Will America's National Parks Survive Trump?
Like a cinnamon river overflowing its banks, thousands of elk have been making their way across Jackson Hole, Wyo., to their summer range below the high, jagged peaks of Grand Teton National Park.
This is one of the world's most spectacular migrations, protected by the creation and expansion over the last half century of what is now a 485-square-mile park. As the weather has warmed, cars and vans carrying tourists from far and wide have been lining the roads, watching and photographing the elk and keeping an eye out for wolves, bears, moose, deer, bison and pronghorn antelope.
With more than 3.6 million visitors last year, Grand Teton is one of the most popular national parks. In 2023, the $738 million spent by these tourists in nearby hotels, restaurants and shops supported more than 9,300 regional jobs — not a bad return for a park that runs on a budget of about $15 million a year.
The pattern is similar across America. That same year, the most recent for which figures are available, the 325 million visitors to national parks, monuments and historic sites spent an estimated $26.4 billion in surrounding communities. Visits to the parks swelled last year to a record of nearly 332 million.
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