CrowdedParks.org is dedicated to preserving, protecting, and expanding America’s public lands.
We believe that America’s public lands are here for the enjoyment of all people and that the land itself and the animals on the land should have equal rights. The trees, air, grasses, waters, mountains, and hills should be afforded the same basic rights to health and protection that we would afford any fellow human, as should all of the animals and living creatures roaming the lands and swimming the waters.
That’s why the organization’s name is a play on words. Crowded with people. Crowded with animals. Crowded with nature.
In 2021, there is no shortage of headlines bemoaning overcrowding at national parks. Certainly, the congestion is not good. Thousands of cars idling at entrances. Hours-long lines to hike trails. Garbage overflowing. Our public lands and parks will have to be better managed, funded, and maintained if they are going to be preserved for future generations.
Our crowded public lands have a secret, though. As much as they are crowded, they are exclusionary. To make these lands, we kicked off indigenous people. Visitors are overwhelmingly white. Locals are often squeezed out of the economic benefits. For everything that makes the parks Crowded, what is Excluded is just as powerful.
If a fundamental belief about our parks is true—that if people can intimately experience what the parks are trying to protect, they will fall in love and be more likely to help protect them—then more people in America's parks and public lands isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
That’s why, at Crowded Parks, we want our parks to be full of nature, wild as can be. We want our parks to be full of people, who care about the land. Most of all, though, we want our parks to be Crowded for generations to come.