Managing National Parks in a Multicultural Society: Searching for Common Ground

he people of the USA love their national parks. Approximately 300 million visits were recorded at national parks in 2000, the vast majority being domestic visitors. The love affair between U.S. citizens and national parks is so intense, in fact, that it is often stated that the parks are “being loved to death.” Of the many challenges facing the National Park Service (NPS) in the 21st century, engendering support for its programs from an increasingly racially and ethnically diverse society may be the most critical. Will the love affair between the people and their parks endure as Americans change in hue and heritage? In order for NPS to continue to enjoy the benefits of this relationship, it will need a better social scientific understanding of the factors underlying patterns of national park visitation among diverse ethnic minority groups. This paper reviews the major theoretical explanations employed to study racial and ethnic variation in national park visitation. Stated differently, the paper addresses the question of “Who has access to national parks, and why?”