Tuesday, 9 December 2014

Will They Wake Up Like This?

PART IV- RECREATION

Road Trip to the Canyons

Yo yo Yosemite! Source: Tumblr
The beauty of the American National Parks. I bet images of bears, geysers, canyons, salmon, etc all spring into your mind. Who doesn't love a good adventure through the final frontiers! But most of us no longer live in these 'wilds'; we pay our way to visit them after driving or flying across the country and to get there (unlike the few locals fortunate enough to live nearby). But if the parks can't offer what we expect... will we continue going? Let's dive into the economics of National Park and Tourism Recreation.

How many people visit the Southwest National Parks annually? 35 million. And how much do they spend? $1.3 billion (Owen 2008). That's more than, in pop culture terms, Beyonce's and Jay Z's net worth going into the region EVERY YEAR (National Parks are ***Flawless)!

So less visitors=less money. But how much? And why would less people come? Well if most people come for water-specific sport, less water would discourage visitors. For example, at Lake Meade and Lake Powell (Glen Canyon) between 1999-2003 lake levels dropped 2.1% and 5.4% respectively (Morehouse et al. 2007). Ok so that's not a huge drop in water but it led to a loss of 1.4 million visits, 1,438 jobs, $60.2 million in tourist spending and $23 million in local incomes. In fact it's suggested that for every 1% drop in water levels, Lake Powell loses 5% of visitors (Owen 2008). As the Southwest dries, less and less visitors will come to the National Parks. This has major implications for the people living nearby as a loss of jobs in the tourism industry will no doubt trickle down to other sectors of the economy.

However, increasingly warm winters actually brings more visitors to the national parks (unless you want to go to a low-desert park) (CLIMAS 2011). The warmer winter temperatures actually encourage people to explore the parks. However, warming winter temperatures can negatively affect the ski industry as seen earlier in Part IV- Recreation, and therefore discourage people from coming to the mountains of the Southwest. In addition, increasing summer temperatures further discourages visitors from coming. So while there may be seasonal gains in the parks, overall the National Parks are losing visitors to the drying, heating climate.

The drying climate is a big factor in the prominence of forest fires in the Southwest (Freedman 2013). Although forest fire suppression management throughout the National Parks has also lead to an increased fire risk, a drier forest will burn more quickly! For more on fires catch up on PART V- DISASTER. National Parks and recreation face a big threat; if there's no water and no trees left, will people continue to come? Or will the way we play in the parks change with the changing landscape? Only time will tell!

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