The average visitor to some of the nation's parks and wilderness areas is getting grayer, prompting a new emphasis on getting young people to unplug and head outdoors.
Without a generation of kids who have had good experiences with national parks, then in a very short amount of time, we may not have enough people who care about national parks to keep them going.
For the National Park Service, developing life-long connections between the public and parks — especially for young people — is a priority from now until its 2016 centennial.
Parks change to attract and keep younger visitors
That could be a challenge: A 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation study found that people ages 8 to 18 spent an average of 7½ hours a day on digital media. Last month, a study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that three times as many Millennials — born in the 1980s and '90s — as Baby Boomers said they made no personal effort to help the environment.
A "big concern" of the National Park Service is maintaining 21st-century relevance. Visitors ages 16-24 are most under-represented.
The aging of visitors affects wild places across the USA:
•The average age of a visitor to Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area was 26 in 1969, 36 in 1991 and 45 in 2007, says a March report by the U.S. Forest Service.
•The average age of out-of-state visitors to Glacier and Yellowstone national parks in 2011 was 54, says the University of Montana's Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research.
•At California's Death Valley National Park, 49% of spring visitors in 2010 were 46 to 65 years old.
Overall visits to national parks fell in 2011 for the second year in a row. The National Park Service counted 278.9 million visits in 2011, down about 1% from 2010.
Some parks have plenty of young visitors. The Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Ill., attracts about 10,000 students a year.
For national and worldwide related business news, visit the Peak News Room blog.
For healthcare and medical related news, visit the Healthcare and Medical blog.
For local and Michigan business related news, visit the Michigan Business News blog.
For law related news, visit the Nation of Law blog.
For real estate and home related news, visit the Commercial and Residential Real Estate blog.
For technology and electronics related news, visit the Electronics America blog.
For organic SEO and web optimization related news, visit the SEO Done Right blog.
