Misbehavior abounds at national parks
As the nation’s parks agency turns 100, incidents of visitor misbehavior, such as getting too close to wildlife, are on the upswing.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — Tourist John Gleason crept through the grass, four small children close behind, inching toward a bull elk at the edge of a meadow.
“They’re going to give me a heart attack,” said Gleason’s mother-in-law, Barbara Henry, as the group came within a dozen yards of the animal.
The elk’s ears pricked up, and it eyed Gleason and the kids before leaping up a hillside. Other tourists — also ignoring rules to keep 25 yards from wildlife — picked up the pursuit, snapping pictures as they pressed forward and forced the animal into retreat.
Record visitor numbers at the nation’s first national park have transformed its annual summer rush into a sometimes dangerous frenzy, with selfie-taking tourists routinely breaking park rules and getting too close to Yellowstone’s storied elk herds, grizzly bears, wolves and bison.
Law enforcement records suggest such problems are on the rise at the park, offering a stark illustration of the pressures facing some of America’s most treasured lands as the National Park Service marks its 100th anniversary.
From Tennessee’s Great Smoky Mountains to the Grand Canyon of Arizona, major parks are grappling with illegal camping, vandalism, theft of resources, wildlife harassment and other visitor misbehavior.
In Yellowstone, rangers are recording more wildlife violations, more people treading on sensitive thermal areas and more camping in off-limit areas. The rule-breaking puts visitors in harm’s way and can damage resources.
Often the incidents go unaddressed, such as when Gleason and the children approached the bull elk with no park personnel around. Gleason said he was “maybe” too close but felt comfortable as an experienced hunter who’s spent lots of time outdoors.
Recent events at Yellowstone grabbed headlines:
• A Canadian tourist put a bison calf in his SUV, ending with wildlife workers euthanizing the animal when they could not reunite it with its herd.
• Three visitors from Asia were cited on separate occasions for illegally collecting water from the park’s thermal features.
• A man was killed after leaving a designated boardwalk and falling into a hot spring.
The flouting of park rules stems from disbelief among visitors that they will get hurt, said Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk.
“I can’t tell you how many times I have to talk to people and say, ‘Step back. There’s a dangerous animal,’ and they look at me like I have three heads.”
Washington state resident Lisa Morrow’s son was among the children Gleason led toward the elk. Despite safety advisories — and numerous examples of visitors getting gored by bison, mauled by bears and chased by elk — Morrow declared herself unafraid of the park’s wildlife. She said she was eager to see a grizzly up close.
“I want to see one right there,” Morrow said, pointing to a spot just feet away. “I’d throw it a cookie.”
Wenk said the rise in social media complicates keeping visitors safe.
“You take a picture of yourself standing 10 feet in front of a bison, and all of a sudden a few hundred people see it, and it’s reposted — at the same time we’re telling everybody wildlife is dangerous,” he said. “They get incongruous messages and then it happens. They get too close, and the bison charges.”