Leaders of a U.S. Senate panel extolled national parks for providing a respite during the COVID-19 pandemic, but cautioned that enthusiasm for outdoors recreation will create its own problems in this summer’s tourism wave.
Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent and the chairman of a subcommittee that oversees the U.S. National Park Service, said this summer would “be the biggest season in the history of the Park Service,” and ranking Republican Steve Daines of Montana agreed with that prediction.
To help with overcrowding, the National Park Service plans to launch a public education campaign to encourage visitors to make plans and reservations in advance, acting director Shawn Benge told senators.
Benge also said the government was considering options including timed entry and limiting numbers. The Park Service would also offer real-time digital communications to let visitors know when parking lots are full, for example.
King, Daines and other senators cast the increased interest in parks as a positive development, but said it also posed challenges related to congestion and already-strained parks infrastructure.
While 2020 attendance to the National Park System decreased by about 28%, some parks broke monthly attendance records as Americans sought outdoor recreation opportunities in the U.S. during the pandemic, since both international travel and indoor gatherings were limited.
Members of the subcommittee praised the parks’ abilities to provide spaces to improve mental and physical health during a difficult period.
“I truly believe our national parks were a refuge for many Americans during the pandemic,” Daines said. “It was good for the soul when Americans visited their national parks.”
But with many international destinations still difficult to reach, and some COVID-19 restrictions still in place, senators said they expect swarms of visitors to national parks.
“One of the problems we’re encountering is a kind of inherent tension of loving places to death,” King said. “In our committee room, we have pictures of beautiful parks, but we also have pictures of huge traffic jams in places like Acadia and Yosemite.”
King said several times he hoped to hold another hearing specifically on congestion in national parks, adding that it was a difficult balance to allow maximum access to the parks but not diminish the experience. Congress and the Park Service may try and disperse visitors to less-visited parks and parts of parks, King said.
DOCUMENTARY filmmaker Ken Burns, who produced a 2009 PBS series celebrating national parks, testified at the hearing that he viewed the long lines to get in park entrances as a good problem, comparing it to the long lines to vote in his small New Hampshire town. Burns’ film company is based in Walpole.
Visits to national parks may still look different this year, as some mask mandates and other policies like limits on shuttle buses are still in place.
Under President Joe Biden’s executive orders, the Interior Department and other executive branch agencies set mask policy for national parks based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, Benge said. The circumstances of the pandemic are likely to change in coming months and rule changes would likely follow, he said.
For now, unvaccinated employees, contractors and volunteers must wear masks inside parks buildings and outside when distancing is not possible, according to the National Park Service website. Visitors “who are not fully vaccinated must continue to wear masks indoors and in crowded outdoor spaces,” a National Park Service spokesperson said. “Masks are required for everyone on all forms of public transportation.”
