, and National Seashores. I saw them at a time when they were magnificent and a stroll down a quiet trail was actually quiet except for the sounds of nature.

I am thankful that I was able to both see and enjoy them before they were further ruined by a conscious shift in national priorities away from protecting our nation’s natural beauty and toward a chaotic trampling of that landscape to provide tax cuts for the wealthy. I guess a drastic increase in entry fees could solve the problem. The current entry fee for Yosemite is $35 per vehicle. If that were raised to $350 per vehicle I’m sure people getting those new tax cuts could afford to enjoy the beauty of our National Parks.