National parks officials are grappling with high volume as Instagram tourism booms. But amid the influx of crowds, there is a desperate effort to preserve the land for generations to come.
If you’re on Instagram, then chances are you have a friend who’s taken a selfie at Joshua Tree National Park or one of the poppy fields in California, or maybe even atop a cliff overlooking the Colorado River known as Horseshoe Bend.
"We saw this huge rise in social media, especially Instagram," Kerns told"Nightline.""I think it’s a huge contributor." Striking this balance is paramount to those working in the parks as well as those who come to visit and experience some solitude in the wilderness. Jerry Ginsberg has spent the last 30 years taking photos of national parks and public lands across the U.S. He told"Nightline" that in his time as a photographer, he’s seen the wilderness diminish as the population has grown.
"I hope [young photographers] can [visit] these places and give them fresh interpretations. There is no reason why young photographers today shouldn’t have the same opportunities. They may have to go out on their own and find new and different places to create original images." While some parks have struggled to catch up to the sudden demands of tourists, at The Wave, a formation run by the Bureau of Land Management on the Utah-Arizona border, protections have been in place since the 1980s. Every year, over 150,000 people apply to a lottery to visit the unique formation. Only about 10,000 are selected, which comes out to about 20 people per day. But recently, the BLM has begun to consider increasing the number of permits to 96 people a day, which is a 450% increase.
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