Personally, I think too many people grew up on Walt Disney stuff, but in any case, the evidence seems irrefutable. You may recall these recent episodes at Yellowstone alone:
- A Canadian tourist who put a bison calf in his SUV hoping to save it, ending with wildlife workers euthanizing the animal when they could not reunite it with its herd.
- Three visitors from Asia cited on separate occasions for illegally collecting water from the park’s thermal features.
- A Washington state man killed after leaving a designated boardwalk and falling into a near-boiling hot spring.
And the list goes on. Clueless visitors are in total disbelief that any harm could come to them - or that they could possibly do any real damage themselves - and so they routinely flout park rules, doing everything from camping in off-limits areas to taking "selfies" with wildlife.
Law enforcement records obtained by The Associated Press 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, according to the records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
In July alone, law enforcement rangers handled more than 11,000 incidents at the 10 most visited national parks.
Tourists like Washington state resident (why is it so often someone from Washington?) John Gleason, who considers himself an experienced woodsman and hunter, creeps through the grass with four small children in tow to get within a dozen yards of a large bull elk (less than half the distance that visitors are supposed to keep between themselves and wildlife). And they always have a reason why it's okay:
Gleason said he was “maybe” too close but felt comfortable in the situation as an experienced hunter who’s spent lots of time outdoors.
Yeah, don't mind him; he knows what he's doing. Because he's an outdoorsman. And a hunter (the kind who give real hunters a bad reputation). Adding to the idiocy:
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.”
That's how truly stupid many of these people are: "I'm not afraid of it, I'd throw it a cookie". "I'm comfortable with it, I'm a hunter". "I'm...hey, can you get an EMT over here?"
At the rate things are going, it will soon be necessary to require that each would-be visitor to a national park first pass a test on basic common sense prior to being permitted to enter.
