National Parks

[eve]

Do you get this sort of thing in the US?
South Australia's Environment Minister says he is disgusted by the behaviour of 4-wheel drivers and motorcyclists in national parks in the state's south-east. Aboriginal middens and artefacts have been destroyed, fences damaged and native vegetation run over in the Canunda National Park.

As a result, 11 people have been fined $160 each for taking their vehicles off designated tracks and another 11 have been warned by park rangers. The Minister, John Hill, says that all those found damaging the national park were visiting from Adelaide. "I think that demonstrates that drivers don't understand the purposes of the park," he said. "It's just an opportunity for them to take their vehicle off-road for a time and see what they can do."

[Seaside]

I haven't heard of anything as blatantly disrespectful as that, but Yosemite National Park in California has been reducing both the time it stays open to the public and the grounds available for use within the park. It's just the sheer mass of visitors each year that is taking its toll.

Maybe our parks are just way too crowded most of the time for anyone to get away with deliberate destruction.