National Parks and the Recreation Resource
![handle is hein.journals/denlr74 and id is 865 raw text is: NATIONAL PARKS AND THE RECREATION RESOURCE
JAN G. LArros*
National Parks are a favorite destination of American tourists and interna-
tional visitors. The popularity of the National Parks of America is an out-
growth of the rising popularity of recreation in general, and outdoor recreation
in particular. Recreation is a significant industry in the United States,' and the
National Parks have reflected America's interest in outdoor recreation by re-
cording a steady increase in recreational visits over the past few decades
National Parks are also a category of land within the public lands owned by
the United States, which themselves have become areas where recreation is the
most popular, and dominant, federal land use.
This recreational pressure on National Parks has important implications
for the long-term management of park resources. If the recreation resource is
dominant within National Parks, then the competing use for these lands-pres-
ervation-is jeopardized. If human recreation is overwhelming the Parks'
infrastructure, then the case for biocentric ecosystem management within the
National Parks is weakened.' If the United States Congress provides neither a
fee structure nor an annual appropriation amount that keeps up with recre-
ational demands for National Parks, then the very viability of these parklands
is threatened. This essay examines how recreation has grown as a use of lei-
sure time, how the public lands (and National Parks) have increasingly become
the prime destination of those wishing to enjoy an outdoor experience, and
how the resulting dominant recreation resource will shape fundamental man-
agement policies for national parklands.
* John A. Carver, Jr. Professor of Law, University of Denver College of Law. B.A., Yale
University, 1968; J.D., University of Colorado, 1971; SJ.D., University of Wisconsin, 1975. The
author wishes to acknowledge the assistance provided by Kent Holsinger and Thomas Carr, stu-
dents at the Denver College of Law.
1. See generally ZBIGNIEW MIECzKOWsKI, 3 WORLD TRENDS IN TOuRIsM AND RECRE-
AnON 78-80 (Am. Univ. Studies Series XXV Geography, 1990); DOUGLAS M. KNUDSON, Our-
DOOR RECREATION 72 (1980) (discussing the increase internationally in expenditures for recre-
ation).
2. CHARLES I. ZINSER, OUTDOOR RECREATION: UNITED STATES NATIONAL PARKS, FOR-
ESTS, AND PUBLIC LANDS 89-90 (1995).
3. 3 GEORGE CAMERON COGGINS & ROBERT L. GUaCKSMAN, PUBLic NATURAL RESOURCES
LAW §17.01 (1996).
4. 16 U.S.C. § 1 (1994).
5. See generally WAYNE A. MORRISSEY ET AL., LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, CRS REPORT FOR
CONGRESS: ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT: FEDERAL AGENCY ACTIVITIES (1994) (discussing the
philosophy of the Park Service toward ecosystem management) [hereinafter MORRISSEY].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/denlr74&div=43&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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