We are visiting U.S. national parks less often

Since 1988, per capita visits to U.S. national parks have declined by about 20%. In this study, Drs. Oliver Pergams and Patricia Zardic investigated some potential reasons for this decline. While there are many possible contributing factors, they focused on those related to how Americans spend their time and specifically time associated with electronic entertainment media (e.g., hours of television, video games, home movies, and Internet use). Drs. Pergams and Zardic note that since 1988 there has been a dramatic shift in Americans' use of time. For example, in 2003 the average person spent 327 more hours per year with entertainment media than in 1987. This shift in time clearly impacts time devoted to other activities, one activity of which could be national park visits. In their analysis, Drs. Pergrams and Zardic found that a number of entertainment media variables, as well as inflation-adjusted oil prices, appeared to explain almost all of the decline in national park visits. This study looked at association between factors and is an important first step in beginning to understand why U.S. national park attendance has and is continuing to decline and what this might mean for children's exposure to nature.