Too Much of a Good Thing: Overcrowding at America's National Parks

Authors

Abby L. Timmons, Notre Dame Law School

Abstract

This Note focuses on the National Park Service’s failure to act in adopting a carrying capacity for each park specifically, and discusses some of the negative effects this failure has had on individual parks. Part I provides a general background of the national parks system and will more fully explore the dual aims of its Organic Act. Part II discusses the NPS’s affirmative response to the 1978 amendment requiring carrying capacities, while Part III focuses on the ramifications of the widespread nonresponse by many of the parks. Part IV considers possible fixes, including not only inspiring the NPS to adopt carrying capacities, but also pragmatically responding to the current overcrowding dilemma.

Recommended Citation

Abby L. Timmons, Too Much of a Good Thing: Overcrowding at America's National Parks, 94 Notre Dame L. Rev. 985 (2019).
Available at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr/vol94/iss2/12