Skift Take
It’s no surprise the national parks have a lot of visitors. But growth has been accelerating and parks leaders have been looking for ways to lessen the impact.
Overtourism has hit the national parks and the U.S. National Park Foundation announced its largest grant ever to help combat it: $100 million from the Lilly Endowment.
The grant is going toward a $1 billion fundraising campaign, called The Campaign for National Parks, focused on managing visitor growth and other efforts. Hundreds of other organizations are working to raise an additional $3.5 billion for the foundation by 2028.
The National Park Service estimates that annual visits will reach more than 500 million by 2040, up from 325.5 million in 2023.
There have been concerns about overtourism in some national parks following the pandemic. Leaders have called for restrictions, and the NPS has experimented with ways to mitigate large crowds. The NPS this year implemented reservation requirements for Yosemite National Park.
Campaign funding will go toward efforts including a National Parks Innovation Lab, meant to determine how technology could be used to solve some of these challenges. Priorities include expanding digital experiences, making the parks more accessible, adding public transportation, and upgrading visitor centers.
The NPS has also been working to enhance reservation and trip planning capabilities on Recreation.gov.
In addition to visitor growth management, the fundraising campaign is focused on three other areas:
- Programs for youth and young adults to teach parks history and environmental stewardship
- Conservation efforts for parks and their wildlife
- Delivering a more comprehensive historical narrative, including a focus on historically marginalized communities
The National Park Foundation is a nonprofit that financially supports the National Park Service, the governmental organization that oversees 430 national park sites in the U.S.
Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment was established in 1937 through gifts of stock in the pharmaceutical business Eli Lilly and Company.
