Latest news with #nationalparks
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Aussie campsite 'more expensive than a three-bedroom house' as major change looms
An eye-opening example of the proposed new camping fees in NSW national parks shows how Aussie families will be expected to fork out almost $700 for a week-long camping trip during the school holidays. The shocking increase has experts fearing it will bring family traditions to an end, and rule out camping as the cheap holiday option that it once was. Adventurer and filmmaker Mike Atkinson, also known as Outback Mike, explained in a video to his followers that under the proposed changes, a campsite in high season would cost $679 per week. Comparatively, he found a three-bedroom house for rent just outside the national park that is listed at $600 a week. 'The main reason I was making that comparison is that someone is renting out this house and making a profit with all of the infrastructure and building that's gone into a house, and all National Parks has done is clear a patch of ground and put some dunnies and some facilities nearby,' Mike told Yahoo News. He also counted 89 campsites on the map, and concluded that a fully booked campsite would create more than $55,000 in revenue in just one week. Mike believes if the changes go through, there's no going back. 'It's never going to get cheaper after this,' he said. 'It'll block a whole bunch of people out that just will never be able to afford it. And it will also just discourage young people. Basically anyone who's not middle class with spare cash will really struggle to camp, so it'll just be a trend that less people camp, and it's for rich people or middle class. It'd be devastating, really, for a lot of people. 'It'll affect your kids your grandkids and everything. So it's really important.' The proposal will categorise all campsites into six tiers based on the facilities available, with each tier being more expensive. A simple clearing with no facilities will remain free, while campgrounds from tier 2 to tier 5 (which make up 85 per cent of sites) will range from $22 per night in high season for the most basic campground to $65 for sites that have water and access to a flushable toilet. The top campsites, tier 6, which have hot showers and BBQ facilities, will cost $89 per night. Campsite charges would also be linked to the consumer price index, meaning they'll increase annually. Seasonal pricing will also apply, with higher rates during peak periods and cheaper fees in the off-season. It would mark the first major fee update since 2017. Last week, the chance for residents to have their say about the controversial changes came to an end, with more than 23,000 submissions made. While it has caught the attention of politicians, Mike feels like it's still not enough and has now launched a new ePetition that residents of NSW can sign to keep momentum going. In the petition, Mike is pushing to keep camping affordable for all Australians and calls for three key changes: The NSW Government should fund national parks adequately instead of relying on camper fees Booking systems for campgrounds that did not have one prior to Covid should be removed An increase in the number of campsites commensurate with park visitation Once an ePetition has more than 20,000 signatures, it must be mentioned in Parliament. Mike is hoping for as many as possible, and said he would be thrilled to see 100,000 signatures. The motion is being backed by Nationals MP Scott Barrett, who said it is essential that national parks are 'accessible to as many people as possible'. 'They're everyone's assets, not just the top echelon,' he told Yahoo News. 'Everyone should be able to get into a national park, stay there the night, light a fire, roll out a swag and enjoy some of the best country that this state has to offer.' Mr Barrett recently spent six months with his family travelling around Australia with camper trailer where he stayed in national parks, and says this fight 'is personal'. 'We should be encouraging people to get out into these areas, not making it out of reach of a lot of people,' he said. If you're a NSW resident who is interested in signing the petition, you can find it here. It will remain open until August 21, 2025. Last week, NPWS assured Yahoo News "all feedback will be carefully considered" now the feedback window has closed, and "consistency and equity" for campers remains at the forefront of what authorities are trying to achieve. "No decisions have been made on the proposal," the NPWS spokesperson said. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
Forbes
a day ago
- Business
- Forbes
National Parks Battle For Bragging Rights
The National Park Service provides the most authoritative rankings through raw visitation data it collects across its more than 400 sites, including 63 national parks. (Photo credit BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) The U.S. National Park Service has been in the crosshairs due to President Donald Trump's budget proposal to cut more than $1.2 billion from the agency, along with the firing of 1,000 Park Service employees. Following the backlash, the administration announced an increase in the number of seasonal workers. But can those temporary workers handle the attention kicked up by competition between the parks? Ranking America's national parks has become something of a cottage industry. Travel websites, magazines and organizations have taken to publishing lists ranking parks from best to worst, and touting niche aspects. Winter at El Capitan in California's Yosemite National Park. (Photo) The National Park Service provides the most authoritative rankings through raw visitation data it collects from more than 400 sites, including 63 national parks. What's the most visited park? That continues to be the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It had 12,191,834 visits in 2024. Next is Zion National Park with 4,946,592 visits and Grand Canyon National Park with 4,919,163 visits. The top ten list also includes Yellowstone (4,744,353), Rocky Mountain National Park (4,154,349), Yosemite (4,121,807), Acadia (3,961,661), Olympic (3,717,267), Grand Teton (3,628,222) and Glacier National Park (3,208,755). Travel publications create their own rankings by factoring in criteria that appeal to visitors. Those rankings include such considerations as accessibility, natural beauty, scenic diversity, hiking opportunities, the best wildlife viewing (and what kind of wildlife) and an overall range of activities offered. Social media has largely fueled the ranking trend. Parks that are 'Instagrammable' often get inordinate attention because of their striking beauty alone, when other variables can figure into what can make a national park desirable. Backpacker hiking across a river in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Numerous travel blogs rank national parks. The blog, 'Trip Of A Lifestyle' figured in three factors: 'Wow Factor,' 'Fun Factor' and 'Crowd Factor.' Lauren and Steven Keys visited and photographed all the national parks before ranking them. After 'months of nonstop travel and dozens of hours of debate,' according to their blog, they came up with a definitive personal list. The Keys concluded that seven national parks tie for first place: Death Valley (the hottest place on Earth, but otherworldly in feel), Yosemite, Hawai'i Volcanoes, Yellowstone, American Samoa (one drawback mentioned: 'there are feral dogs everywhere on the island'), Carlsbad Caverns (noted for its massive underground caves and magnificent formations) and Canyonlands, which the couple term, 'one of the best-kept secrets of the National Park system.' Travel blogger Lee Abbamonte has ranked all 63 of the parks based on his tastes and experience. Yosemite tops his list. 'Yosemite is big, it has iconic hikes like Half Dome, and it has amazing waterfalls, trees and vistas,' writes Abbamonte on his blog. 'Tunnel View at sunset is the single most beautiful view in America when Half Dome turns orange at the top.' Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, with its thermal springs, hiking trails and nine historical bathhouses, was at the bottom of Abbamonte's list. He found the park 'really boring, uninteresting and I don't understand why it's a national park in the first place.' The Quapaw Baths on Bathhouse Row in Hot Springs National Park, in Hot Springs, Ark. (AP Photo/Beth Harpaz) What's the least-visited national park? Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve recorded only 11,907 visits in 2024, no doubt partly because of its remote north Alaska location. Such remote parks, however, are ranked higher by wilderness groups, which value their unspoiled nature, no matter how hard it might be to actually reach them. Forbes has ranked national parks based on crowd size, an increasingly crucial factor given rising popularity. Writer Joe Yogerst compiled ten parks that aren't crushed by urban throngs: Black Canyon of the Gunnison (Colorado), Channel Islands (California), Congaree (South Carolina), Dry Tortugas (Florida), Great Basin (Nevada), Guadalupe Mountains (Texas), Isle Royale (Michigan), Lassen Volcanic (California), North Cascades (Washington State) and Voyageurs (Minnesota). A female leopard relaxes in the branches of a dead tree in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. (Photo by) The race to be the best has recently gone global. In March, the non-profit National Parks Association launched its 'World's Best National Parks,' a year-long campaign that allows the public to vote on favorites. Campaign dates are March 18, 2025, through June 11, 2028. Website visitors can vote for one park per country per day. There are three phases to the campaign: Yosemite National Park currently leads the race, followed by Mkomazi National Park in northeastern Tanzania and Kruger National Park in northeastern South Africa.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Yahoo
Viral, raunchy ‘ParkTok' trend aims to raise awareness of spending cuts to national parks
The 10-second video begins with a close-up on the abs of a sweaty, shirtless man wearing low-slung, gray sweatpants. But three seconds in, it cuts to a panoramic video of Havasu Falls in Arizona, with its striking turquoise water cascading down from red rocks. Welcome to ParkTok. The video — from an unofficial account posting about Grand Canyon National Park and other nature sites in Arizona — is emblematic of a trend that's gone viral on TikTok in recent weeks that pairs sexually suggestive clips or music with scenic images and footage of America's natural wonders. Unofficial accounts representing state and national parks, mountains and rivers have participated in the trend, sometimes trading playful barbs about which has the 'biggest trees' or 'longest lakes.' The videos are funny and moderately unhinged in the way TikTok trends often are, but they have a serious aim: to raise awareness about threats to US public lands amid the Trump administration's efforts to gut national parks staffing and designate more of America's wild lands for drilling, mining and logging. Many of the videos encourage viewers to donate to organizations such as the National Park Foundation or to call their local representatives to advocate for protecting public lands, part of a long tradition of using social media to organize social and political movements. 'This does go way beyond the thirst traps,' Kim Tanner, who runs the unofficial Joshua Tree account @joshuatreenp with more than 250,000 followers, told CNN. 'It's a way to pull people in, it's a way to hook them, and it works. But at the same time, you're showing them that beautiful imagery (of the parks) and hopefully, even if subliminally, you're educating them.' ParkTok emerged last fall, long before their videos started with sexy teasers and ahead of President Donald Trump's second term. At the time, many of the account holders just wanted to promote the beauty of their local parks, like Phoebe, a nature enthusiast who started the unofficial Multnomah Falls account @multnomah_falls to share her love of Oregon's Columbia River Gorge. Phoebe asked CNN not to use her last name to avoid being identified by her employer. Then in February, the Trump administration fired thousands of National Park Service and Department of Interior workers as part of widespread government workforce reductions, prompting national parks and monuments to announce closures, pause reservations and limit hours. In his first three months in office, Trump also signed orders to increase mining and oil and gas drilling in Alaska, expand logging in federally protected national forests and roll back rules that pushed car makers toward cleaner forms of energy — all of which have drawn concern from environmental groups. As the potential impact of Trump's environmental policies started to sink in, several ParkTok accounts joined a group chat on TikTok. 'We started thinking we could probably do some good with this instead of just sharing our hiking videos,' Phoebe said. The group decided to start 'doing coordinated, themed posts, in between our silly posts and our nature posts, about the threats of logging and the threats of our public lands being sold and all of these things that have been introduced by the federal government,' she said. The National Park Service and the National Park Foundation did not respond to requests for comment. Some ParkTok videos have racked up hundreds of thousands of views, including one Phoebe posted earlier this month showing videos of Multnomah Falls set to the explicit song 'Fat Juicy & Wet.' They're not all sexually suggestive. One video, posted by an unofficial Bryce Canyon National Park account, shows a scenic image of nature with a voiceover saying, 'show me the reason you have no money,' and then it cuts to an image of the White House. It's been viewed more than 1 million times. Canadian parks such as Banff National Park have also gotten in on the action to advocate for their American neighbors. Both Tanner and Phoebe said their ParkTok accounts are just hobbies aimed at raising awareness for places they love. They both have full-time jobs and aren't making money from the accounts, although they said they would donate any future earnings from TikTok's creator fund to the causes they're promoting. And Tanner said she thinks ParkTok can help bridge the divide between people from different political parties because 'one thing that does bring a lot of people together is the national parks and national forests.' 'If you see these beautiful images and these beautiful photos,' she said, 'you start to fall in love with these places, you start to get attached to them, then your natural instinct is going to be to want to protect it.'
CNN
2 days ago
- Lifestyle
- CNN
Viral, raunchy ‘ParkTok' trend aims to raise awareness of spending cuts to national parks
The 10-second video begins with a close-up on the abs of a sweaty, shirtless man wearing low-slung, gray sweatpants. But three seconds in, it cuts to a panoramic video of Havasu Falls in Arizona, with its striking turquoise water cascading down from red rocks. Welcome to ParkTok. The video — from an unofficial account posting about Grand Canyon National Park and other nature sites in Arizona — is emblematic of a trend that's gone viral on TikTok in recent weeks that pairs sexually suggestive clips or music with scenic images and footage of America's natural wonders. Unofficial accounts representing state and national parks, mountains and rivers have participated in the trend, sometimes trading playful barbs about which has the 'biggest trees' or 'longest lakes.' The videos are funny and moderately unhinged in the way TikTok trends often are, but they have a serious aim: to raise awareness about threats to US public lands amid the Trump administration's efforts to gut national parks staffing and designate more of America's wild lands for drilling, mining and logging. Many of the videos encourage viewers to donate to organizations such as the National Park Foundation or to call their local representatives to advocate for protecting public lands, part of a long tradition of using social media to organize social and political movements. 'This does go way beyond the thirst traps,' Kim Tanner, who runs the unofficial Joshua Tree account @joshuatreenp with more than 250,000 followers, told CNN. 'It's a way to pull people in, it's a way to hook them, and it works. But at the same time, you're showing them that beautiful imagery (of the parks) and hopefully, even if subliminally, you're educating them.' ParkTok emerged last fall, long before their videos started with sexy teasers and ahead of President Donald Trump's second term. At the time, many of the account holders just wanted to promote the beauty of their local parks, like Phoebe, a nature enthusiast who started the unofficial Multnomah Falls account @multnomah_falls to share her love of Oregon's Columbia River Gorge. Phoebe asked CNN not to use her last name to avoid being identified by her employer. Then in February, the Trump administration fired thousands of National Park Service and Department of Interior workers as part of widespread government workforce reductions, prompting national parks and monuments to announce closures, pause reservations and limit hours. In his first three months in office, Trump also signed orders to increase mining and oil and gas drilling in Alaska, expand logging in federally protected national forests and roll back rules that pushed car makers toward cleaner forms of energy — all of which have drawn concern from environmental groups. As the potential impact of Trump's environmental policies started to sink in, several ParkTok accounts joined a group chat on TikTok. 'We started thinking we could probably do some good with this instead of just sharing our hiking videos,' Phoebe said. The group decided to start 'doing coordinated, themed posts, in between our silly posts and our nature posts, about the threats of logging and the threats of our public lands being sold and all of these things that have been introduced by the federal government,' she said. The National Park Service and the National Park Foundation did not respond to requests for comment. Some ParkTok videos have racked up hundreds of thousands of views, including one Phoebe posted earlier this month showing videos of Multnomah Falls set to the explicit song 'Fat Juicy & Wet.' They're not all sexually suggestive. One video, posted by an unofficial Bryce Canyon National Park account, shows a scenic image of nature with a voiceover saying, 'show me the reason you have no money,' and then it cuts to an image of the White House. It's been viewed more than 1 million times. Canadian parks such as Banff National Park have also gotten in on the action to advocate for their American neighbors. Both Tanner and Phoebe said their ParkTok accounts are just hobbies aimed at raising awareness for places they love. They both have full-time jobs and aren't making money from the accounts, although they said they would donate any future earnings from TikTok's creator fund to the causes they're promoting. And Tanner said she thinks ParkTok can help bridge the divide between people from different political parties because 'one thing that does bring a lot of people together is the national parks and national forests.' 'If you see these beautiful images and these beautiful photos,' she said, 'you start to fall in love with these places, you start to get attached to them, then your natural instinct is going to be to want to protect it.'
New York Times
3 days ago
- Health
- New York Times
How to Stay Safe While Enjoying the Backcountry This Summer
The outdoor boom that began during the pandemic has had staying power. Since 2020, the number of people visiting state and national parks has soared. Unfortunately, so too have the number of search-and-rescue efforts, as many people enter the backcountry woefully unprepared. With funding cuts at the national park and forest levels — and with volunteer response teams stretched thin — now is a good time to learn how to recreate safely in the wild. 'A lot of the call types we've had are people getting stuck in technical terrain that exceeds their ability,' said Chris Carr, a paramedic in Colorado, referring to environments that demand agility and skill to traverse. Gear that is more accessible to novices, social media posts from beautiful locales and a false sense of security carrying a cellphone creates may all be playing a role here. If you're planning a trip into the wilderness, here are some steps that can help you avoid becoming a statistic this summer. Before you leave home, get out your guidebooks, look at official websites and learn about any trails, mountains or terrain you plan to explore. Keep in mind that the terrain you're used to at home might be different from what you encounter on a new trail; the drier, dustier surfaces of the West are a different experience than the rocks, roots and mud you'll frequently encounter in the East. 'Wilderness areas can be vast and can get remote quickly. Start small and don't take on big chunks right out of the gate,' said Corenne Black, a forest ranger with the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. In some areas, like New York's Adirondack Park, where Ms. Black works, it can be easy to make a wrong turn or get off trail if you're not paying close attention. While apps like 'All Trails' can be helpful, you shouldn't always depend on your electronics, either. Learning to use an old-fashioned map and compass — and bringing them with you — can mean the difference between a planned day hike and spending the night in the wilderness. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
