“Give me solitude — give me nature — give me again, O Nature, your primal sanities!”
These words, penned by Walt Whitman in 1865, are as relevant as ever thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. With much of the country having been cooped up inside for the past several months, there is a growing want to head outdoors.
The National Park Service, eager to fulfill its mission of making America’s most important natural and cultural resources available to the masses, has been cautiously reopening parks throughout the country.
But the parks must do their part not only to reinvigorate the people with much-needed visits to the great outdoors, but to keep them safe in the process.
The NPS recorded more than 327 million recreation visits in 2019 to its more than 400 designated sites. Three of these areas — Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Blue Ridge Parkway, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park — had more than 10 million visitors each.
Little is still known about COVID-19, but public health officials feel confident the risk of transmitting the virus is lower outdoors. Still, coming in contact with other people, whether it be on a hiking trail or at a campground, could still be a risk.
That is why the NPS should limit the number of visitors it allows into each park each day, in addition to keeping facilities like visitor centers or campgrounds closed. It is not a perfect solution — ideally every American would have the opportunity to access the nation’s treasured parks whenever he or she pleases — but, in the midst of a deadly pandemic, the perfect must not be the enemy of the good.
Getting back outdoors and appreciating the natural beauty of our world is a necessary tonic to the hardship of recent months. But that luxury must not come at the cost of public health.
First Published: June 29, 2020, 10:15 a.m.