Does the National Park Service Need a Quota System for Peak Seasons?
Editor’s note: Visit Yellowstone, Yosemite, or the Grand Canyon, just to name three parks, during the summer high season and you most decidedly won’t be alone. Indeed, if you didn’t start planning your trip months earlier, you probably won’t find a vacant room in the parks. Is this is a problem that the National Park Service needs to address? Is it time to institute a “white market” for park access? Professor Bob Janiskee takes a look at such a proposal. It’s conceivable that the National Park Service might eventually have to take drastic measures to reduce peak-season crowding in our most popular national parks. Overcrowding and overuse lead to congested roads and trails, excessive air pollution, accelerated erosion, and many other problems that reduce recreational pleasure and damage park resources. Anyone who visits Grand Canyon, Yosemite, or Yellowstone during the peak season knows that crowding can make a park visit stressful and inconvenient. The Park Service is already using a v
