Loved To Death: The Unintended Consequences Of Colorado Tourism
Original article can be found at 听
Originally published on August 22, 2016 By Erin OToole听
Nearly 78 million visitors hit popular spots in Colorado in 2015. They pumped more than $19 billion into the economy, office, but that money comes with a dark side for wild places.听
Once-hidden hot springs now overflow with people. Formerly pristine ecosystems are being damaged by people who don鈥檛 understand how fragile they are. And parking lots nearby are often packed before the sun comes up.听
So how did we get to this point?听
To understand how Colorado鈥檚 natural areas lure millions of people each year, we turned to Patty Limerick. She鈥檚 the state historian and with the University of Colorado Boulder鈥檚 Center of the American West. Limerick traces the love for Colorado鈥檚 outdoors to the early 1800s, when wealthy visitors from Europe came. Some wrote books or painted Rocky Mountain panoramas to illustrate their travels. That whetted interest for another wave of tourism in Colorado, just as railroads began to make travel more feasible and more affordable.听
Add to that equation the first director of the National Park Service, . He made it his mission to entice more visitors from across the socioeconomic spectrum to the parks.听
鈥淸Mather] very accurately sized up the situation that鈥 they simply had to have a significant use by American citizens, or the parks would not have political support. Mather knew right from the beginning that he had to make the parks visible, attractive鈥 accessible and open to public visitation,鈥 Limerick said.听
In other words, to get Congress to support setting aside public lands for protection and conservation, there needed to be sufficient public interest in those lands. The key was making it easy and affordable for people to get there. For Mather, that included .听
On the other side were people like renowned . He was an advocate of the national park concept, but felt nature should be left in its wild state.听
鈥淪ome of the more John Muir-sorts had a [mentality that] 鈥榳e should keep it very undeveloped, we shouldn鈥檛 have roads, we should just let people hike and find their own way here,'鈥 Limerick said. 鈥淲ell, Mather just thought 鈥榃e can鈥檛 really afford that. We really do need to be making it accessible and possible for regular citizens to visit here.'鈥澨
In land management circles this ideological conflict has come to be known as the Mather Paradox. It鈥檚 why it鈥檚 so difficult to solve the problem of places being loved to death. For people to care about Colorado鈥檚 wild (and sometimes fragile) places, they need to connect with them. But too many people connecting can change these places, sometimes irreversibly.听