March 29, 2020
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Zion National Park rightfully deserves its ‘National Park’ designation. It truly is an amazing place and is home to many animals and geographical features only found in the American southwest. Unfortunately, the park, like many other US National Parks, is facing environmental degradation.
The biggest problem that National Parks in the US face is increased tourism. Many people have never even heard of Zion, so it can be surprising that this smaller park still faces the same issues as Grand Canyon National Park, for example. Increased tourism may seem like it is only one problem, but in fact this causes several problems for the park and severely strains the park’s ecosystems.
Springdale, Utah, the town just outside the entrance to Zion National Park is a small town, but it has been built up to serve visitors hoping to stay in a hotel just outside of the park. In fact, the main road that runs through the town leads right into the park. Although it may not seem like a big issue, air pollution from the minutes-away town center flows up towards the park and has been proven to impact the wildlife, waterways, plants, and soils within the park. This is one of the many problems associated with increased development in areas just outside of many of the National Parks across the country.
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Another aspect of increased tourism means that there is increased traffic in the park, both on foot and in cars. The park has taken steps to address the issue of car pollution by providing shuttle buses throughout the park and limiting personal cars to only one road; the other roads can only be accessed via the shuttle buses. Even without car pollution, the hundreds to thousands of people who visit the park everyday undoubtedly want to get out and wander around. Even when staying along the trails, people can interfere with the park’s ecosystems.
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My family and I visited Zion National Park and several other parks in the western US a few summers ago. Having experienced the walls of red rock and the variety of wildlife in the park firsthand, it would be a shame for the park to continually be negatively impacted by tourists. Clearly the park is forward thinking with its implementation of shuttle buses and closing of certain roads. But, in order to preserve the beauty of the park and keep it open to the public, stricter regulations for use of the park should be put into place.
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***If you're interested, here's a good 360 view of Zion NP along the main road through the park.***
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https://www.frommers.com/destinations/zion-national-park/a-nature-guide/the-ecosystem
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Normally we think of National Parks as things that help to preserve the environment. However, as you mentioned, National Parks can also create tourism, which leads to more air pollution in the surrounding community, and roads that carve up animals' living environments. I like how you propose for regulations to ensure that less people use the park at once.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent topic. Instead of protecting these beautiful landscapes humans are impacting it in a negative manner. We often place so much value on areas of land that are deemed "beautiful" while not taking the proper steps to ensure that it remains in good condition. This also raises questions about whether or not we should do more to protect high profile and majestic landscapes over areas of land that are not viewed as being as desirable. Either way, I liked how you suggested that shuttles are used to help preserve the land.
ReplyDeleteI love this topic! I have always thought that tourism is mostly beneficial, but it is refreshing to see the other viewpoint about how it can potentially be detrimental. It is interesting to know that air pollution has an impact on things such as Zion, the national park you mentioned. Hopefully some of the ways to help fix this issue that you mentioned will work fast.
ReplyDeleteThis article is really well written! I find it really interesting that air pollution from nearby towns has affected the park, as well as pollution from shuttle buses, because cars can only access one road.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really awesome topic to talk about. I also liked how the pictures were pictures that you had taken, it added more of a personal touch to it. It was really interesting how the small town has such a large affect on the park. Tourism is so common to parks and I had never really thought about all the pollution that came along with all the visitors.
ReplyDeleteI found this topic very interesting as it is very relevant too. Increase of tourism has a negative impact on the nature that is the national park. All of the gases from the cars and pollution is increasing.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great topic. We often tend to focus on the positives of tourism, focusing on the economic aspects. But, when there is an increase in human presence in an area many negatives also come along with it. We need to realize that we can affect everything, big and small, with our actions and that these actions, if negative, can harm important ecosystems.
ReplyDeleteGreat Topic. While its great that the purpose of National Parks is to help preserve wildlife, it is surprising that tourism in these areas' help to disrupt the ecosystem.
ReplyDeleteThis is a super interesting topic because normally everyone assumes that National Parks are good because for the environment due to the preserved land. Hopefully the solutions you mentioned can be implemented, to decrease pollution.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting topic. I think most of the people don't even know how they are negatively affecting to the environment.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that national parks should be protected from tourism more. However, how would the decision be made about who could experience these views in person? Would it only be people rich enough to pay for the experience? Part of what makes these parks so amazing is that anyone rich, or poor can experience nature's beauty. By limiting who can experience it, you would likely be limiting it to only rich people.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting because even though they make efforts to preserve the park it is still being destroyed and run down in a sense. Thank you for the personal insight. IT was really interesting to read.
ReplyDeleteThis is really cool and thought provoking. Should we allow so many tourists to these parks every year? I have always wanted to go, but now I will have to re-evaluate.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was an interesting perspective on the effects tourism have on national parks. Tourists do leave behind a lot of waste and it was insightful getting your first hand account of how humans are negatively impacting Zion National Park.
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