How to Visit National Parks Responsibly

Wildfire on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon has reduced an iconic lodge to embers and created an apocalyptic haze while a Cybertruck belonging to a missing hiker sits abandoned. Search-and-rescue efforts have likely been stymied by severe staff shortages that also hinder wildfire relief on the North Rim. The National Park Service was established in 1916 to protect, preserve, and celebrate America’s parks. Recent actions include mass firings of park rangers and the removal of transgender recognition at Stonewall National Monument despite transgender activists' pivotal roles. Funding from the Great American Outdoors Act could lapse and staffing has fallen 24%, affecting maintenance, visitor services, and rescue operations.

The perfect metaphor for the state of America sits parked on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. As a wildfire rages on the other side of the Colorado River, reducing an iconic lodge to embers and casting an apocalyptic haze over the third-most-visited national park in the United States, a Cybertruck sits abandoned. It belongs to a missing hiker, whose search-and-rescue efforts have likely been stymied by the same severe staff shortages that have hindered wildfire relief on the canyon's more remote North Rim.

Since its inception in 1916, The National Park Service exists to protect, preserve and celebrate "America's Best Idea," uniting us around something all Americans can champion. That rose-colored vision of unity has borne the brunt of the political wrecking ball of late, from unceremonious mass firings of park rangers to the erasure of transgender people from Stonewall National Monument, which is particularly egregious considering the pivotal role that transgender activists, like Marsha P. Johnson, had on the Stonewall uprising.

When President Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act into law in 2020, it marked the largest national parks investment in more than half a century, funding hundreds of repair and infrastructure projects across the country. Pending an extension via the bi-partisan America the Beautiful Act, that funding could dry up this year. At the same time, the National Park Service has seen a 24% reduction in staff since January, impacting everything from janitorial efforts and visitor center hours to search-and-rescue.

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