National Parks Benefits Montana Economically

Above, West Yellowstone, Montana is a "gateway town" to Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The state of Montana is seeing the economic benefits of having two national parks within its vicinity.

According to the Missoulian:

Montana, a state with a population of just over 1 million, played host to a record 12.4 million nonresident visitors last year, who spent $3.04 billion while they were here. 

According to figures released Tuesday by the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research at the University of Montana, that visitor spending supported nearly $2.5 billion in economic activity and nearly 34,700 statewide jobs. 

Most of Montana’s visitors, 46 percent, come July through September, and two-thirds of all tourist dollars were spent either in the areas in and around Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park.

Glacier National Park is located in Montana, while Yellowstone National Park is mainly in Wyoming with small areas in Montana and Idaho.

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Report Spotlights Overcrowding Woes At Yellowstone

Above, a boiling hot spring at Yellowstone. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

With more people going to our national parks, problems relating to overcrowding are rising accordingly. Also, incidents of utter stupidity by stupid people also are rising.

A new report from the University of Montana sounds a big warning.

The Yellowstone Insider reported:

A new report from the University of Montana paints a stark picture of overcrowding in national parks like Yellowstone. 

According to the Missoulian, Norma Nickerson, director of UM’s Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research in the College of Forestry and Conservation, recently published a report in Montana Business Quarterly, “Montana’s Crowded Parks,” which evaluates the short-term spike in visitation and its deleterious effects on places like Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks—and offers potential solutions going ahead, should visitation continue to mushroom. 

2016 saw a bevy of bad tourist behavior in Yellowstone National Park. Indeed, the antics of those four men from High On Life, who were either convicted or took plea bargains after walking on Midway Geyser Basin, are still fresh in the minds of Yellowstone residents and enthusiasts. Or when a 23-year-old man died after venturing hundreds of yards off the boardwalk in Norris, falling and dissolving in a hot spring. 

And don’t forget about the bison debacle, where a tourist picked up a red dog after it was separated from its herd, leading to rangers having to put the bison down. Or the time a tourist was fined $1,000 for walking on Mammoth Terraces to collect thermal water. But the effects go beyond bad behavior. 

To read more, go here.