Americans love their national parks. Well over 300 million people visit the parks each year, whether to hike the rugged badlands trails at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, tour an 18th century home at Ste. Genevieve National Historical Park, or thrill to the Northern Lights at Voyageurs National Park.
The vast majority of park visitors are respectful of the natural and historic wonders that they experience. But sadly, not everyone.
Every year, the National Park Service records numerous incidents of vandalism – known as “cultural violence” – caused by careless or inconsiderate visitors. These illegal acts include graffiti on rock outcroppings or historic structures, harassment of wildlife, removal or destruction of plants, trash dumping, and erosion from off-trail trampling. Repairing vandalized sites can be costly and time-consuming, and often they can’t be restored to their original condition.
NPS employs up to 20,000 full-time and seasonal employees, along with more than 131,000 volunteers. That’s a lot of people charged with protecting our nation’s precious natural and cultural heritage. Yet it’s impossible to safeguard every historic building and fragile artifact, not to mention all 85 million acres managed by the national park system. That’s where all of us come in – our national parks are asking us to Leave No Trace when we visit.
NPS has partnered with other public lands agencies to develop a list of seven Leave No Trace principles that can help us minimize our impact on our public lands:
By following these guidelines, we can all take pride in become lifelong stewards of America’s natural and cultural heritage.
