Near-record crowds in 2021 have heightened challenges for Rocky Mountain National Park rangers – Greeley Tribune

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As more people leave cities in search of outdoor recreation on public lands, rangers at Rocky Mountain National Park are preparing, months before the peak summer season, for an increase in visitor numbers. and associated constraints.

Rocky Mountain National Park attracted about 4.4 million people in 2021, up from 1.1 million after a COVID-19 crisis in 2020, and officials this week predicted a continued upward trajectory – in line with a decade up 50% to a record 4.6 million visitors in 2019.

A timed-entry online reservation system similar to those in place at urban art museums will operate here from May 27 in a bid to control crowds.

The growing number includes more and more people who miscalculate the conditions and their hiking abilities in the air, and park officials are also boosting search and rescue capabilities. Rangers said they were also preparing for more emergency medical calls as visitors suffered from heart attacks, strokes and altitude sickness. They are also tasked with law enforcement – ​​rangers carry guns – responding to vehicle collisions and trying to control speeding.

On top of all this, rangers and park workers are scrambling to manage more trash and trying to minimize degradation of delicate terrain such as wet grasslands and high-altitude tundra.

“We are responsible for making sure that we protect the park for the people, protect the people in the park from the people and protect the people in the park,” Chief Ranger Jay Shields said. “We will see an ever-changing and growing search and rescue load, running the gamut from twisted ankles to people taking fatal falls.”

Yet staff levels have declined, as in other national parks, while the challenges of coping with more people intensify.

For years, Rocky Mountain National Park — covering 415 square miles northwest of Denver with 60 peaks above 12,000 feet — has ranked among the top parks for search and rescue numbers. . These declined, according to park records, from 165 in 2017 to 120 last year, even as visits increased.

On average, five visitors die each year in Rocky Mountain National Park, mostly from falls but also from suicides.

The number of people flocking to national parks has increased across the country amid a boom in outdoor recreation, encouraged by state-backed tourism promotion and a recreational industry that harnesses pristine natural areas as engines of economic growth.

And at Rocky Mountain National Park, a steady increase of 4.1 million visitors in 2015 led to a record 4.6 million in 2019. In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced closures in cities , the park still had 3.3 million visitors.

It has become the third most visited of the 63 national parks in the United States that Congress created to preserve natural beauty, geological features, ecosystem diversity, and recreational opportunities. Overall, the country’s parks saw a 17% increase in visitation between 2010 and 2019.

Those encompassing rugged mountainous terrain faced some of the largest increases over this period, including Great Smoky Mountains National Park (33%), Zion National Park (68%), Grand Teton (28%) and the Great Sand Dunes National Park. (86%).

The National Park Service is implementing timed entry and other reservation systems this year at many parks, including Arches National Park, Glacier National Park, Acadia National Park, Monument Muir Woods National Park, Shenandoah National Park, Haleakala National Park and Zion National Park.

On the one hand, more people are leaving cities for outdoor recreation “it’s amazing, a wonderful thing,” Rocky Mountain National Park spokeswoman Kyle Patterson said. On the other hand, more people overall means more people underestimating terrain and rapidly changing weather conditions. “It can kill you if you’re not prepared.”

Crushing summer surges in recent years have forced more people to seek winter access. Thousands of people now enter the backcountry areas on winter weekends, hundreds with snowboards and skis.

To cope with more crowds, rangers who once focused more on managing elk, moose and bears have stepped up warnings, advising visitors to bring proper gear on hiking trails, adopt a cautious approach and to minimize their impact.

“We try to encourage people to make good decisions,” said Mike Lukens, supervisor of the park’s wilderness and climbing program. “We have growing winter populations and we are focusing on avalanche awareness.”

Outdoor recreation groups have pressured the National Park Service to deploy at least 1,000 more rangers, in part to monitor traffic and manage online reservation systems regulating access to campsites and park entrances.

“Record increases in visitation to National Parks continue to present already overstretched and underfunded National Park staff with enormous and often demoralizing challenges on a daily basis,” said Tracy Coppola, Denver-based program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, which advocates greater care if needed to reduce degradation.

President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill is expected to pump $1.7 billion into parks for road, bridge and other development. A government-proposed funding bill would add $2.9 million to National Park Service operations. Lawmakers should consider this measure before the spring.

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