Opinions and Editorials Section
By Audrey Elwood, Chief Columnist
The outdoors industry has been booming in post-COVID America. The outdoor industry accounts for $1.2 trillion of US GDP, which accounts for roughly 2.5% of the overall economy. This is a massive amount for a non-essential service.
A large portion of this growth is centered around the United States’ robust National Parks Service (NPS). The NPS is one of the largest and best run nature preservation agencies in the world. The institution also generates significant impact for the local and national economies. Last week, Congress instated a new national park, Chiricahua National Park, a series of unique rock formations in Southeastern Arizona.
According to the 2023 NPS economic report, every dollar invested in the national parks returned in at least $4 of economic output are generated with some estimates reaching $11. A minimum 400% return is better than pretty much any investment you can make.
Chief Columnist Audrey Elwood argues that the National Parks Service (NPS) is central to our identity and mission as a nation, and that the agency and its land should be promoted and preserved
This is especially true when this economic activity is concentrated in rural, low-income areas. The appeal of many national parks is their expansiveness, and distance from modern life.
Areas can get overrun by tourism, but from an economic standpoint, this can widely improve impoverished areas.
It is a fact that Americans also love national parks, with 95% supporting national parks and do not believe the program should be shrunk.
It is practically impossible to get all Americans to agree that the sky is blue, those odds are even worse for a government program.
However, the Trump administration has been cutting the national parks, through firing staff, slashing funding and reducing overall support. The administration recently entertained talks of building a baseball stadium in the Tetons.
The appeal of nature is the lack of development, an appeal lost with a giant stadium
However, the easiest areas to attack are often the ones with the least resources, such as national forests or national preserves. Trump has rolled back the 2001 “roadless rule” of the National Forest Service. This will allow for new roads to be built in US national forests.
Connecting the dots, new roads equals tearing down trees to build said roads but also creating easier access points for loggers and ranchers with government contracts. This all leads to the further degradation of one of main appeals of the outdoors.
While it may be profitable in the short-term, long-term it opens these areas to resource over-extraction. Causing short term relief for long term economic suffering when the industries leave after the damage is done.
In Utah, Bears Ears National Recreation Area has constantly been shrunk in favor of mining and oil operations. What used to 1.36 million acres of protected land, a space the size of Delaware, has now been shrunk by 91%, down to 121,000 acres.
Nature is important, nature is good for people and nature is good for America. The rugged vastness of the US is central to our identity as a nation. When we parcel and sell off the land to the highest bidder, we lose that identity, and long term, we lose economically. Hopefully the new national park is a change of heart for the administration. Unfortunately, it is most likely a fluke. The best path forward is prioritizing protecting what we have, not burning it down for short-term gains.
