National parks getting trashed during pandemic

A volunteer scrubs graffiti off a rock in the Santa Paul Canyon in Ventura County, Calif. (Time photo by Ellie Mora)

Many U.S. national and state parks are getting trashed during the pandemic. "Many of these spaces, supposed to be untouched swaths of time-proof wilderness, have been overrun by first-time visitors seeking refuge from quarantine, joblessness, or the inability to take far-flung vacations," Andrew Chow reports for Time magazine. "And as people have flooded into the parks, new crises have arisen for rangers and nearby communities, including indigenous populations who were already particularly susceptible to the virus."

Some parks shut down briefly during March and April, but they began re-opening later, many with timed entry restrictions designed to keep people spread out, Chow reports. But that doesn't work to keep people from sneaking in before the rangers arrive in the morning or stop people from congregating at popular lookout points. The restrictions can also encourage park visitors to attempt to enter the park elsewhere—sometimes through Native American reservations that are disproportionately hit by the pandemic and trying to keep visitors away.

"In interviews, rangers at Big Bend National Park in Texas, Great Falls Park in Maryland, and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah and Arizona said they have all seen increases in visitation following covid-19, particularly from first-timers," Chow reports. RV and camper sales have surged; so have campground reservations across the country. With travelers still leery of airplanes, and most indoor entertainment options closed, many families seem to be embracing a relatively cheap getaway option where the risk of catching the virus is much lower than it is indoors."

But the new visitors, many of whom are new to visiting the parks, are polluting the parks with urine and feces and spraying graffiti on rocks, Chow reports.

Sixteen states open offices to help rural areas cash in on outdoor recreation; most are in West; East targeted

State Offices of Outdoor Recreation map; click the image to enlarge it.

Some states are trying to help spur rural economic growth by opening outdoor-recreation offices that promote activities like hiking, mountain biking and more. Sixteen states have opened such offices, many of them signatories to the Confluence Accords, a bipartisan effort that seeks to increase conservation to help grow the economy, Bryce Oates reports for The Daily Yonder.

Outdoor recreation can be a big help to rural economies. Rural counties whose economies depended on recreation recovered from the Great Recession more quickly than other rural counties' economies, according to a Headwaters Economics study. Rural recreation counties also slightly gained population through migration while most other rural counties lost population the same way, and saw slightly higher incomes, the study said.

And, the outdoor recreation sector grew faster than the overall economy, according to the most recent figures from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. In 2017, the outdoor recreation sector grew by 3.9 percent, faster than the overall U.S. economy's 2.4% growth, Oates reports.

Outdoor recreation sector grew faster than the overall economy in 2017, says Commerce Department report

Outdoor recreation value added as a percent of state GDP in 2017; map by U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

The outdoor recreation economy is growing faster than the overall economy, according to a new report by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in the Department of Commerce.

The outdoor recreation sector grew by 3.9 percent in 2017, compared to the overall U.S. economy's 2.4% growth. Outdoor recreation accounted for 2.2% ($427.2 billion) of the gross domestic product in 2017, more than mining, utilities, farming, ranching, and chemical products manufacturing, Amelia Arvesen reports for recreation-industry publication Snews.

For the first time, the report includes information on specific types of recreation activities. They are divided into three categories: "core" (such as camping and hunting), "other core" (gardening, outdoor concerts, etc.) and supporting activities (including construction, travel and tourism, local trips, and government expenditures). "Conventional outdoor recreation accounted for 30.6% of the outdoor recreation economy nationwide in 2017, other recreation accounted for 19.3%, and the remaining 50.1% was supporting activities, Arveson reports.

Chart by U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

The report includes a deep data dive into the outdoor-recreation economy. Read more here.

National parks, left open but understaffed during government shutdown over border wall, are being trashed

A line of cars streamed into Joshua Tree National Park on Saturday despite the federal government's partial shutdown, meaning visitors entered without having to pay the usual $30 fee. (Los Angeles Times photo by Jay Clendenin)

The partial federal government shutdown has had a big, and sometimes disgusting, impact on national parks. Restrooms and visitor centers have been closed and trash collection discontinued since the shutdown began on Dec. 22, but parks remain open to visitors and are only lightly staffed. The result: overflowing garbage cans, littering, and human waste on the ground.

"Yosemite National Park visitors using the side of the road as a toilet have prompted the park to close two campgrounds and a popular redwood grove for public-safety reasons," Matt Forgione reports for the Los Angeles Times. "Death Valley, whose most popular landmarks have been crowded during the winter holidays, says outhouses are open but aren’t being cleaned or stocked with toilet paper during the closure."

The problem stems from the Trump administration's unusual decision to leave the parks open to visitors during the shutdown over the president's demand for funding of a border wall, Ellen Knickmeyer and Jocelyn Gecker report for The Associated Press.

“We’re afraid that we’re going to start seeing significant damage to the natural resources in parks and potentially to historic and other cultural artifacts," John Gardner, senior budget director of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association, told AP. "We’re concerned there’ll be impacts to visitors’ safety."

The National Park Service has the authority to close any areas where garbage or waste become a threat to visitors' health and safety, historical artifacts, or wildlife, AP reports.

Recreation is a key to rural population and economic growth

"The outdoor recreation industry is a critical engine for the national economy, larger in size than the agriculture and fossil-fuel mining and drilling sectors, according to a recent Department of Commerce report," Bryce Oates reports for The Daily Yonder. "The report also said that rural communities and small business owners are a key ingredient in the growing economic engine."

A Stateline analysis of census data found that outdoor recreation helped drive the slight growth in rural population from 2016 to 2017. While populations shrank in big mining and farming counties, those with large recreational industries grew, and grew the most. Independent research group Headwaters Economics found that population, employment and personal income grew an average of two times faster or more in Western rural counties with the most federal lands, Oates reports.

The Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis began compiling its report in 2016 after President Obama signed the Outdoor Recreation Jobs and Economic Impact Act, which directed the department to work with the Agriculture and Interior departments to assess and analyze the outdoor recreation economy. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross hailed the report as a good source of data that businesses can use to help them plan for the future, as it measures the economic impact of recreational activities such as boating, fishing, RVing, hunting, camping and hiking.

According to the BEA report, the largest industry in outdoor recreation is motorized vehicles (mostly RVs), which accounted for $59.5 billion of economic activity in 2016. Boating and fishing contributed $38.2 billion that year, and hunting/fishing/trapping brought $15.4 billion.

An industry trade group called the Outdoor Industry Association did a similar study that found $887 billion of economic activity generated by outdoor recreation, more than twice what BEA found. The difference lies in the methodology: "The BEA report did not account for the revenue produced from apparel and equipment manufactured overseas, which makes up a large portion of outdoor gear," Oates reports. "In addition, the BEA did not measure recreation spending on trips that happen less than 50 miles from home."

Survivalists stock up on guns, move to remote Pacific Northwest to await economic collapse

Todd Savage, a retired Marine, moved to northern Idaho from
San Francisco. (Washington Post photo by Matt McClain)

Survivalists, mostly white conservative Christians who fear everything from natural disasters to terrorist attacks to the federal government, are stocking up on guns and ammo and doling out large sums of money for remote homes in the Pacific Northwest to await an economic collapse or the end of the world as they know it, Kevin Sullivan reports for The Washington Post. They call themselves "the American Redoubt, a term coined in 2011 by survivalist author and blogger James Wesley, Rawles [who uses the comma as part of his name] to describe a settlement of the God-fearing in a lightly populated territory that includes Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and the eastern parts of Washington and Oregon."

Sullivan writes, "Those migrating to the Redoubt are some of the most motivated members of what is known as the prepper movement, which advocates readiness and self- reliance in man-made or natural disasters that could create instability for years. It’s scenario-planning that is gaining adherents and becoming mainstream in what Redoubt preppers described as an era of fear and uncertainty. Much of the Redoubt migration is motivated by fears that President Obama—and his potential successor, Hillary Clinton—want to scrap the Second Amendment, as part of what transplants see as a dangerous and anti-constitutionalist movement toward government that is too intrusive and hostile to personal liberties."

Repealing the amendment would take two-thirds votes in Congress and approval by three-fourtsh of the states. Nevertheless, "Online interest in prepper and American Redoubt websites is increasing," Sullivan reports. "Tools that measure online readership show that monthly search traffic to Rawles’s survivalblog.com has doubled since 2011; an estimate from SimilarWeb, a Web analytics firm, shows that the site had about 862,000 total visits last month. Rawles’s guidebook, How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It and his post- apocalyptic survival novel, Patriots, have sold about 350,000 copies, according to Nielsen BookScan. They are among hundreds of available survivalist books."

Sullivan writes, "They live in a pristine place of abundant water and fertile soil, far from urban crime, free from most natural disasters and populated predominantly by conservative, mostly Christian people with a live-and-let-live ethos and local governments with a light regulatory touch and friendly gun laws." Walsh, who sells real estate, said most of the prepper properties have "at least two sources of water, solar panels or another alternative energy source, ample secure storage space for a few years’ worth of supplies and a defensible location away from main roads and city centers," Sullivan reports." Properties typically sell between $250,000 to $550,000, with some as high as $2 million. A basic solar array can cost around $15,000, while more elaborate systems can cost 10 times that, Walsh said.

Reports show economic impact of national parks; White House report has state-level data

Great Smoky Mountains (summitpost.org photo)

More than 300 million visits were made to national parks in 2015—a record number—according to separate reports from The White House and researchers at two universities.

The White House report, released last month, said visits fueled local economies and supported "an estimated $646 billion national outdoor economy ... with visitors spending $16.9 billion in nearby local communities." The report listed each state's park visits and estimated visitor spending in local economies, jobs supported and state economic output supported.

The report said "activities associated with outdoor recreation, conservation, water and renewable energy led to $106 billion in economic output and supported 862,000 jobs. Additionally, the report found that America’s national parks, national wildlife refuges, national monuments and other public lands managed by the Department of the Interior hosted an estimated 443 million recreational visits in 2015—up from 423 million in 2014—and that these visits alone supported $45 billion in economic output and about 396,000 jobs nationwide."

A study by Colorado State University and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University found that the total economic value of national parks and the National Park Service’s programs is $92 billion, Doug Gavel reports for the Kennedy School. Researchers, said that figure is a conservative estimate, and "two-thirds of this total ($62 billion) is for National Park lands, waters and historic sites; the remaining $30 billion is attributed to NPS programs."

"When citizens were asked if 'It is important to me that National Parks are preserved for current and future generations whether I visit them or not',” 94.9 percent of respondents agreed," John Wihbey reports for Journalist's Resource, also at Harvard. "Only 14.7 percent of respondents indicated that they do not benefit from national parks, and 6.2 percent thought the U.S. should sell off some national parks." Researchers also found that "the annual budget to run the NPS was $2.6 billion in 2014. However, there was a reported backlog of deferred maintenance costs of about $11.9 billion as of February 2016, and revenue shortfalls reportedly are driving the park system to partner more with private companies to fund repairs."

Town near Yosemite sees more homeless people; churches accused of attracting them

A rural town outside Yosemite National Park has seen an increase in homeless people, especially in an area where people can camp outside for months without being detected, Alice Daniel reports for The California Report, a statewide radio news program. Mariposa, Calif. (Best Places map), has seen a spike in homelessness, blamed partly on the recession and partly on Assembly Bill 109, where "parolees who committed non-serious crimes like theft or drug possession are sent back to the county where they were charged, even if it isn’t their hometown." Last summer there were a reported 40 homeless probationers in the town, reports the Sierra Sun Times. Mariposa's population is about 2,200.

A pair of local churches that have begun providing homeless a place to stay seven nights a week are drawing the ire of some locals, who think offering homeless a meal and a bed only encourages more homeless to come to Mariposa, Daniel reports. Rev. Ginger Foster, pastor of Mariposa United Methodist Church, told Daniel, “I mean people have actually said to me, ‘Because you have this program, people come here.’"

Others fear a rise in homeless will hurt the town's tourism industry, Daniel reports. Ron Iudice, a commercial real estate owner, told her, “We didn’t know who these people were that were in town. At the time there was urinating in public doorways of businesses, just sleeping out in public areas. We were afraid transients were going to scare the tourists away, and so the businesses got up in arms about it.”

Foster said most homeless people she has seen came to town for seasonal work that didn't pan out, or suffer from mental health, substance abuse, or lack of transportation, Daniel writes. "And decent affordable housing in Mariposa is almost impossible to find. ... So far, the county has housed 13 people who were homeless." (Read more)

Ken Burns series on national parks repeats on PBS to celebrate National Park Service entennial

To help celebrate the National Park Service Centennial, PBS is rebroadcasting a six-part Ken Burns series on national parks. The series, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," was filmed over six years at various parks. It is the "story of people: people from every conceivable background—rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy," reports PBS. For more information or air times click here. The official 100th anniversary date is Aug. 25. There are 407 national parks in the U.S. To find a park click here.