You pose a good set of questions with this one Dave.
I have been noticing this now for the last decade in all sorts of parks. This year, in late May, the camping and recreation scenes went crazy everywhere I looked. Recreation.gov camping was mostly booked by early June. Permits were cancelled. The problem was compounded by Covid distancing at many campgrounds. Moraine Park, in RMNP, only allowed one quarter of the sites to be filled. I have never seen this many people out everywhere I went this year. Crazy. And then the fires. This next year will be more of the same.
We have seen park under funding now for over 4 presidential administrations, we are to the point backlogged maintenance is not getting done. Roads are in disrepair, bathrooms are rendered useless. Even along the Interstate, bathrooms are not being maintained. We simple must fund these sites and programs. We need money. State and federal money.
We do not fund the Forest Service or other park agencies. I never see the big bad rangers any more. You know the ones. They are fully prepared, packing heat and do not take any sh!t. I don't see them except in emergencies, even in national parks now. There is always one per park in the big parks, but there used to be lots more. The monuments are staffed with volunteers now. Even Dinosaur N.M. which only serves class III-IV whitewater, which is highly technical has volunteers only.
There are no education programs, to educate new users, that I have seen. It's basically an under funded free for all. All rangers, tour guides and services are overwhelmed. Not to mention local communities. They were not designed for this. These places are all under staffed and funded and now crowded. And that severely limits what they can do, or how they can react.
We need better management practices at a regional level. We need a clear definition of what you can do where you can do it, and a plan to open up more areas. ATVs are inundating most dirt road passes now in Colorado. The weird thing is campgrounds pay for themselves many times over in short order. We should want to serve these groups, in many different fashions. We need better resources planning and more areas to do it in, with all the exploding new ways of recreating. We need planning. We need more campgrounds. We have the areas.
Recreation is expanding and new ways of recreating are showing up everywhere. There is massive opportunity for our country too. More people will get in shape, take on a healthy lifestyle and recreate more. This fad will eventually fade and the used RV market is going to be special in a few years.
So in short I would;
1. Fund the parks and agencies.
2. Staff with experienced staff and park police.
3. Fix and maintain existing facilities.
4. Plan out and open new areas for different uses.
5. Better integration between agencies like NPS, BLM and NFS.
6. Develop more open recreation areas that are not as developed but maintained for specific uses.
7. Develop better transportation systems in park systems to handle increased visitor load.
8. Develop more educational opportunities and programs.
9. Stop private campground developers when you can, and reinstall the expertise in the Forest Service. Quit farming it out to private companies. Put the Forest Service back in control. That is what we created the agency for anyway.
It would be a start. And thank you for asking.
