Comments on: The National Park Debate http://kaleidoscopicwandering.com/2009/08/25/the-national-park-debate/ Traveling the world one color at a time. Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:04:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Rufus Quail http://kaleidoscopicwandering.com/2009/08/25/the-national-park-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-4900 Rufus Quail Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:50:05 +0000 http://kaleidoscopicwandering.wordpress.com/?p=420#comment-4900 I go in the off-season, like Grand Canyon in December. You have the place to yourself, but only about 4 hours of daylight at Phantom Ranch. On the way out, I collected a large bag of trash. Barely made a dent. Everyone pitch in and carry out trash. Thank you. I go in the off-season, like Grand Canyon in December. You have the place to yourself, but only about 4 hours of daylight at Phantom Ranch. On the way out, I collected a large bag of trash. Barely made a dent. Everyone pitch in and carry out trash. Thank you.

]]> By: Trisha http://kaleidoscopicwandering.com/2009/08/25/the-national-park-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-415 Trisha Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:05:04 +0000 http://kaleidoscopicwandering.wordpress.com/?p=420#comment-415 Excellent, thought-provoking post Joanna. I don't have a solution, but I do know that if the general populace doesn't have the opportunity to receive some tangible benefit from public spaces by being able to go see, touch, and experience these parks in ways that, by their very presence, has a negative effect on them, people will stop caring about them. And not caring results in a great risk of losing some (or all) of what we own at the hands of an unsympathetic government who has no fear of an apathetic citizenry. So perhaps you're right in that there must be some small sacrifice - the needs of the many, eh? Excellent, thought-provoking post Joanna.

I don’t have a solution, but I do know that if the general populace doesn’t have the opportunity to receive some tangible benefit from public spaces by being able to go see, touch, and experience these parks in ways that, by their very presence, has a negative effect on them, people will stop caring about them. And not caring results in a great risk of losing some (or all) of what we own at the hands of an unsympathetic government who has no fear of an apathetic citizenry.

So perhaps you’re right in that there must be some small sacrifice – the needs of the many, eh?

]]> By: Mark H http://kaleidoscopicwandering.com/2009/08/25/the-national-park-debate/comment-page-1/#comment-286 Mark H Sun, 30 Aug 2009 23:13:38 +0000 http://kaleidoscopicwandering.wordpress.com/?p=420#comment-286 Australia has that debate too with some becoming "too" popular. I've always thought that having lots of people visit national parks was goodness as it primarily instills good environmental practices (a sad few do litter and damage places but all you can do is catch them and do our best that they don't repeat the practice), does offer long term protection (govts are rarely game to remove national parks) and appreciation of nature at its finest. After all, 90% of most national parks do stay as true wilderness and are accessed by few or any. For example how many get out of the valley floor and Glacier Point at Yosemite, yet Yosemite is a large park. Ditto for Yellowstone and Zion and all the other great US parks. Sadly the folks who do damage would still find nice places to damage whether they were designated as national parks or not. Australia has that debate too with some becoming “too” popular. I’ve always thought that having lots of people visit national parks was goodness as it primarily instills good environmental practices (a sad few do litter and damage places but all you can do is catch them and do our best that they don’t repeat the practice), does offer long term protection (govts are rarely game to remove national parks) and appreciation of nature at its finest. After all, 90% of most national parks do stay as true wilderness and are accessed by few or any. For example how many get out of the valley floor and Glacier Point at Yosemite, yet Yosemite is a large park. Ditto for Yellowstone and Zion and all the other great US parks. Sadly the folks who do damage would still find nice places to damage whether they were designated as national parks or not.

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