Intersectional Environmentalism and National Parks

The intersectional environmentalism movement is twofold: it focuses on people and the environment. National parks provide a perfect case study to examine the connection between the two. A vital balance must be reached between accessibility of visitation and protection of the natural environment.

The campaign to Find Your Park in 2016 (the Centennial of the National Park Service) boosted visitation across the United States. This has caused ecological damage and accessibility issues at many national parks.

During this study, we visited three national parks: Grand Canyon National Park, Joshua Tree National Park, and Yosemite National Park. We researched the impact that over-visitation has on the intersections of accessibility and sustainability.

• Interviews: We interviewed park rangers at Grand Canyon and Joshua Tree National Parks
• Observations: We took observational notes and photographs at Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, and Yosemite National Parks

Our research questions:

1. Have recent increases in visitation affected the accessibility of national parks?
2. Have recent increases in visitation changed the way national parks measure and mitigate environmental degradation?
3. Is the infrastructure of national parks sustainable and accessible?

After talking to park rangers at the Grand Canyon National Park South Village, we learned that rising fees, ecological devastation, resource usage, and transportation are topics that the park is concerned about.

Park Fees and Visitation: 

• Visitation is increasing at unprecedented rates, leading to the deterioration of the nation's national parks.
• One commonly proposed solution is to increase visitation fees, which leads to decreased financial accessibility for low-income individuals, groups, and families.

“That whole idea of loving the parks to death is really a prevalent issue on many of the minds of some of the managers.” - Park Ranger

Transportation:

Out of the three national parks that we visited, Grand Canyon National Park has the most accessible and sustainable transportation system for those who do not have their own means of transportation.

• The buses run on natural gas
• Construction of a better shuttle bay is underway
• There is talk of switching to an electric fleet of buses in coming years

Park Management Strategy:

• Grand Canyon National Park uses a "concentration of land use" strategy where a corridor of land is set aside to be the main area of foot traffic while the rest of the park gets minimal use.
• The Bright Angel, and South and North Kaibab trails, exist within the heavy-use corridors, making up 99% of the trails used by visitors.

Ecological Devastation:

• Due to the above park strategy, the main rim trail path experiences a lot of ecological devastation due to trampling.
• Parking lots are reaching their maximum capacities, which leads to visitors parking along the road and damaging the ecosystems.
• Predator-prey ecology is impacted by increased visitation because humans are scaring away the mountain lions who prey on elk; this is increasing the elk populations at the Grand Canyon.
• Due to climate change, the availability of water to the national park is decreasing and rangers are unsure of the sustainability of the natural spring that supplies the park.

“Monsoons in the summer are pathetic shadows of what they used to be.” - Park Ranger

Infrastructure Sustainability: 

• More parking lots cannot be built and raising the park's fee is a potential solution, but this will impact the park's accessibility.
• There was talk of creating a light rail system from the nearest town into the park, but the plans did not go through and currently, there are no plans to bring that idea back.

The state of accessibility and environmental degradation at Joshua Tree National Park is similar to that of Grand Canyon National Park in some ways and different in others. Joshua Tree National Park also has concerns about increased visitation and resulting accessibility and infrastructure issues. However, this national park has a different management strategy -- a different approach through which to mitigate environmental damage and over-visitation.

Park Fees and Visitation:

• Annual visitation doubled in 2016 to approximately three million visitors each year.
• Concern about implementing a reservation system arose because it would limit accessibility, especially to low-income folk and people who visit on a whim.
• Campgrounds are booked months in advance and first-come-first-serve campgrounds fill by 7-8:00am.

“The amount of people is limiting access” - Park Ranger

Transportation:

• Visitors need a private vehicle to get around and parking lots for popular trailheads fill up daily.
• A shuttle bus system was tested several years ago, but funding ran out and the bus system could not be maintained.

Park Management Strategy:

"A lot of what you are looking for is everywhere. Right? It's not like you...gotta see this one view. There's this one canyon and you sit at this view and it's perfect. Joshua trees and...our big boulders, our big desert views are sneakily...all over." - Park Ranger

• The goal at Joshua Tree National Park is to spread out visitor use and minimize sacrifice zones to prevent ecological devastation.
• Rangers hope to encourage visitors to use different parts of the park, in different ways, at different times of the year.

Ecological Devastation:

• Joshua Trees are not federally-recognized endangered species, but they are included in the California Endangered Species Act.
• Fringe-toed lizards and palm oases are also at risk due to the environmental devastation caused by increased park visitation.
• Visitors often create their own parking areas on the side of the road, which damages surrounding ecosystems, and harms the flora and fauna.
• Climate change is affecting the weather, summer rainstorms are not as strong, droughts are more common, and weather is becoming more extreme.

"What we're seeing now in the desert: more hot hots, cold colds, wet wets, dry dries..." - Park Ranger

Infrastructure Sustainability:

"Joshua Tree National Park is unfortunately not sustainable in its current infrastructure." - Park Ranger

• Many renovation projects are underway, including overhauls of the main entrance gate, Cottonwood Visitor Center, and Black Rock Campground.
• According to a park ranger, "while [these projects] might take a few more years to happen, we're in that process of needing it now."
• Cottonwood Visitor Center is especially important because it is the only southern entrance station and it is close to Coachella Valley, which has a large Latine population; updating this visitor center could increase outreach and access to these communities.
• Park signage is also being updated; clearer information and directions will help visitors, especially first-time visitors, understand how to use and respect the park sustainably.
• Through these upgrades, the national park hopes to "build better relationships" and be "less of an island and more of a community entity."

Due to legal reasons, we were unable to speak to park rangers at Yosemite National Park. All of our findings are based on personal observations and information found online.

Park Fees and Visitation:

• Yosemite is one of many national parks that recently started a reservation system to simultaneously handle the pandemic and over-visitation.
• Reservation systems have the potential to slow and decrease visitation, which could slow the deterioration of the national park.

Transporation:

• Yosemite has a system with Amtrak and Greyhound during the summer that provides transportation to Yosemite from cities in California and in other states.
• The Yosemite Valley Shuttle System provides services throughout the Yosemite Valley and to trailheads for El Capitan.

Park Management Strategy:

• "Concentration of use" strategy in Yosemite Valley.
• Most of the infrastructure appears to be concentrated in the bottom of the valley, with several hiking trails branching out of the valley.

Ecological Devastation:

• The main loop road around the valley is a one-way road which likely helps control traffic.
• However, pull-offs were limited and often full when we visited in the off-season.

Infrastructure Sustainabiity:

• From observing the park's infrastructure in terms of lodging and guest services (grocery store, visitor center, motels, restaurants, restrooms), it was clear that Yosemite struggles with over-visitation.
• Signage and restrooms did not appear to be well-maintained when we visited in November.

We hope that through sharing this project, others are able to learn about the issues of accessibility and sustainability facing our nation's national parks. Through learning about these issues, more discussions can be had about the integration of intersectional environmentalism into our national parks.

Thank you to the Keller Family for their generosity in funding our research project. Through this project, we were not only able to travel to these three beautiful national parks, but also learn more about the issues facing them and how these issues may be mediated. We also would like to thank Dr. Miro Kummel for advising us and helping us edit our research proposal.