Revisiting: The Real Problem Facing Our National Parks

The past, the future, and outliving the bastards.

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Back in 2018, I wrote an article titled, “The Real Problem Facing Our National Parks,” I had plans to share it when I first started this Substack, but with the recent mass firings of National Park employees and the crisis this is creating for our public lands, the problem I talk about in the article feels distant. In the article, I argue how the crowded parks were due to an ideology of wilderness not suited for preservation and conservation and called for a change in how we view wildness and the places we choose to consider visiting. I don’t totally disagree with my past self and I want to hold space for these ideas. But is this a problem worth digging into as the key land managers are being forced out?

The real problem facing our National Parks is now their existence. Already undermanaged parks losing stewards and land managers leaves the protection of these lands in a precarious position. The new department of interior chair, Doug Burgum was directed by Trump to ‘drill’ our public lands.

I spend a good chunk of my free time in public lands. Last year, 2024, I spent roughly 75 days climbing, skiing, hiking, running, camping on public lands in the intermountain west. I am intimately familiar with my local public lands. The people who were fired were even more so. The people who did the firing, I would be surprised if they have ever stepped foot in a national forest or National Park. Yet, somehow they feel they have the power to undermine us folk who know these places.

I would argue, show them we have more power. More hope and love for these places. Wallace Stegner said, "National parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”

The worst of us are trying to take these places away, but the best of us can fight back. It may be a story of David vs Goliath, but persistence, joy, and hope are powerful tools.

Here are some reminders- for you and for myself…

Become a land manager. Stewardship is a service, continuing to serve the landscapes you care about takes effort and time, relish in that act. I think there are many ways to do this, some at home, some while out recreating. At home, plant native plants and grasses – boosting the local (native) bird and insect population. In your community this can mean local clean ups and trail work. While camping on BLM or national forest continue LNT practices. Remind your friends to do the same. Every act of service towards the land helps preserve it, no matter how small.

Pay attention. Stay educated on issues facing national parks and other federal public lands. I suggest using social media sparingly. Social media can be a tool for exposure, but not for a deep dive on knowledge or understanding of an issue. Instead, use mailing lists from trusted organizations like Our Parks and the Access Fund.

Know your local park’s non profit. Most National Parks are partially funded by non profit orgs, often under the National Park Friends Alliance. Not all National Parks nonprofits are in the Friends Alliance, but doing a quick search of ‘National Park Name’ + non profit will get you there. You don’t immediately have to donate to these entities. Simply start by joining the email list, get involved in events. If the government continues to attack these public lands, united groups like non profits can be a tool of resistance.

Know the tribes in and around your local park. Tribal knowledge and tribal management is still the way forward for most of our National Parks and public lands. We must work with tribal entities when protecting these lands.

Write your reps! Not just a few times, but all the time. Bookmark your reps contact form and keep pressing them to protect public lands. Congress allocates funds for the Dept of Interior who manages the vast majority of federal land agencies.

Until these lands are fully commoditized, no action is final. NPS was able to restore some full time positions and seasonal hires. Land has been an American commodity since the pilgrims sailed over from England. It has always been a fight to protect land for conservation. How these lands are protected may change, that can be a good thing. Imagine and be open to new ways of land management. A portion of land owned by a co-op or community open for public use? Sounds cool! What could that look like?

Pay attention pt. 2. I will always keep coming back to Mary Oliver. ‘Pay attention. Be astonished.’ The world can feel like a scary place right now, but hope is not a dirty word. Hope is loaded with action. When out exploring on our public lands, fuel up on the joy that comes from these places. Hope and joy are a better fuel than despair. If that feels hard right now, I suggest reading Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit (and getting off social media, that is a despair creator).

Lastly, know when to carry a monkey wrench. I am an optimist, I don’t dream of things getting bad, but they can, and environmental anarchism can be a radical form of protest and action.

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I will let Edward Abbey sum this up, he knows more about our public lands and fighting for them than me:

“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”

Thanks being here, folks! This is not going to be the standard format for my ‘Revisiting’ segments. In the future, they will be a review and converstaion with a much more ambitious and younger writer- me in college. I would still love to revisit the original, ‘The Real Problem Facing Our National Parks’, but for now it will stay on the shelf.