A Case Study of Millennials’ Attitudes Toward U.S. National Parks
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18666/JOREL-2023-11504Keywords:
National Parks, Millennials, changing demographicsAbstract
Visitation to some of the most popular national parks in the United States has surged in recent years, but in many national park units, attendance has declined even as the U.S. population increases. Changing demographics, patterns of visitation, maintenance needs, and inconsistent federal support raise questions about national parks’ relevance to younger generations. In particular, the attitudes of the U.S. Millennial generation are a key concern for park managers and supporters. We evaluate the views of a sample of Millennials toward America’s national parks and find that many lack basic knowledge about national parks, yet still say they value and appreciate the national park system. Land managers should respond to knowledge gaps of Millennials and pursue outreach that strategically consolidates the support of this and younger generations for a national parks system that is expected to provide ecological and cultural benefits for current and future generations.
References
American Lands Council Foundation. ‘Get The Facts—Info Booklet’ AmericanLandCouncil.org. Accessed December 19, 2016. http://www.americanlandscouncil.org/get_the_facts.
Anderson, Kristin H., and Wayne A. Freimund. 2004. ‘Multiple Dimensions of Active Opposition to the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program.’ Journal of Park and Recreation Administration 22 (2): 44-64.
Carr, Deborah S., and Daniel R. Williams. 1993. ‘Understanding the Role of Ethnicity in Outdoor Recreation Experiences.’ Journal of Leisure Research 25 (1): 22-38.
Congressional Research Service. Https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42757.pdf. Federation of American Scientists. August 2, 2016. Accessed February 8, 2017. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42757.pdf.
Council of State Governments West ‘Some States Take action to Keep National Parks Open.’ CSG West. Accessed December 19, 2016. http://www.csgwest.org/policy/Sequester-Parks.aspx.
Davis, Wynne. ‘It's Not Just The Park Service: 'Rogue' Federal Twitter Accounts Multiply.’ NPR. January 27, 2017. Accessed March 5, 2017. http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/01/27/512007632/its-not-just-the-park-service-rogue-federal-twitter-accounts-multiply.
DeChane, Darrin J. 2014. How to Explain the Millennial Generation? Understand the Context. Inquiries Journal/Student Pulse 6 (03), http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=878.
Doyle, James. 2017. Chief, Intermountain Region Communications and Legislation, National Park Service, personal communication via email (January 30).
Erickson, Beth, Corey W. Johnson, and B. Dana Kivel. 2009. ‘Rocky Mountain National Park: History and Culture as Factors in African-American Park Visitation.’ Journal of Leisure Research 41 (4): 529-545.
Find Your Park. Accessed February 4, 2017. http://findyourpark.com/partners.
Floyd, Myron F. 2001. ‘Managing national parks in a multicultural society: Searching for common ground.’ George Wright Forum 18: 41-51.
Floyd, Myron F. 1999. ‘Race, ethnicity, and the National Park System.’ NPS Social Science Review 1 (2): 1-24.
French, Brett. ‘Estimates: State management of federal lands could cost Montana $500M.’ Missoulian. September 1, 2014. http://missoulian.com/news/local/estimates-state-management-of-federal-lands-could-cost-montana-m/article_c11ccc82-317a-11e4-9a19-001a4bcf887a.html.
Fretwell, Holly, and Shawn Regan. ‘Divided Lands State Vs. Federal Management In The West.’ The Property and Environment Research Center. March 2015. Accessed January 24, 2017. http://www.perc.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/150303_PERC_DividedLands.pdf.
Fry, Richard. ‘Fact Tank - Our Lives in Numbers April 25, 2016 Millennials Overtake Baby Boomers as America’s Largest Generation.’ Pew Research Center. April 25, 2016. Accessed May 31, 2016. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/25/Millennials-overtake-baby-boomers.
Grand Canyon News. ‘Trans-canyon pipeline breaks, forcing water conservation measures at Grand Canyon.’ Grand Canyon News. June 22, 2016. Accessed February 8, 2017. http://www.grandcanyonnews.com/news/2016/jun/22/trans-canyon-pipeline-breaks-forcing-water-conser/.
Haefele, Michelle, John Loomis, and Linda J. Bilmes. ‘Total Economic Valuation of the National Park Service Lands and Programs: Results of a Survey of The American Public.’ HKS Faculty Research Working Paper Series RWP16-024, June 2016
Hancock, Laura. ‘Mead: Wyoming doesn’t have law, money to handle public land transfer.’ Wyoming News. December 12, 2016. Accessed January 5, 2017. http://www.wyomingnews.com/news/mead-wyoming-doesn-t-have-law-money-to-handle-public/article_0590cd9a-c040-11e6-82ff-4b63a7e34068.html.
Hay, Iain. Qualitative Research Methods in Human Geography. Third ed. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Herkenhoff, Linda., and John Fogli. Applied Statistics for Business and Management Using Microsoft Excel. New York, NY: Springer, 2013.
Holcomb, Zealure C. Fundamentals of Descriptive Statistics. Los Angeles, CA: Pyrczak Pub., 1998.
Hughes, Matthew. 2019. ‘Study Shows We're Spending an Insane Amount of Time Online,’ accessed May 29, 2020 at: https://thenextweb.com/tech/2019/01/31/study-shows-were-spending-an-insane-amount-of-time-online/.
Johnson, Benjamin Heber. 2017. Escaping the Dark, Gray City: Fear and Hope in Progressive-Era Conservation. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Karni, Annie. 2020. ‘Trump Signs Landmark Land Conservation Bill,’ New York Times, (August 4). Accessed November 10, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/us/politics/trump-land-conservation-bill.html.
Kitchin, Rob, and Nicholas J. Tate. Conducting Research in Human Geography: Theory, Methodology and Practice. London: Routledge, 2013.
Kokalitcheva, Kia. ‘These 8 Employers Will Pay You to Volunteer.’ Fortune. March 21, 2016. Accessed March 7, 2017. http://fortune.com/2016/03/21/companies-that-offer-paid-time-off-to-volunteer/.
Kousser, J. Morgan. ‘Jim Crow Laws.’ Dictionary of American History 4 (2003): 479-480.
Krymkowski, Daniel H., Robert E. Manning, and William A. Valliere. 2014. ‘Race, ethnicity, and visitation to national parks in the United States: Tests of the marginality, discrimination, and subculture hypotheses with national-level survey data.’ Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism 7-8: 35-43.
Kutz, Jessica. 2020. ‘Where the Great American Outdoors Act Stands Now,’ High Country News (Nov 23). Accessed January 11, 2021. https://www.hcn.org/articles/south-public-lands-where-the-great-american-outdoors-act-stands-now.
Larmer, Paul. ‘Taking the park to the people.’ High Country News. April 5, 2013. Accessed December 19, 2016. http://www.hcn.org/articles/taking-the-park-to-the-people.
Larson, Lincoln R., Gary T. Green, and H. Ken Cordell. 2011. ‘Children's Time Outdoors: Results and Implications of the National Kids Survey.’ Journal of Park and Recreation Administration 29(2): 1-20.
Larson, Lincoln R., Rachel Szczytko, Edmond P. Bowers, Lauren E. Stephens, Kathryn T. Stevenson, and Myron F. Floyd. 2019. ‘Outdoor Time, Screen Time, and Connection to Nature: Troubling Trends Among Rural Youth?’ Environment and Behavior 51(8): 966-991.
Le, Lena. 2012. ‘Hispanic and White Visitors in U.S. National Parks: Meta-Analysis of Visitor Use Survey.’ Journal of Park and Recreation Adminstration 30 (4): 1-20.
Louv, Richard. 2008. Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin books.
Maberry, Jody. ‘Dealing With the Maintenance Backlog in Parks.’ Park Leaders. Podcast audio, November, 29th 2016. Accessed January 5, 2017. http://parkleaders.com/park-leaders-show/.
Martin, Derek C. 2004. ‘Apartheid in the Great Outdoors: American Advertising and the Reproduction of a Racialized Outdoor Leisure Identity.’ Journal of Leisure Research 36 (4): 513-535.
Meeker, Joseph W. 1973. ‘American Eye: Red, White, and Black In The National Parks.’ The North American Review 258 (3): 3.
Merica, Dan, and Dana Bash. ‘Trump admin tells National Park Service to halt tweets.’ CNN. January 23, 2017. Accessed February 13, 2017. http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/21/politics/trump-national-park-service-tweets/.
Morgan, David L. ‘Focus Groups.’ Annual Review of Sociology 22, no. 1 (1996): 129-52.
National Park Foundation. ‘FRIENDS OF THE NATIONAL PARKS 2012.’ National Park Foundation. 2012. Accessed February 24, 2017. http://104.236.106.172/sites/default/files/kcfinder/files/2012%20Friends%20of%20the%20Parks%20Report.pdf.
National Park Service (a). ‘Organic Act of 1916’. NPS.gov. No date. Accessed March 27, 2015. https://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/management/organic-act-of-1916.htm.
National Park Service (b). ‘Harpers Ferry Center.’ NPS.gov. No date. Accessed February 9, 2017. https://home.nps.gov/hfc/.
National Park Service (c). ‘NPS Stats: National Park Service Visitor Use Statistics,’ No date. Accessed December 17, 2020. https://irma.nps.gov/STATS/.
National Parks Second Century Commission. 2010. Advancing the national park idea. Accessed December 17, 2020. https://www.nps.gov/civic/resources/Commission_Report.pdf .
Ostergren, David, Frederic I. Solop, and Kristi K. Hagen. 2005. ‘National Park Service Fees: Value for the Money or a Barrier to Visitation?’ Journal of Park and Recreation Administration 23 (1): 18-36.
Parker, Kim and Ruth Igielnik. 2020. ‘On the Cusp of Adulthood and Facing an Uncertain Future: What We Know About Gen Z So Far,’ Pew Research Center, accessed December 2, 2020, https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/on-the-cusp-of-adulthood-and-facing-an-uncertain-future-what-we-know-about-gen-z-so-far/.
Passel, Jeffrey S. and D'Vera Cohn. 2008. ‘U.S. Population Projections: 2005-2050,’ Pew Research Center, Hispanic Trends. Accessed January 11, 2021. https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2008/02/11/us-population-projections-2005-2050/.
Pease, James L. ‘Parks and Under-served Audiences: An Annotated Literature Review.’ (2011).
PERC. ‘About Us.’ PERC. No date. Accessed January 28, 2017. http://www.perc.org/about-us.
Pergams, Oliver R.W., and A. Patricia Zaradic. 2006. ‘Is love of nature in the US becoming love of electronic media? 16-year downtrend in national park visits explained by watching movies, playing video games, internet use and oil prices.’ Journal of Environmental Management 80: 387-393.
Pergams, Oliver R.W., and Patricia Zaradic. 2008. ‘Evidence for a fundamental and pervasive shift away from nature-based recreation.’ Proceedings of the National Academy of the United States of America 105 (7): 2295-2300.
Peterson, Jodi. 2014. ‘Parks for All?’ High Country News (May 19).
Pew Research Center. February 24, 2010. ‘Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change.’ Pew Research Center. Accessed May 31, 2016. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2010/02/24/Millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change/.
Pew Research Center. April 28, 2020. ‘Millennials Overtake Baby Boomers as America's Largest Generation,’ Accessed November 17, 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/28/millennials-overtake-baby-boomers-as-americas-largest-generation/.
Poudyal, Neelam C., Bamadev Paudel, and Michael A. Tarrant. 2013. ‘A time series analysis of the impact of recession on national park visitation in the United States.’ Tourism Management 35: 181-189.
Rainer, Thom S., and Jess W. Rainer. The Millennials. Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2011.
Rein, Lisa. ‘Fees are going up at 130 national parks, many doubling, even tripling, for first time since 2006.’ The Washington Post. June 23, 2015. Accessed December 18, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2015/06/23/fees-are-going-up-at-130-national-parks-many-doubling-even-tripling-for-first-time-since-2006/?utm_term=.4a279cdb3794.
Repanshek, Kurt. 2007. https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2006/04/park-visitation-trends-there-problem [May 21, 2020].
Rideout, V. (2015). The common sense census: Media use by tweens and teens. San Francisco, CA: Common Sense Media. Retrieved from https://www.commonsen semedia.org/research/the-common-sense-census-media-use-by-tweens-and-teens.
Robbins, Jim. 2017. https://e360.yale.edu/features/greenlock-a-visitor-crush-is-overwhelming-americas-national-parks [May 21, 2020].
Schwartz, Zvi, and Li-Chun Lin. 2006. ‘The impact of fees on visitation of national parks.’ Tourism Management 27: 1386-1396.
Solop, F.I., K.K. Hagen and D. Ostergren. 2003. Racial and Ethnic Diversity of National Park System Visitors and Non-Visitors Technical Report. Comprehensive Survey of the American Public, The National Park Service.
Stepler, Renee and Mark Hugo Lopez. 2016. Pew Research Center, Hispanic Trends. http://www.pewhispanic.org/2016/09/08/4-ranking-the-latino-population-in-the-states/. Accessed July 4, 2018.
Stevens, Thomas H., Thomas A. More, and Marla Markowski-Lindsay. 2014. ‘Declining National Park Visitation.’ Journal of Leisure Research 46 (2): 153-164.
Taylor, Phil. ‘The Park Service’s befuddled funding.’ High Country News. August 8, 2016. Accessed January 24, 2017. http://www.hcn.org/issues/48.14/the-park-services-befuddled-funding.
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. ‘Locked Out.’ Sportsmen's Access. No date. Accessed January 24, 2017. http://sportsmensaccess.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Locked-Out-Report-Sportsmens-Access.pdf.
The Wilderness Society. ‘Idaho lands – and recreation access – lost to the HIGHEST BIDDER.’ The Wilderness Society. May 2016. Accessed January 24, 2017. http://wilderness.org/sites/default/files/Idaho%20lands%20-%20TWS%20Report%20(May%202016).pdf.
Tuttle, Brad. 2014. ‘Price Hikes Up to 150% Are Planned for Your Favorite National Parks.’ Money. October 21, 2014. Accessed March 27, 2015. http://time.com/money/3528704/national-parks-admission-price-yosemite/.
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. BLS.gov. No date. Accessed April 10, 2016. http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm.
United States Census Bureau. Census.gov. July 8, 2013. Accessed April 10, 2016. https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html.
United States Census Bureau. ‘Millennials Outnumber Baby Boomers and Are Far More Diverse, Census Bureau Reports.’ Census.gov. June 25, 2015. Accessed May 31, 2016. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/cb15-113.html.
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. ‘Facts & Figures’ UCCS.edu. 2016. Accessed November 05, 2016. http://www.uccs.edu/about/facts.html.
U.S. Travel Association. ‘Study: More Overseas Visitors Choosing U.S. National Parks.’ U.S. Travel Association. November 2, 2016. Accessed December 18, 2016. https://www.ustravel.org/press/study-more-overseas-visitors-choosing-us-national-parks.
Utah Government ‘Governor Strikes Deal to Re-open Utah's National Parks, Monuments.’ Utah.gov. October 10, 2013. Accessed December 19, 2016. http://www.utah.gov/governor/news_media/article.html?article=9401.
Vaughn, Porcia, and Cherie Turner. 2015. ‘Decoding via Coding: Analyzing Qualitative Text Data Through Thematic Coding and Survey Methodologies.’ Journal of Library Administration 56, no. 1: 41-51.
Warnick, Rodney B., Tom Stevens, Michael A. Schuett, Walt Kuentzel, and Thomas A. More. 2009. ‘Changes in national park visitation (2000-2008) and interest in outdoor activities (1993-2008).’ Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Newtown Square, PA, 204-213.
Weber, Joe, and Selima Sultana (a). 2013. ‘The Civil Rights Movement and the Future of the National Park System in a Racially Diverse America.’ Tourism Geographies: An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment 15 (3): 444-469.
Weber, Joe, and Selima Sultana (b). 2013. ‘Why Do So Few Minority People Visit National Parks? Visitation and the Accessibility of ‘America’s Best Idea.’ Annals of the Association of American Geographers 103 (3): 437-464.
Winograd, Morley, and Michael Hais. 2014. ‘How Millenials Could Upend Wall Street and Corporate America’ The Initiative on 21st Century Capitalism. Brookings Institution.
Xiao Xiao, KangJae Jerry Lee and Lincoln R. Larson. 2021. Who Visits U.S. National Parks (and Who Doesn’t)? A National Study of Perceived Constraints and Vacation Preferences Across Diverse Populations, Journal of Leisure Research, DOI: 10.1080/00222216.2021.1899776.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Sagamore Publishing LLC (hereinafter the “Copyright Owner”)
Journal Publishing Copyright Agreement for Authors
PLEASE REVIEW OUR POLICIES AND THE PUBLISHING AGREEMENT, AND INDICATE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS BY CHECKING THE ‘AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS COPYRIGHT NOTICE’ CHECKBOX BELOW.
I understand that by submitting an article to Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education, and Leadership, I am granting the copyright to the article submitted for consideration for publication in Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education, and Leadership to the Copyright Owner. If after consideration of the Editor of the Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education, and Leadership, the article is not accepted for publication, all copyright covered under this agreement will be automatically returned to the Author(s).
THE PUBLISHING AGREEMENT
Assignment of Copyright
I hereby assign to the Copyright Owner the copyright in the manuscript I am submitting in this online procedure and any tables, illustrations or other material submitted for publication as part of the manuscript in all forms and media (whether now known or later developed), throughout the world, in all languages, for the full term of copyright, effective when the article is accepted for publication.
Reversion of Rights
Articles may sometimes be accepted for publication but later be rejected in the publication process, even in some cases after public posting in “Articles in Press” form, in which case all rights will revert to the Author.
Retention of Rights for Scholarly Purposes
I understand that I retain or am hereby granted the Retained Rights. The Retained Rights include the right to use the Preprint, Accepted Manuscript, and the Published Journal Article for Personal Use and Internal Institutional Use.
All journal material is under a 12 month embargo. Authors who would like to have their articles available as open access should contact Sagamore-Venture for further information.
In the case of the Accepted Manuscript and the Published Journal Article, the Retained Rights exclude Commercial Use, other than use by the author in a subsequent compilation of the author’s works or to extend the Article to book length form or re-use by the author of portions or excerpts in other works.
Published Journal Article: the author may share a link to the formal publication through the relevant DOI.
Author Representations
- The Article I have submitted to the journal for review is original, has been written by the stated author(s) and has not been published elsewhere.
- The Article was not submitted for review to another journal while under review by this journal and will not be submitted to any other journal.
- The Article contains no libelous or other unlawful statements and does not contain any materials that violate any personal or proprietary rights of any other person or entity.
- I have obtained written permission from copyright owners for any excerpts from copyrighted works that are included and have credited the sources in the Article.
- If the Article was prepared jointly with other authors, I have informed the co-author(s) of the terms of this Journal Publishing Agreement and that I am signing on their behalf as their agent, and I am authorized to do so.