Are Americans Afraid of the Outdoors?

jowey · 02-06-2008, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Americans have been visiting national parks and other natural reserves less and less since 1987, new research confirms. Outdoor pursuits, ranging from camping to hunting, have entered a persistent and growing decline.

"Folks are going out into nature much less and decreasingly every year," says conservation ecologist Patricia Zaradic of the Environmental Leadership Program and co-author of the report published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. "It would take 80 million more visits this year to get the per capita number back up to the level it was in 1987."

Zaradic and her colleague conservation biologist Oliver Pergams of the University of Illinois at Chicago analyzed trends in visits to national parks and forests, state parks, surveys on camping and the number of licenses for activities such as hunting or fishing. All peaked between 1981 and 1991 after 50 years of steady increase and have been declining at roughly 1 percent per year since for an overall drop of as much as 25 percent.

Are Americans Afraid of the Outdoors?

Thought that this was interesting.....

Parks used to be the place to go when I did not have money. I stopped going when the fees went over $3 a person - ages ago.

The_Heretic · 02-06-2008, 10:45 PM

Shit! I'd love to go to Yellowstone if they're right about it being less busy.

jowey · 02-07-2008, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Heretic

Shit! I'd love to go to Yellowstone if they're right about it being less busy.

Would be nice to visit the Super Volcano Yellowstone even if it is coming up on its 650,000 year eruption.

The_Heretic · 02-07-2008, 07:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jowey

Would be nice to visit the Super Volcano Yellowstone even if it is coming up on its 650,000 year eruption.

Best place to be if you want to avoid the global aftermath.

K2Flex · 02-07-2008, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jowey

Thought that this was interesting.....

Parks used to be the place to go when I did not have money. I stopped going when the fees went over $3 a person - ages ago.

I snipped this quote from the article:

"The conservationists believe that the electronic world has supplanted the natural world as the leading diversion. Their statistical analysis shows that the increase in video games, movie rentals and other electronic entertainment most closely matches the decrease in camping and park visits, as opposed to income, vacation time, park overcrowding, foreign travel or other potential causes."

Bingo. This is one of the reasons. Too much technology at the front. There are people that can't be without home luxuries, like showers, tv, electricity, microwaves and computers.

Its really a shame. Many people don't realize how much they are missing. I personally enjoy camping like it was 1700. No power, no luxuries, go fish or hunt for food (thank goodness for MRE's, hunting and fishing are not always successful), candlelight or oil lamp. Jump in the lake or river to wash up. Grab a map and compass and go for a hike. The only modern things I use is my sleeping bag, tent, emergency weather radio, and I turn my cellphone off. (only use it in dire situations) Finding wood for fire and to make a chair or something useful. Its a trip to feel all the hardships that people used to go through back in the days. I think it can make a person more resourceful this way. It also makes me appreciate the luxuries we have today.

jowey · 02-08-2008, 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Heretic

Best place to be if you want to avoid the global aftermath.

But the challenge of the chaos in the global aftermath.... Dislike this age thing though so maybe Yellowstone would be a good place.

jowey · 02-08-2008, 12:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by K2Flex

I snipped this quote from the article:

"The conservationists believe that the electronic world has supplanted the natural world as the leading diversion. Their statistical analysis shows that the increase in video games, movie rentals and other electronic entertainment most closely matches the decrease in camping and park visits, as opposed to income, vacation time, park overcrowding, foreign travel or other potential causes."

Bingo. This is one of the reasons. Too much technology at the front. There are people that can't be without home luxuries, like showers, tv, electricity, microwaves and computers.

Its really a shame. Many people don't realize how much they are missing. I personally enjoy camping like it was 1700. No power, no luxuries, go fish or hunt for food (thank goodness for MRE's, hunting and fishing are not always successful), candlelight or oil lamp. Jump in the lake or river to wash up. Grab a map and compass and go for a hike. The only modern things I use is my sleeping bag, tent, emergency weather radio, and I turn my cellphone off. (only use it in dire situations) Finding wood for fire and to make a chair or something useful. Its a trip to feel all the hardships that people used to go through back in the days. I think it can make a person more resourceful this way. It also makes me appreciate the luxuries we have today.

You can build open fires, didnt know parks allow that anymore. Flip side is that I really do not blame the parks either having found fire pits with litter and broken bottles around them.

Loved to back pack till my favorite site started looking like a zoo - humans. Used to take my sabbatical to a small falls several miles off a road on the Appalachian trail, first couple of years I was by myself it was great, then one other camp site then many....

.....right on about the electronic diversions, but then human society is not what it used to be either. This is identified by driving habits, every day I am nearly hit by cars "working the road" driving in my lane and they get upset when one beeps at them. This behavior makes one not want to go out risk thousands of dollars of equipment, ones life, hours on the road going ten or twenty miles to try to relax and have fun (counterproductive).

Then after arriving listening to others boom boxes and having ones tent pissed on - yeah pitched my tent in a remote place in a camp site and woke up listening to someone pee on it, guess they came in while I was asleep. That was a rafting trip, not quite backpacking.

Mark M. · 02-08-2008, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jowey

You can build open fires, didnt know parks allow that anymore. Flip side is that I really do not blame the parks either having found fire pits with litter and broken bottles around them.

Loved to back pack till my favorite site started looking like a zoo - humans. Used to take my sabbatical to a small falls several miles off a road on the Appalachian trail, first couple of years I was by myself it was great, then one other camp site then many....

.....right on about the electronic diversions, but then human society is not what it used to be either. This is identified by driving habits, every day I am nearly hit by cars "working the road" driving in my lane and they get upset when one beeps at them. This behavior makes one not want to go out risk thousands of dollars of equipment, ones life, hours on the road going ten or twenty miles to try to relax and have fun (counterproductive).

Then after arriving listening to others boom boxes and having ones tent pissed on - yeah pitched my tent in a remote place in a camp site and woke up listening to someone pee on it, guess they came in while I was asleep. That was a rafting trip, not quite backpacking.

While it is a shame that people are not going to the parks like they used to....it means more space for us.

I would love to go back and live in Yosemite Vally again. It was the best time of my life.

02-06-2008, 10:45 PM	#2 (permalink)
The_Heretic Master of Quill-Fu Space Invaders Champion! Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Taylorsville, UT [stuck in the 20th century]. Posts: 6,174 Blog Entries: 4 Thanks: 28 Thanked 86 Times in 61 Posts	Shit! I'd love to go to Yellowstone if they're right about it being less busy. __________________ John McCain: "He's in Iraq... with a few centuries to kill." *You won't fight for the Bill of Right? Fine! I won't fight for you in the ballot box!*
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