The Mountains Won't Shut Up.
So if you haven’t heard, Canadian citizens get free park passes this year since it's Canada’s 150th anniversary. Just a heads up, this might sound a little ranty but really I’m expressing everything said in a speculative way and not vindictive but I think there are some valid points for a case against the pass. Also I do realize the benefits of extra exposure for people to see the beauty of nature and experience the outdoors but think of this more as the devils advocate perspective.
Sure a free park pass is awesome but the whole “The Mountains are Calling and I Must Go” trend is getting old. Honestly, I’m guilty of even owning a shirt that says this but how many people are making trips just to get that extra Instagram photo that will get some likes? I’m all for quaint day adventures and the photos below are an example of that. But with the extra traffic from free park passes could have serious ecological side effects. I’m not even going to get into the poor economic decision it was. I think a lot of the national parks have been made into a commodity more than an actual reserve for nature. Its almost like they are a premium part of Canada that people love and inadvertently destroy because we don’t know how to act respectably in a beautiful piece of nature. You're probably thinking this post is a kind of late but I think with more time it will be clear to see if there are any repercussions to handing out free passes and then a better response can be made on if it was overall positive or negative. I love the wilderness and feel as though I’m too far from it majority of the time so when I get to go to a national or provincial park it rejuvenates me. However, it does disturb me when I see people taking for granted or disrespecting the environment they’re visiting. Like many things, society has lost its reverence for the natural world and assumes dominance over it even though it wasn’t theirs to assume.
I think I’ll conclude there but I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions on the free park passes and why you think they’re awesome, a bad choice or both. Also I truly do see the positive aspects of it so I'm keeping an open mind until we can see the final results. One last thing, did you hear bison are being reintroduced to Banff National Park; so thats really exciting!
