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A comment on Fall of the wild: why pristine wilderness is a human-made myth. Parent comment

Re:Fall of the wild: why pristine wilderness is a human-made... by tastyfreeze on Friday September 13, 2024 @11:52AM (#41532362)
If you have been to any national parks recently I think you would understand the "recreation area" designation. The most accessible parks are now so crowded it no longer feels like a wilderness. Just streams of people trying to experience rare places. A place like Zion gets 9.5 million visitors a year.

Even "leave no trace" outdoor practices leave some trace. Multiply that by the number of visitors and the impact is obvious.

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Re:Fall of the wild: why pristine wilderness is a human-made... by linguistbreaker on Friday September 13, 2024 @01:00PM (#41533018)
Accessibility is probably far and away the strongest effect on human impact to areas rather than any legal designations.
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Re:Fall of the wild: why pristine wilderness is a human-made... by tastyfreeze on Friday September 13, 2024 @02:07PM (#41533606)
Which Park Services improves as traffic increases with the mission of reducing impact.
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Re:Fall of the wild: why pristine wilderness is a human-made... by dkarl on Friday September 13, 2024 @04:00PM (#41534595)
I was in Sequoia National Park last week. All parking was absolutely full, people were parking illegally all over the place, traffic was slowed to a crawl because people were walking on the park roads trying to get to where they wanted to go, and there was a 45 minute wait for park buses because of a traffic accident.

We need more places like that, especially since we're becoming more urbanized, and kids are growing up without access to less-developed areas. Granted, there are a lot of unique places like Sequoia and Zion that can't be replicated, but every landscape has its own charms.

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