The Negative Effects of Tourism on National Parks

Cordova, Muhammad, et al. “Preliminary Study of the Effect of Tourism Activities on Litter Pollution: A Case Study on Padar Island, Komodo National Park, Indonesia.” Journal of Ecological Engineering, vol. 22, no. 8, 2021, pp. 131–39,  https://doi.org/10.12911/22998993/140265 .

This study conducted by Muhammad Reza Cordova, et al, shows the results of a litter collection from 1Km trail on Padar Island in Komodo National Park, Indonesia (131).  They wanted to see how tourism is affecting a specific hiking trail in this special marine tourism environment (Cordova et al. 131).  Their results found that the majority of litter found was single-use plastic-based items and cigarette butts were the most common (Cordova et al. 133).  Their study was limited but they make recommendations for further studying of visitor-related impacts and the improvement of management practices.

This source contributed to my research by providing quality data showing tourism was harming the environment. Their sample size was small (1 km trail) but it effectively showed how tourism affected the national park. I learned the majority of litter recovered was plastic based and the majority of that was cigarette butts (Cordova et al. 133). This type of pollution is especially concerning since it will persist in the environment for such a long time. This source also showed that tourism affecting national parks is not just a U.S. problem but a global problem.

Finnessey, Lauren. "The negative effects of tourism on national parks in the United States." Honors Theses–Providence Campus 4 (2012): 42.

This source is a thesis by Lauren Finnessey titled The Negative Effects of Tourism on National Parks.  She explains how unsuspecting tourists are affecting the parks that they enjoy.  She also identifies how this is a global problem but has limited her research to just U.S. National Parks.  She identifies the different types of eco-tourists and explains the difference between hard and soft ecotourists.  Other than a brief history and explanation of the role of the national park system, the cornerstone of the thesis is the chapter on negative impacts and her suggestions for ways to reverse them.

This source was a great find since it was on the same topic as my research. It was here that I learned about the difference between hard/soft ecotourism and that led me to another quality source. I learned how much of an impact snowmobiles have in parks, especially Yellowstone. I also learned how aircraft affect bighorn sheep at Grand Canyon National Park. This source confirmed my initial thoughts of tourists veering off trail and trampling flora.

Henderson, David. “American Wilderness Philosophy.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, iep.utm.edu/american-wilderness-philosophy/#SH3c. Accessed 3 Sep 2023

In this article, the author explores the origins of the word “wilderness”, historical attitudes, major figures of wilderness preservation, and an overview of The Wilderness Act.  For my research, I only read sections about one of the figures, Aldo Leopold, and The Wilderness Act.  He explains how the work of Aldo Leopold set the groundwork for the preservation of wild places (Henderson).  He pushed for the classification (i.e. wilderness) of land within federal land to be kept roadless.  This initiative started by Aldo Leopold later became official as The Wilderness Act was passed into law in 1964.

This source contributes to my research because it helps explain how the preservation of wilderness inside national parks came to fruition.  I think understanding the beginnings helps provide some insight into my first research question, "Why do humans engage with the wild?".  Although there are likely a multitude of reasons why, one key reason may lie within the definition of wilderness from The Wilderness Act.  In the second half of the first sentence, it states wilderness is, "recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain" (Henderson).  For people who seek and crave wild adventure, isolation, and an intimate connection with nature, a wilderness is the only place where this is possible.

Sachs, Andrea. "Yellowstone euthanizes baby bison after man interferes with calf." Washington Post, 24 May 2023, p. NA. Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A750469846/HRCA?u=s8405248&sid=googleScholar&xid=369f12ef. Accessed 20 Aug. 2023.

This is an article from the Washington Post from May of 2023, telling the story of a baby bison that was euthanized due to human interaction.   The author Andrea Sachs describes how a newly born bison was having trouble crossing the river in Yellowstone's Lamar River Valley.  Then a man intervened and helped the bison up the riverbank.  After the interaction, the baby bison was not accepted back into the herd and repeatedly made close contact with humans on the road (Sachs).  Ultimately, this left park officials with no other choice but to put the bison down.

As sad as this article is and I hate to see it, it does a very good job of highlighting the reality of what can happen when tourists engage with wildlife in the wrong manner. This article adds breadth to my research and shows the extreme negative effects. I did learn that it was likely not the human scent as to why the herd did not accept the baby bison back. I thought this to be very interesting and makes me wonder what other sense or communication they use to make such decisions.

Simmonds, Charlotte., et al. “Crisis In Our National Parks:  How Tourists are Loving Nature to Death.” The Guardian, 20 Nov 2018,  www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/20/national-parks-america-overcrowding-crisis-tourism-visitation-solutions . Accessed 3 Sep 2023.

This article from The Guardian explores how social media has impacted national parks. It explains how social media has made some attractions so popular that is putting a strain on our national parks and the nearby towns (Simmonds et al.). It also talks about how some parks are either looking into or instituting a reservation system as parks are seemingly beyond their desired carrying capacity. The article goes into detail on a few more specific issues like toilets and waste but the overarching theme is how tech impacts human behavior in the parks.

This article added to my research because it brought about a new aspect that I did not originally think of. When I first thought about this issue I only considered how people might trample vegetation or feed bears et cetera. So this article was a great find since it brought a new and modern impact of how social media can affect our national parks. I understand social media does not have an ulterior motive but it's the people who use it and how they use it that can have a deleterious effect on our parks.

Wang, Chih-Yung, and Paul S. Miko. “Environmental Impacts of Tourism on U.S. National Parks.” Journal of Travel Research, vol. 35, no. 4, 1997, pp. 31–36,  https://doi.org/10.1177/004728759703500405 .

In the article, Environmental Impacts of Tourism on U.S. National Parks, Chih-Yung Wang and Paul S. Miko explain the results of their survey data from 44 of 51 U.S. National Parks.  For their study, they sent out questionnaires to 51 National Park superintendents asking them to rate problems from extremely insignificant to extremely significant (1-5 scale).  The questionnaire asked if tourism added to problems in the following areas: water quality, air quality, flora, fauna, and coastlines/shorelines.  The study resulted in empirical data showing how tourism can have deleterious effects, “24 national parks (54.5 %) had water quality problems related to tourism, 27 parks (61.4%) had air quality problems related to tourism, and 37 parks (84.1%) had either flora or fauna problems related to tourism. Coastline/shoreline problems related to tourism were reported in 22 out of the 31 national parks in this study with coastlines/shorelines within their boundaries” (Wang and Miko 33).

This study is very straightforward and confirmed many of my previous assumptions about tourism and its effect on national parks.  I learned that the majority of parks have some degree of problems with tourism with respect to flora and fauna.  However, the data seemed to trend more positively regarding water, air, and coastlines/shorelines.  This source was particularly helpful because it provided quality data that showed U.S. national parks experience negative effects from tourism.  Especially from tourists feeding fauna, and tourists hurting vegetation from trampling, shortcutting, and erosion.

Weaver, David B., et al. The Encyclopedia of Ecotourism. CABI Pub., 2001.https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/osu/detail.action?docID=292096.

The Encyclopedia of Ecotourism is a comprehensive book encompassing all facets of ecotourism. For my research, I restricted my reading to Chapter Two, Types of Ecotourism by M.B. Orams, and Chapter twenty-four Environmental Impacts by R. Buckley. In chapter two, Orams goes into great depth explaining the intricacies of ecotourism. He explains how there is no exact definition on what exactly ecotourism is and what an ecotourist is. However, he does provide some guidance on what is generally accepted. When examining the term ecotourists he explains how they can be classified as either soft or hard. Soft means the tourist desires only comfortable and usually brief experiences in nature. On the other end of the spectrum, the hard tourist desires to have a difficult and immersive experience (Weaver et al. 28).

From this source, I learned about tourists that engage in nature and they are termed ecotourists.  More importantly, I learned that they are generally broken down into two types, hard and soft.  The hard ecotourist is likely to have a great deal of experience and knowledge.  They also are likely to engage with nature for a longer duration and higher degree of difficulty (Weaver et al. 28).  An example that I feel represents this well is mountain climbers.  Soft ecotourists on the other hand are the exact opposite.  They desire a comfortable and brief experience (Weaver et al. 28).  I could not help but think of the majority of tourists who visit Yellowstone National Park and may not ever leave their vehicles.  It was important to have an understanding of the differences and understand how people are engaging in nature/national parks because both types can negatively impact the environment.