Our national parks are in a perilous state. They are suffering from their own success. Visits nationwide total 275 million a year, a figure that exceeds the United States population. Imagine that every man, woman, and child in America visited at least one park a year.
More people result in more cars, vans, and tour buses clogging the roads and polluting the air.
Years of inadequate funding and misplaced priorities have left many parks with ill-functioning sewage and water systems, historic buildings whose roofs leak and walls crumble, and archaeological sites, historical artifacts and wildlife that have not been documented, cataloged, or monitored. Some parks face negative externalities, such as air pollution, from nearby factories and power plants. The natural ambience in many parks is disappearing because visitors use snowmobiles, jet water skis, and other motorized vehicles. Many of the parks' resources are deteriorating, and in some cases disappearing, without anyone knowing about it. In 1996, to properly address the burgeoning needs of public lands while undergoing cutbacks in congressional spending, Congress directed the U.S. Department of the Interior to implement the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program.