American and Canadian National Park Agency Responses to Declining Visitation

Abstract

Recent research has suggested a decline in visits to national parks in both the United States and Canada. We analyzed contemporary (2000 to 2009) national policy documents (e.g., annual reports, strategic plans, commission findings) in both countries to assess national park agency reactions to recent changes in visitation patterns. Neither the Parks Canada Agency nor the National Park Service directly mentioned declines in visitation in these high level documents, focusing instead on identifying major external “challenges” related to building visitation. In response to these challenges, both agencies moved to bolster and redefine their educational efforts to reach new audiences, particularly youth and minority/immigrant groups in urban areas. Both agencies also shared four key assumptions, most significantly the belief that decreased visitation will lead to decreased public and political support for parks. They also ignored potential benefits of decreasing use, such as decreased environmental or social impacts. We suggest that the growing focus on increasing use, in tandem with the contemporary neoliberal political environment, leads these national park agencies to systematically emphasize use values while de-emphasizing preservation values. The park agencies are becoming increasingly focused on “re-engaging” with the public to increase political support for the bureaucracies.