YouTube creators and federal parks charging a fee/license

[Spaceman Spiff]

Why should anyone who makes money off of our National Parks NOT pay a fee?

 

[bullfrog !]

Part of the problem is National Parks have not been funded well enough for years in order to deal with the huge crowds that have been created by the “free advertising” of the internet. Parks depend on anonymity to protect certain areas where they don’t have the money to protect. Funny story, while in a remote area of the park a visitor found some perfect artifacts and turned them into the Park Headquarters. They were asked where they were found so they could be reburied exactly as they were found! Yes there is a problem! Lol!!!

 

[egilbe]

Part of the problem is National Parks have not been funded well enough for years in order to deal with the huge crowds that have been created by the “free advertising” of the internet. Parks depend on anonymity to protect certain areas where they don’t have the money to protect. Funny story, while in a remote area of the park a visitor found some perfect artifacts and turned them into the Park Headquarters. They were asked where they were found so they could be reburied exactly as they were found! Yes there is a problem! Lol!!!

I have no problem paying a small fee. I do have a problem with paying a small fee, the time spent waiting and then a denial of permit.

I think it was in Montana, or Wyoming a young boy scout found some rusty cans on National Park land. Being the responsible steward that Boy Scouts are taught to be, he gathered up the trash and told a park ranger what he had done, I'm sure expecting to be praised. Instead, he and his father were cited and fined for disturbing historical artifacts. To this day, I won't pick up rusty cans on public land after reading that story.

 

[Morgana]

I'm guessing there was more to that story (assuming what you read was true). I've been on at least one trail upkeep trip (I think it was at Three Rivers petroglyph area, NM) where they told us not to pick up anything that looked human-made, even if that seemed ridiculous/like it was obvious trash. The point was, it was a protected area, all kinds of things can be historical evidence, they didn't want 1001 untrained people making decisions about what to preserve or not.

A couple years ago I was on the Merritt Island, FL, road that runs parallel to Canaveral National Seashore, saw a gopher turtle in the road, and stopped to get it safely into the grass. A guy in a pickup truck stopped and told me he'd done that once and got arrested for trafficking wildlife. I'm thinking hmm, yeah, and I bet you innocently put it in the back of your truck because that patch of grass a mile down looked /so/ much more turtle friendly ... People say (and write) a lot of stuff. Anything's possible, but I wouldn't necessarily make life decisions based on it.

Good idea to make sure your good deeds are actually wanted. But once you're sure of that, no need to go and announce them to a cop

PS Those turtles make a pretty scary hissing sound! I was probably 10x its size and I still backed off and just nudged it the rest of the way with my foot. Impressive critter.

 

[bullfrog !]

A small fee won’t come close to solving the situation caused by videos “shared” on social media. The huge increase in visitation in areas “highlighted” on social media is going to cost millions of dollars to even control the over use damage caused never the less preserve what is left of the resource in my opinion. Sad part about it is in many cases over use results in closures so maybe the only way future generations will get to see our National Parks will be from old YouTube videos! No one is saying you can’t take pictures or share them, but if they are used on social media for anyone to make a profit and cause the damage we have seen from over use those who have done that should pay to at least help prevent more damage. Until federal lands are funded well enough to preserve them as they should be with the existing laws we have, people don’t need to be encouraged to visit fragile or over crowded areas just so a bunch of profit can be made. Those rusty cans were probably from a historical mining site with bullet holes in the top because the miner couldn’t read the opening instructions on the side of the beer can, dam new technology! Lol!!! What do you want to bet they will have to put a fence up to keep people out after they see the video on YouTube!

 

[wayne49]

It's true about the prohibition on removing rusty cans and other artifacts of early mining operations. HighDesertRanger posted that info years ago.
Historical preservation.
Pack in, pack out. Leave it as you found it.

 

[Cajunwolf]

I tend to agree with @Morgana on the abusing nature issue and not leaving a trace; this is a big issue for the parks, BLM, and national monuments. I've had problems with Youtubers thinking they had a right to tell me I had to wait for them to finish filming before going back to my campsite, which was rude, to say the least, and if it were brief, I wouldn't have had an issue. They took nearly a half hour and had the road/path blocked by their production. They also had a permit, and when I talked to a Ranger the next day, I was told they were in the wrong. She also apologized for being understaffed, which is the real issue; it's not just budget either. She said they have trouble with people who, if they have the training, don't want the job. It doesn't pay enough, and some humans can be risky to deal with, you know, A-Holes. That and there are too few going into forestry and land management these days. There are so many people in the popular spots now that they are destroying what used to be pristine and driving the natural wildlife father back, crowding their already overcrowded habitat. The cost of permitting pays for the strain on already overworked staff, preventing them from efficiently doing the jobs they are hired to do. I don't think a family or small-time Youtubers filming a vacation or YouTube production from their campsite needs a permit or fee. At all other times, they [Youtubers] need to pay a small reasonable fee if their channel is monetized to help out with the additional resources they can consume, and if it weren't for the park management and Rangers, they wouldn't have what we have now to film in the first place; it would be the wild west all over again without management, enforcement, and regulations; the nature of human nature dictates this. Sad, but it is what it is.