This conflict is clearly seen in the National Park Service where intensive recreation
resource impacts on numerous trail systems have reached a critical level and jeopardized the
first part of the National Park Service’s (NPS) mission, which is to preserve “unimpaired the
natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system” (NPS, 2007), making it
difficult to address the second part of their responsibility – creating positive visitor
experiences. One indication of this critical level has been the increasing maintenance
backlog cited by the Park Service and others. The Park Service in their annual reports to the
Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies reported that the maintenance backlogs have
1
more than tripled over the past ten years. In 1998 the U.S. General Accounting Office
estimated that there was a $6.1 billion maintenance backlog, most of it (about 92%) involved
construction projects, such as constructing or rehabilitating trails and erosion protection
activities (U.S. General Accounting Office, 1998). Since then