Visitor Impacts on Public Parks - Research Paper Example

Download file to see previous pages This paper will look at the effects of uncontrolled continual streams of visitors to my local park and the solutions to the problems they cause while enjoying the privilege. Parking at our local park has become a nightmare due to limited zonal spots for everyone involved. In fact, the numbers of vehicles lined up at the gate of the park have become a nuisance as they are preventing access to the park itself and discouraging more people from gaining access. This is a menace as the image of the park is tainted since they are regarded as negligent in providing for the needs of the visitors. In addition, the cars pollute the environment, with the effects being carried over to the protected resources inside the park1. In my view, people should be made to leave their personal means of transport at home and the park should have the mandate of providing public transport to people at designated times and venues. Such a move will ensure that the number of visitors gaining access to the facility is controlled in any one time. While inside the park, it has become apparent that the standard of cleanliness is deteriorating each day as the visitors are trashing everywhere they go. Plastics are the order of the day not mentioning the unsightly array of leftover food at every footpath in the surrounding environment. Some of the caged animals can be seen munching on some of these foods which they may have been offered by the visitors or perhaps collected as they roamed freely in their habitats. Ingestion of these foods can be dangerous since of it may not blend in well with their natural diets. There have been cases of food poisoning reports at alarming rates for the last quarter of the year. The management should provide more employees to investigate into the matter while drawing a keen eye that would help identify the culprits. These visitors should be fined heavily for their acts and given restriction from gaining access to the park until deemed necessary2. Some sections of the park do not access to public foot paths or bridges across water bodies. This has forced visitors to find their own way around thus they have resulted in a lot erosion of the ground and destruction of vegetation and leading to deterioration of the environment. Some of them have penetrated sensitive parts of the forest which have led to some animals strayed into areas of the park they are not supposed to. These animals can be dangerous to the general public making the park to be hazardous for visitors and could lead to closure of the park. Measures should be taken to ensure that a guard is placed at strategic positions in the park where they can prevent such destructions from taking place in the first place. In another instance, campsites have been devouring parts of the forest since some extreme campers have brought down trees to create room for their tents or just for the mere advantage of the experience. The fires that have been made are frightening the wild animals and eating away at the vegetation that may have been growing for thousands of generations. The animals have disappeared into the heart of the forests and are not seen during day which has proved to be very disappointing to the visitors of the park. This has also led to loss of enthusiasm for the diehard animal lovers who come to the park with the sole intention of sighting the fascinating creatures. Poaching is another vice that has risen lately amongst the visitors. ...Download file to see next pagesRead More