Americans, is people vandalizing National Parks or nature areas a real problem?

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Thick_Maximum7808@reddit

The bigger issue is people going to areas they shouldn’t be and also thinking they can pet wildlife. That big ass moose isn’t a doggy he’s going to hit you pretty damn hard, he’s not your friend.

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ProbablyAPotato1939@reddit

I saw a video of some moron trying to pet a mountain lion, it was obviously semi domesticated, but the moment he got too close it pounced.

House cats will attack you for bothering their personal space, don't do that with a 140 pound house cat.

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Like, I can see how morons could think an herbivore would be docile, but media for decades has shown that a mildly inconvenienced 12lb housecat will ruin someone's day with little warning. How could you think the 10x bigger cat would be less dangerous

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bones_bones1@reddit

It’s not summer until someone learns to fly after petting the assault cows.

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Minimum-Syrup7420@reddit

Oh. I heard someone this weekend say they are going to try to pet a moose if they see one. That person probably shouldn't be allowed near any of the assault/murder versions of prey animals

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CaptainHunt@reddit

There was a video floating around a while back of a guy warning some tourists not to mess with a moose, and they started making fun of him, saying stuff like, “why, is it your moose?” And then the moose decided it had enough of the tourists.

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MischaBurns@reddit

https://youtu.be/kuXzH6y1kkQ?si=xoNUbLrTrNkDQqvV

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fatpad00@reddit

I can only hope the moose took them out of the gene pool

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somecow@reddit

Oh hi, come over here mooooooo. Will save you a trip to the airport, might not be able to pick your destination though.

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thewags05@reddit

Yeah, you don't actually want to be anywhere near a moose. They can get pretty aggressive and they're huge

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TechnologyDragon6973@reddit

Moose are terrifying. They’re basically the hippos of North America.

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mcc9902@reddit

I hear about people getting killed by bison fairly often because of this. Just because it's a herbivore doesn't mean they won't mess you up

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Hillbillygeek1981@reddit

Herbivores, especially herd animals, assess anything that moves the wrong way as a threat and won't stop until you're dead. Predators will quietly do the math to decide if you're easy prey, a threat or ignorable from a distance, then act accordingly.

Some predators, like black bears, will run off even if you startle them and they're not protecting their young. A pissed off dairy heifer that's not used to the human approaching their calf will trample you to death and then foil every effort to retrieve your body until she calms down, nevermind a moose or buffalo.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

DO NOT PET THE FLUFFY COWS

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Draconuus95@reddit

I live outside Yellowstone and grand Teton.

Local wisdom is running into a grizzly, mountain lion, or wolf is much preferred. Because most of those will just ignore or move away from people as long as you don’t sneak up on them. A moose will just ignore you until it decides you’ve done something to piss it off(without any real indication that it’s happened). And then it charges with half a ton of meat and bone.

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OJSimpsons@reddit

Not really. I might find some trash here and there but most people who like hiking want to keep it nice for others who like hiking. Like why would someone hike 5 miles into the wilderness to vandalize it? The people who hike 5 miles to appreciate nature want to preserve it. If you get caught doing it, you might get beat up or the cops called on you.

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Curmudgy@reddit

It's not a huge problem but it does happen and at times there's serious damage.

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oh_such_rhetoric@reddit

My sister used to work at a national reserve that was a really prominent archaeological site and also a rock climbing destination. Also nesting ground for endangered birds.

They have trouble with people going off the established path sometimes, which isn’t allowed for obvious reasons. One time it was extra awful because someone drove a bolt through a petroglyph.

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awoloozlefinch@reddit

I’ve done a fair bit of climbing in the southwest. I’ve met a lot of climbers and seen a lot petroglyphs, both on marked national park trails and deep into the backcountry.

I have never met a climber who would do something that horrific. I literally can’t imagine someone thinking that was okay.

All the expertise and technical knowledge that needs to be mastered before someone gets to the level of skill where they are setting routes and placing their own bolts, and they never learned to respect the rock?

I don’t think I’ve ever seen routes that even come close to petroglyphs.

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oh_such_rhetoric@reddit

I’m the same way, I can’t even imagine. My sister was in of the archaeologists there, and they were just devastated. They thought maybe the person didn’t realize what it was. But that’s exactly why you don’t go off-route at a National Reserve!

This was at City of Rocks.

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w3woody@reddit

It literally just takes one thoughtless asshole out of thousands or even millions of people to do something destructive.

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juanzy@reddit

There’s also unintentional damage that people can cause if they don’t understand conditions. Which is why rangers marking that is importantly.

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Tommy_Wisseau_burner@reddit

Also some parks can just be straight up dangerous and for safety reasons. I’m disabled. I passed on a bunch of hikes that were even moderate because I could slip and fall off a cliff because there’s no railing. I’m sure there’s no shortage of ones where doing something illegal are also extremely risky and could have you driving off a canyon or getting eaten by a wild animal

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Crayshack@reddit

A single person can cause a lot of damage unintentionally. Significantly more if they intend to cause damage.

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ladytal@reddit

It IS a huge problem. Source: I work in the parks...

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Ok_Jackfruit2612@reddit

I'm under the impression that it is an increasing occurrence and happening at specific parks- usually the more famous ones.

I have never seen any kind of vandalism at the parks near me. Littering is a big issue, though.

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Kaurifish@reddit

Yellostone staff regularly has to go clean the crap out of the hot springs that toyrons throw in there. It’s dimming the brilliant colors of the water of some springs.

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DankItchins@reddit

No idea why this is, but ive spent a lot of time at a lot of national parks and Yellowstone consistently has the worst behaved tourists.

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Kaurifish@reddit

Yosemite was Tokyo in comparison.

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pinniped90@reddit

It may be increasing a bit in that parks have gotten much more crowded.

A silver lining of covid was people taking a bunch of domestic trips and being outdoors during those two summers (including 2021 as vaccines were still being rolled out).

Generally a good thing, people using the parks, but the increase in traffic also brought an increase in idiots and thus we get news stories like this.

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Atlas7-k@reddit

Yes, it is a real problem. It’s just not a common problem.

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Gold_Telephone_7192@reddit

I’ve never seen anyone do that but it would be a huge issue that most Americans would take great exception to. The park rangers will fuck your world up if they catch you.

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john_hascall@reddit

They won't unfortunately. My opinion is vandalism should earn you an automatic lifetime ban from all NPS sites.

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CalmRip@reddit

And a lot of Americans will be cheering the rangers on.

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Loud_Inspector_9782@reddit

Not really.

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iowanaquarist@reddit

Yes. People don't understand leave no trace and do stupid shit like stacking rocks, or leaving painted rocks all over for no good reason.

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West-Improvement2449@reddit

The bigger issue is people messing with the wild life

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Educational-Big-6609@reddit

It’s a big country, so we have lots of idiots.

That said, not a big problem.

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OceanPoet87@reddit

There are park rangers. Honesrly it makes news because it is wrong but also uncommon.

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AlexandraThePotato@reddit

Ehhhh, not uncommon. I used to work in the park. Most of the vandalism is small (but still asshole behavior). Think those little initial hearts

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AlexandraThePotato@reddit

As someone who worked in the national park service. FUCK YOU to everyone who think they are special and drawing little heart on the trees! I hope your relationship doesn’t last and I hope the breakup isn’t pretty!

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ladytal@reddit

I work in the parks. It is a BIG problem. Those people saying it isn't an issue because rangers are out there patrolling didn't realize how few rangers there are. On top of vandalism, people steal plants from the parks, bring in seeds or bulbs of invasive flowers to make the parks "prettier", litter, go off trail and trample habitats of rare species, poach (fish or hunt illegally) and so on. It's a big problem that the parks don't have the personnel or funding to deal with.

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Aggravating-Key-8867@reddit

Stuff like intentional vandalism is uncommon. What is more common are lazy practices like littering and not cleaning your picnic area or campsite.

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GorgeousBog@reddit

I mean it happens but it’s not like some sort of epidemic. Probably just as often as tourists in other countries vandalize other parks

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GorgeousBog@reddit

I think a bigger issue is tourists not understanding the land. And as a result they get injured or die. Happens with domestic tourists traveling to other states or whatever as well. There’s that famous case of the German family in Death Valley, for example.

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Penguin_Life_Now@reddit

These people tend to face VERY high fines and possible jail time if they are caught, unfortunately this often does not discourage them.

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BioDriver@reddit

Vandalizing natural areas is extremely uncommon, which is why it's making the news.

Vandalizing statues, on the other hand, is more common and often expected, as was the case during the removal of various confederate statues in the southeastern US

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normiepitbullmom@reddit

I don’t know if it’s common but I think it makes the news due to the outrage it brings. Outrage = engagement = revenue

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am123_20@reddit

It's also not JUST the nature that's at risk. So many national parks also have historic elements, like ancient Native American art or things left and created by early settlers. It's really easy for people vandalizing parks to do it over something that is culturally and historically significant, which can completely ruin it. It doesn't seem to happen super often, but when it does, it's a big deal.

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Minimum-Syrup7420@reddit

It's not super common and everytime should be treated like a really big deal. It's a place we as a society are actively trying to preserves and someone came to fuck it up.

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ReferenceCreative510@reddit

Lots of people steal parts of DC's cherry blossoms every time they're in bloom.

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Subvet98@reddit

If a person litters or vandalizes a national park and gets mauled by a bear deserves it.

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tawzerozero@reddit

The reason it makes the news is because it is (fortunately) uncommon.

There are steep fines, however it is difficult to enforce, considering that people (usually) don't film themselves committing crime, and the areas covered by the parks system are vast and just can't be monitored all the time.

Whether the graffiti is removed or not depends on the situation - rangers seek to keep the park in a state of nature, so they will remove graffiti if they can do so without any risk to self, but sometimes visitors will do things in areas that are dangerous to reach, in which can the graffiti is left. Or, if the effort to remove would cause more damage than leaving it in place.

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EstablishmentSea7661@reddit

I work in parks and recreation and it's a huge problem. Basic graffiti actually isn't the type of vandalism that's the most problematic though - it's picking flowers or native plants, trampling through beds where mining bees or other ground nesting insects are located, etc. We work hard to nurture our native plants and wildlife and it gets ruined for tiktok views. Honestly, we were trying to reintroduce native prairie grasses, which also helps with soil erosion issues and floodplain issues, and someone picked ALL of the flowers in a quarter acre area last week. No flowers - no seeds - no successful reintroduction of the species. And our miner bees, even though the area was ROPED OFF and labelled, I think were all trampled. I saw the video. Bunch of GROWN ADULTS doing some sort of act like a seal tiktok trend. It was dumb, and we see no more miner bees there now :(

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shadowmib@reddit

It's not widespread issue but even a few people could do irreparable damage

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royhurford@reddit

Yes. To the point where many people I know have become biased against foreign visitors, primarily due to the way they are seen treating our parks, wilderness, and wildlife.

Of course, it is not foreigners only. And it is unfair to be biased against all foreign visitors because of this. But, that is what will happen if people do not learn to respect our nature.

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These-Ad5332@reddit

It's a real problem in the sense of being VERY bad.

But thankfully it isn't a common problem or a wide spread trend. (At least that's my understanding and I hope I'm correct.)

"Vandalizing" can also be a broader definition as taking plants, harassing wildlife, littering, willfully damaging the landscapes (like off roading or starting a fire), carving trees, damaging petroglyphs, carving or spraying graffiti, etc.

In my experience littering is the most common form of vandalism and even then conservationists, park rangers, and regular park goers/volunteers try to work together to combat it and leave the parks in pristine condition. *But it is less work and less time consuming when everyone takes responsibility and pride in taking care of our parks.

There are hefty fines and even jail time to discourage people. But there are those few who ruin it for everyone else.

There was a woman in Utah in 2024 who carved over petroglyphs and the general public was PISSED. They found her and arrested her 6 days after other park goers caught her on camera. She got 1 year probation, $15,000 fine, but also became a pariah.

The petroglyphs are permanently damaged. Which is devastating.

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MickeyOliver2024@reddit

Yes

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helloitsmejenkem@reddit

I have no idea. In my state they arent vandalizing state parks at all though. Everyone there are just people that want to be there and enjoying it.

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salydra@reddit

How many times does someone need to vandalize the Mona Lisa before you consider it a real problem?

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Ok_Umpire2173@reddit

In my personal experience (mostly Virginia), vandalism is limited mostly to carvings on trees, rocks, wooden fence posts, etc. I’ve also noticed it’s becoming less popular than it was in my childhood (20 years ago).

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Working_Elephant5344@reddit

If this was common, the videos wouldn’t be worth posting. So yes, vandalism would be considered an issue, but it’s extremely rare.

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Cudi_buddy@reddit

Been to 10 national parks now. Don’t think I’ve run into worse than initials cut into trees tbh. Typically are well kept

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Soggy-Attempt@reddit

It’s uncommon.

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Hoopajoops@reddit

Not as common as the Internet would make you believe. And yes, if they get caught they will get in trouble. Really the biggest issue I've ran into is just people leaving a messy camp site. It's annoying, but I always do my best to go clean up after them.

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Draconuus95@reddit

Occasionally.

But the main issue is the unintended destruction from people not reading signs or following rules

I live outside of grand Teton national park. And every summer theirs stories of people stomping around the sulfur fields, starting and leaving fires burning when and where they shouldn’t, approaching wildlife that should not be approached. And other such nonsense. Sometimes that leads to features being damaged or destroyed. Sometimes it leads to some idiot degloving their arm or leg. If not outright death.

Idiot tourists who don’t have common sense are basically the biggest bane of any national park. Especially with people from other countries or areas of the US without easy access to their own large national parks. Like Chinese tour busses full of people trying to treat the half ton moose as a petting zoo exhibit. An animal known for being more dangerous and temperamental than most species of bears.

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Original-Locksmith58@reddit

It’s an increasing problem.

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Much-Sock2529@reddit

Former Ranger, yes. In fact, this is a large part of the purpose of the educational programming of the parks- to to badly mangle a quote, freeman Tilden said something along the lines of “interpretation sparks engagement engagement sparks connection, connection sparks stewardship.” A visitor who learns a little history or feels a personal connection is a lot less likely to vandalize, litter, or cause damage through negligence. As education/interpretation programming are taking a hit under current budget cuts, we are seeing the affects.

Also keep in mind- the NPS includes national monuments and national historic parks, many of which are politically controversial or in densely populated areas. My favorite piece of vandalism is the “Brit’s out of Ireland” tag on the bunker hill monument. It got cleaned off, but you can kind of see it in the granite in the right weather.

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SorenDarkSky@reddit

when it does happen its permanent and affects everything and everyone.

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ChalkLicker@reddit

Only near more populated areas. Scumbags never travel far.

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Ill_Pressure3893@reddit

Yes, vandalism and environmental damage have escalated in the parks during the Trump years, which have been marked by government shutdowns, mass firings, and skeleton crews.

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voltairesalias@reddit

I know a lot of rangers down in Glacier NP., I hike with some of them in Waterton and Glacier. It's a problem down there..mostly just hiking off trail and making those annoying and lame makeshift cairns everywhere.

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CropTopKitten@reddit

The real vandalization is this administration’s whitewashing the signs in the National Parks. “Enslaved Laborers” with a photo of white people digging Mammoth Caves. SMH.

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Fit_Cranberry2867@reddit

our national parks are incredibly understaffed and underreported thanks to the current administration

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Avery_Thorn@reddit

It is a problem in that it happens at all.

But Americans are, in general, very protective of our public parks. I would highly suggest respecting the parks if you come and visit them; we love to share our special places.

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No-Carry4971@reddit

A small percentage of People are always a problem, but the parks generally look pretty good

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OneSignature7178@reddit

Bob was here.

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ParfaitMajestic5339@reddit

Vandalizing by stealing stuff and carving their names in historical objects, or vandalizing by leaving their lunch wrappers behind on the ground? Lots more of the latter than the former, and much more expensive to clean up after.

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John_Barnes@reddit

Yea it’s real and no it’s not easy to catch them all and whether they get away with it or not, vandalism is often forever. When they do catch them, if media interview them they are often belligerent , aggressively ignorant, and just plain flat out stupid. (Which is why media don’t interview them much anymore: why give them a platform?)

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redjessa@reddit

Yes, it's a problem. Not in every park, but Joshua Tree is a good example. People just can't help themselves.

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sitewolf@reddit

There's around 52 million acres (450,000 sq miles) of national park land- plenty of space for idiots to be idiots without necessarily being noticed. It happens far too often, but not so often I'd define it as a 'real problem'.

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bkinstle@reddit

Most people are decently respectful. The biggest problems are littering (by far) and people going into areas they aren't supposed to for that killer social media shot and then breaking things (and sometimes themselves). Graffiti and intentional defacement are not very common

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Grunt08@reddit

It tends not to be a huge problem in aggregate because the parks are so large, but it can build up at popular sites. And it's less vandalism than it is destructive behavior.

Like when the sign says don't go off the trail and you think it won't matter if you do it because you're just one guy, not realizing there are 10,000 one guys thinking the same thing and that's what fucks things up.

I was just in Sedona and some Chinese guy just decided he was going to unpack his drone and fly it around. Not only was it illegal, it was fucking annoying to literally everyone else around him and dude just didn't give a shit. And this was after a bunch of us had helped his sizable ass traverse a rock path he couldn't have managed on his own.

Anyway, my most radical opinion is that anyone caught intentionally defacing a national park should be deported to the geographic middle of the ocean of their choice.

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molotovzav@reddit

It's not common but it's not uncommon. Like I live in a state that is designated as mostly wilderness. Right outside my city there are rocks people have vandalized with their stupid shitty teenage relationships since before I was born.

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DenverNuggetz@reddit

If seen at least to that now require reservations to get in because of “influencers” doing damage to the area

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RealFlatworm-@reddit

Yes but it's much worse on national forests that are unpatrolled public lands

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5uper5kunk@reddit

One of the more interesting things about the human condition is that on one hand we get tremendously excited when we find that somebody has carved something on a rock like tens of thousands of years ago but get annoyed when people continue this practice into the modern day. So like it’s only so much a “problem” if you agree with the idea that there’s a modern imperative to discontinue the eons old human inclination to modify our environments and leave our Mark upon them.

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No-Lunch4249@reddit

Unfortunately yes, the parks are chronically understaffed

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OfficeChair70@reddit

National parks not such much, but public land it’s a big problem - Arizona just closed an bunch of state trust land to the public for example due to damage from dumping, irresponsible MV trail use and target shooting. and there are tons of areas on federal land that are covered in shell casing, and the left over targets.

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Again, its been happening for **thousands** of years.

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Aggressive_Staff_982@reddit

It's not often but it does happen. People have an ego and want themselves to leave a mark. I've heard of people carving their names on the giant sequoias