Have you ever felt that national who left your trash behind for someone else

parks are overcrowded, misused, and not to deal with, or were you the person who
properly funded? Do you think that national picked up after yourself and took care of the
parks affect local businesses in both good environment.
and bad? These are some of the big
questions that are a concern when it comes
to my social issue. People don’t necessarily
see everything that goes on in these parks
and I don’t think they necessarily want to.

This is the mindset that people are in; they

feel so entitled in that they feel like
whatever they don’t do the park ranger or
someone else will take care of for them.
Most people just walk through and enjoy
them, but don’t turn around to think about
the things they do whether it be walking off
the trail, or not picking up their trash before
they leave. ​Over 300 million people visit the
national parks each year, bringing in and
generating millions of tons of trash.

Not only are these places misused by people,

but the federal funding isn’t sufficient to get
the parks what they need. National parks are
not receiving proper funding, dealing with
staff shortages, and are facing a large
percentage of increased visitation at the
From plastic to food waste to discarded
same time (NPCA 1). People aren’t
clothing, the waste brought into national
necessarily the only ones who are affected; a
parks can pollute our nation’s most pristine
lot of wildlife is affected by the environment
wilderness and wildlife (Hanna, Moralez 1).
changing also. Many animals are losing
I want you to Think about the last time you
homes and food sources due to the lack of
went to a national park were you someone
care.

The other side of this issue is the effect that

national parks have on local businesses and
vice versa. Some of the businesses directly
rely on these parks to stay open with that in
mind if these parks aren’t receiving the
proper funding and people begin to visit
them less than some of these businesses will
be forced to close down.
One of the other big things I have learned as
I have researched this issue is the impact of
social media some people see it as this
amazing thing, but it can have a significant
impact on what people want to see and do at
these places.

Luke D. Hyde, owner of the Calhoun

Country Inn said in an article “The basic
truth is that gateway community businesses
depend on our national parks being open and
The diverse and omnipresent social media
properly funded. Our economy depends on
platforms in contemporary society have
their economy,” This just shows that I am
fundamentally changed the way people
not the only one who thinks this is a
interact with their world. Parks and
problem. People who are being affected
protected areas are no exception (Miller 1).
personally at this point just don’t know how
to get the word out, so they just lose hope
and don’t put a ton of effort out.
 employees who work there. So with the help
of the community we can solve this issue.

Even with all the social media use, people

are still clueless when it comes to the care
these parks need. That may partially be
because they don’t want to or they just
choose not to take care of the environment.
visitor knowledge of the significance and
values of the ecosystem is limited (Holland
1). So if we do better at getting the message
out to people showing them the destruction
of these parks showing them how to
preserve them better it will increase the
amount of jobs, activities, and overall
enjoyment of these parks.

In conclusion to fix an issue like this we

need to rely on people to see a problem and
make it aware to everyone. If others are
actively looking and wanting to make these
places better the overall experience will be
more enjoyable for the visitors and the