Yellowstone National Park has been in the news a lot lately.
There was a gunfire exchange with law enforcement on the Fourth of July, followed by more threats of violence and then a car driving into a geyser — all within 10 days.
But, according to some experts, these kinds of happenings aren’t actually all that rare in national parks.
“It was somewhat surprising, but I would have to say also in some ways not surprising,” said Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers.
In fact, there have been over 40 homicides in national parks over the last decade, according to park service data, amid rampant gun violence in the U.S. Wade said accidents also happen all the time, especially in the water.
“So each park … has their own, you know, situation that they encounter,” Wade said.
Visitation is currently up at parks like Yellowstone, which has seen more than 1.6 million visitors this year and is on track to have the busiest year on record.
At the same time, parks are understaffed. Wade said managers are having to make hard decisions and cut employees amid rising fixed costs, and it can be hard to recruit for the short seasons.
“The consequences of all that are that, you know, there's less capability to respond when something does happen in the park,” he said. “And that increases the risk, probably, to visitors.”
The July 4 gunman injured one ranger before he was killed in a shootout.
During the recent heat wave, visitors also died in Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Canyonlands National Parks.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
