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The National Park Service is planning to start promoting lesser-known parks, in an attempt to relieve some of the visitation pressure on popular destinations like Arches and Yosemite. The solution came out of a senate subcommittee hearing on national parks last week, in which lawmakers heard from park officials about the negative impacts sky-rocketing visitation is having to their parks.
Shannon Estenoz, Interior’s assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, confirmed the plan on a call this week, saying that overcrowding is occurring at just a small fraction of the country’s 423 national parks. That’s good, because there are tons of amazing sites to see outside of Yosemite. And there are even more outside of the national park system, as former Bureau of Land Management photographer Bob Wick pointed out on our podcast last week.
The Biden administration is right to embrace the diversity of our public lands. But it should go further by designating new national monuments and protecting lands through administrative means, by creating wildlife refuges and conservation areas. All of these options provide recreational opportunities, while helping the administration meet its urgent goal of conserving 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030.
There are a number of grassroots proposals for new monuments the Biden administration could use the Antiquities Act to protect. And monument designation often leads to the creation of new trails and signage, making it easier for Americans to get outside close to home. Similarly, new conservation areas and wildlife refuges can provide recreation opportunities in underserved parts of the United States.
The Biden administration has already taken an important step toward improving outdoor access and protecting public lands, by investing $2.8 billion in our national parks and the Land and Water Conservation Fund. But it can and should do more to protect our public lands.
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It’s not just the environment. We’re facing a whole system that needs to be changed.”
