As the inscription on the Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance into Yellowstone National Park reminds us, the national parks are for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. They are wild, scenic, and historic spaces that belong to all of us. But are they in reality exclusive places with reservation systems that aren’t providing equitable access to the diverse population wishing to use parks?
Our guest this week is Dr. Will Rice from the University of Montana, and he has some thoughts about the functionality of recreation.gov, the main reservation system used for public lands campgrounds and activities. In recently published research, which he shares with the Traveler’s Lynn Riddick, he and his team evaluated one aspect of park reservations – camping – to see if the online reservation system offers an advantage to higher socio-economic groups.
Comments
Just another lily white guy calling us stupid and unable to use a computer. ZERO - is how many (minority) family and friends of ours have problems reserving sites. That also goes for (minority) campers we talk to at campgrounds. Is this real, viable research or is Will just another priveleged con man making a buck off of us?
This system is exclusionary, absolutely. Thanks for covering such an important issue.
The Professor's study comes across as very thin and based on not typical parks.How to handle a limited resource is a problem on recreation.gov but to call it discriminatory is simply not proven. I can think of a million holes in the study.
By excluding reserve America sites he presents an artificial look at access to the outdoors.
It seems many forget that to use recreation. gov you need a computer or smartphone and the ability to access the internet securly which means your own internet access.
That alone will disqualify most of the lower socioeconomic class regardless of race, creed, or color
Chris, this would reinforce your thoughts: https://www.netbooknews.com/tips/smartphone-ownership-statistic/. There is little statistical difference of smartphone ownership based on race. There is a far more significant based on income. But then that would probably be true for any form of making a reservation except perhaps snail mail.
I hope someone does the same type of study on National Parks use of recreation.gov. I have now used recreation.gov for access to Rocky Mountain National Park during the summer seasons 2020-2022.
I find it amazing that the management of RMNP expects you to either be able to know your schedule anywhere from 30-60 days ahead. For example a reservation for 8/31 can either be made on July 1 at 10 am or August 30 at 5 pm.
So I've made reservations at the first of a calendar month for the next calendar month and have found we won't be able to use the reservation. Even in this podcast it was stated you can cancel a campground reservation, you can not cancel a day use reservation.
Chris, I don't know where your getting your information but to me it sounds like a stereotype. Many minorities do have smart phones. I can't say about computers because I don't make a habit of going into random minority peoples homes. I would suspect anyone can go to recreation.gov, but do they want too or do they know about the site. I see a bigger issue for minorities is transportation issues to these parks for camping.