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Blue Ridge Parkway: Running Out of Staff?

Sep 19th - 18:04pm | parkaholic

Once again the media and or bloggers have stirred the fires of budgetary woes against the Bush administration. Interestingly enough if you look a little deeper Blue Ridge had 268 employees in 1990, By 2000 that number had dropped by 36 to the exact same number this blog says they have today. It would be a little hard to blame that on the Bushies.

Sep 18th - 17:18pm | Alan Gregory

This plays right into the privatization happy Bush administration. Starve an agency's budget, then look on as operations stall, then claim that only private industry can run the park. (See, the Park Service can't run the Parkway. Disney can do better).

Woman Dies in Fall From Angel's Landing

Sep 18th - 16:23pm | Sarah

I was recently at Zion and hiked up Angel's Landing. It is an amazing hike and view once you get to the top. I would do it again. I do not believe trails such as these should be shut off because of accidents. A close friend of mine died in a car accident recently. Were cars recalled? No. That would also mean we need to quit playing sports, riding in airplanes ...

Sep 18th - 15:12pm | DD

I just hiked Angel's Landing for my 47th birthday and it is an experience I would not wish to have missed. My husband and I are extremely athletic, (skydived, flying trapeze, bike racing, etc.)

Sep 4th - 11:21am | Ranger X

I was an interpretive ranger at Zion in 2000 and climbed Angels Landing only once. I had to do it in uniform so that I wouldn't chicken out and head back down (I could imagine children mocking me: "Mommy, mommy, look at the scared park ranger!"). So the entire time, I clug to the chains. There is risk involved, and I'll never do the climb again.

Sep 3rd - 19:24pm | Andrea

On August 22nd, 2006, we were at the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We were stopped at the lookout point before Angel's Window. A young women had fallen about 1000 to her death and they had closed the road leading up to Angel's Window. From where we were we could look up and see the overhang of Angel's Window.

Sep 3rd - 10:55am | parkaholic

I doubt "Mooks" intent was to offend. His point is valid though. And to further his point natural areas are inherantly dangerous places. The Park Service does not have the responsability to identify, warn and protect all persons from all dangers. Would you want to visit Grand Canyon if they had handrails and signs warning of falls every six feet?

Sep 2nd - 19:56pm | candy

Hey "Mooks" or whatever your name is, have some respect for the deceased and her family. I don't believe you would have posted such a heartless comment if it was your cousin that fell to her death.

Aug 31st - 14:01pm | Mooks

Yes, someone died, so, shut the trail down. Save the people from themselves. Maybe we should be strapped into our easy chairs and have the pictures of Angel's Landing piped into our TV sets. That way, we'll only die of heart attacks.

Aug 30th - 23:37pm | Danny

The last person to fall off angels landing was my cousin. She was young and had a great life, she had a great voice and was very much loved my everyone who knew her. It is terrible that she is gone, she was an avid hiker and she still fell and lost her life? And I really do think it should be shut down?

Park Visitation: Some Bright Ideas?

Sep 16th - 20:50pm | John D.

Bill: What you are missing is that the more people that visit the National Parks - places like not just Yellowstone, but also places like Gettysburg NB, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and Nez Perce NHP - the better for the country. John D.

Sep 16th - 17:19pm | Bill Gottschalk

Wait a minute, we have a conundrum here. The parks have had their funds reduced to such an extent that they cannot provide the amenities and upkeep to take care of the people that do visit. So why are we concerned about increasing park visitation? Or am I missing something here? The fewer people that visit....the better for me.

Sep 15th - 21:02pm | Anomynous

Time restraints also limit the public to go to a National Park. Many people simply do not have the time to visit a national park or they might believe that its not worth visiting a national park. Some do not even know if there is a national park near them. The NPS needs to promote National Parks more in other ways besides just a few newspaper articles or brochures.

Sep 15th - 09:57am | kath

The Alaska parks saw increases probably due to the tremendous amount of television and print media advertising done by the state of Alaska augmented by the large amount of advertising done by the cruise ship and tour industry.

Sep 14th - 20:17pm | John D.

You make some fair points here. The National Park Service exists for a balanced combination of preservation, recreation, and education. It is also true that there is a lot of third-party promotion of Parks, from the numerous popular National Park guidebooks (with more on the way), and many newspaper and magazine articles about National Parks.

Is Altruism Dying?

Sep 14th - 12:28pm | Steve Sergeant

I make an overt effort to encourage volunteerism in my podcast, The WildeBeat. I highlight volunteer organizations whenever possible, and encourage people to step-up and help care for their public lands.

Sep 13th - 18:12pm | Alan Gregory

Clarification: KAB morphed into Take Pride in America, I believe. In any case, not much has changed since the little Greenpeace book came out. The bottling industry still stifles progressive legislation in states that do not have bottle bills. There is a reason why roadsides in New York and Vermont and Maine are cleaner than those in Pennsylvania. They have bottle bills, Pennsylvania does not.

Sep 13th - 18:06pm | Alan Gregory

Keep America Beautiful, and its state-level spinoffs (we've got one in Pennsylvania), are classic green scams. More than a decade ago, the authors of "The Greenpeace Guide to Anti-Environmental Organizations," wrote the following about KAB:

The Fate of Apostle Islands' Lighthouses

Sep 13th - 19:52pm | Sabattis

Sounds like we have at least one nominee for my challenge of proposing a "10 Park Tour" to Secretary Kempthorne and Director-designate Mary Bomar that would show them the true state of the Park System that they won't get by visiting Yellowstone.

Did Park Service Capitulate to PWCs at Cape Lookout?

Sep 12th - 19:08pm | Alan Gregory

OK. So other users of the park - those who walk, who watch birds, who botanize or peer through magnifying glasses at grains of sand - will be pushed aside by the Jet Skis' noise, general racket and pollution. It's all very like all-terrain vehicles on terra firma. It's too much that they be limited (only?) to specific entry points.

Your Feedback

Sep 10th - 10:56am | Kath

I didn't mean to offend anyone with my comments. My husband is overweight and he can't hike the trails as easily as he did 20 years ago before he put on so many pounds. If we're offering up our best theories on why park visitation is down, I didn't think the undeniable fact that America is getting fatter should be left out of the equation because it's an uncomfortable truth.

Sep 9th - 18:57pm | Rick McCharles

In Canada we pay more than twice as much for National Parks for a lower quality of service (I feel). From our blog, "hike Canada or the USA?" http://besthike.com/blog/?p=152

Sep 9th - 17:21pm | Marie

I read one of your responders comments that maybe park visitation is down because we are fatter. This comment obviously came from someone who has never had a weight issue. Park visitation is not down because americans are larger. I am a large person and I visit the parks on a regular basis.

Sep 9th - 09:54am | parkaholic

James is thinking in the right direction. Where is all the money going? The Park Service has a very large contract to deal with it's reservation system and the Parks pay a fee for each reservation and roll it into the price. The entry fees are no more for a family of four than for a single and camping fees are for a site not individually.

Sep 8th - 14:58pm | James

My post was evidently a few hours late to be included in your survey, but I definitely think that the total cost is getting a bit high in some cases. Particularly the more out-of-the-way parks with primitive facilities. Remember that my basis is for a visit by one or two people (an individual or a couple), not a family of four or more.

Sep 8th - 09:33am | Kath

Okay, I'll start with a little off the cuff punditry. Some hypostheses on why park visitation is relatively flat: 1. First of all, I don't think you can lump all parks together. There are undoubtedly different factors at work in parks in which the main activity is hiking versus historic sites like historic homes, battlefields, etc.

Keep To the Script, Folks

Sep 10th - 09:52am | Alan Gregory

So much for "openness" in government. Gee, at least the Bush administration let us know the person's name. Wow. The rest is probably classified in keeping with the administration's vow to be open with the American people.

Backpacker's Chocolate: A Trailside Luxury

Sep 9th - 15:23pm | repanshek

Hey Parkaholic, let me know next time you head into the backcountry in Utah, Wyoming or Idaho. I definitely want to pack with a guy who hauls in fresh coffee and steaks! I usually only haul that kinda grub when I'm canoeing. As for your mantel lantern, keep an eye on these pages for a review of a lantern folks won't see until you fire it up.

Sep 9th - 10:01am | parkaholic

I love goodies on the trail. I normally limit my backcountry trips to three days so I can take what I like including and 8 cup percolater (strapped to the back of my pack for all the world to see)Many laugh as they pass me on the trail but they sing a different song at sunrise when the aroma of freshly perked coffee awakens them.

Sep 8th - 11:19am | jersu

Kurt, Between the chocolate and the coffee in your pack, I'd say you know how to hike in style! What other goodies to you bring?

Are Entrance Fees Behind Visitation Slump?

Sep 7th - 16:46pm | James

I think that the combination of fees is getting out of hand. I recently went on an excursion to Joshua Tree NP and was a bit shocked at all the fees. My previous visit to the park was back when it was a NM, yet I did not see much evidence of massive improvements or new features to warrant the kind of fees required for a visit.

Sep 6th - 16:26pm | Sabattis

I think there is a huge difference between day-use Parks that attract local residents on many repeat visits throughout the year and destination Parks that are the centerpiece of travel plans. Given all the other expenses for a family making a trip out to a Park like Yellowstone or Grand Canyon, the paltry Park fee is a rounding error in the budget for the trip to that Park.

Sep 3rd - 10:39am | parkaholic

I think the issue is not wether the visitor is willing to pay fees, the Park Service has surveyed and public scoped that issue and would not charge fees if the public were not tolerant. The real issue is what happens to the fees that are collected? The current fee use laws mandate that most of these fees go back into the park where generated to improve visitor services.

Sep 2nd - 12:10pm | Jon Anglin

If fees are the issue, how do you explain decreased visitation at areas that charge no fees?

Sep 2nd - 08:29am | Marty

Compared with prices for movies, theme parks, etc., park entrance fees are more than reasonable. And if the Whiny Family -- Mom, Dad and all the little Whinys -- opts to spend that money playing video games or whatever, then great, a little more open space for the rest of us.

Sep 1st - 19:17pm | James McWard

Compared with other things on a family vacation, the $20 or so that's charged per vehicle for 7 days in a National Park is a great deal. Often, it's the stuff that we do in addition to the park that drains my wallet. Taking a 3-hour whale-watching cruise in Bar Harbor with a family of four, for example, would take care of an entire month's worth of fees in Acadia.

Sep 1st - 17:20pm | Alan Gregory

I have no overriding problem with fees. I happily fork over $15 a year to buy a federal Duck Stamp, which we use as our entrance ticket to some national wildlife refuges. The revenue from the sale of Duck Stamps goes into a fund from which money is drawn periodically to buy land for refuges, specifically wetlands. It's a great way to contribute directly toward conservation.

Sep 1st - 08:22am | Kath

It's not the fees. $20 or $25 for a car full of people is nothing compared to fees for theme parks. I'm about to head to Yosemite and the $20 never factored into the decision; I usually don't even think about it until I'm near the entrance station.

Sep 1st - 07:07am | Jeff M

As a tourist visisting parks as my vacation, fees do not have any influence on me visiting them. I just went through Custer State Park and Needles Highway in SD and didn't think twice about paying the fee, I don't even know how much I paid.

Aug 31st - 13:34pm | Jeff

Increased enterance fees don't have much effect on my choosing whether to go to a national park or not. I'm fairly close to some really great national parks, but I don't get to them nearly as much as I would like, that has more to do with school, work and somewhat distance.

Yellowstone Room Glut

Sep 7th - 04:20am | Sabattis

I was recently in Yellowstone, and the various rangers and staff members I talked to said that they felt visitation had remained strong this year - if anything, they felt that it was up from last year.

Sep 6th - 23:43pm | PJ

I don't know what you are talking about. Every lodge I looked at online is booked solid through september. Perhaps a lot happens in a week.

ARC: NPS Not Meeting Americans' Spiritual, Mental and Physical Needs

Sep 6th - 17:31pm | Sabattis

I should also add that it is inaccurate to suggest that practically all US Forest Service and BLM lands are open to motorized recreation. The USFS and BLM manage around 42 million acres of designated wilderness areas, all of which is closed to almost all forms of motorized recreation. The 35 million acres of USFS wilderness account for 18% of total USFS land.

Sep 6th - 16:35pm | Sabattis

According to the National Park Service data in the link you provided, there were 63.54 million recreation visits in 2005 to the "National Park" units of the National Park System. This closely matches the number cited by the ARC.

Sep 6th - 10:45am | Kath

I did some comparison between the statistics on National Park visits in 1999 and 2004. (I didn't look at every park and I didn't check every year in between looking for a trend, so this is rough, but) These national parks had more visits in 2004 than 1999: Sequoia, Zion, Glacier and Mt. Rushmore.

Sep 5th - 22:41pm | Kath

I don't know why visitation to the National Parks is down. I have some guesses: an aging population and a populaton becoming too obese to be able to hike much less backpack. I've read that skiing is down for the same reasons.

Sep 5th - 20:39pm | Concerned park...

Don't forget that several units managed by the NPS, National Recreation Areas specifically, allow all sorts of motor vehicle access. I wonder if visitation has increased at these spots?

Sep 5th - 18:03pm | Alan Gregory

In other words, since Disney or Six Flags or some other "theme park" operator isn't overseeing the national parks, each and every one is decrepit and in danger of going under, financially and otherwise. Only privatization and the ARC can hope to rescue the parks from oblivion and librul Democrats and other wilderness "elitists." What would Teddy say?

Vanity Fair's View of the Dysfunctional NPS

Aug 30th - 09:22am | Michael DiGregorio

JT is a very image weary political guy. What he projects to the public and what he actually knows about the "resource" as the NPS goons call it are two different things. His entire Death Valley career was a punishment for his egotistical mismanagement in Grand Canyon National Park. He got into a lot of hot water with his supervisory lack of skills...

Happy Birthday NPS?

Aug 29th - 12:01pm | Parkaholic

You gotta love the whole maintenance backlog issue. If your kids came up to you and said "I need a hundred bucks" you would want some justification. Good point that Yellowstone has the appearance of not needing those funds as they look to be in good condition. I wonder how much of that backlog is theirs. Should we just give them what they want?

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