Another reason to dislike social media

The National Park Service is facing the difficult decision on whether to take artifacts from their locations in national parks and hide them away in storage areas.  It seems that when people find artifacts, for example Indian relics or petroglyphs, they publicize the location on social media.  Soon others arrive, steal the artifacts, or graffiti the petroglyphs.  Remote areas suddenly become the destination of hundreds, even thousands of hikers.

I’ve had personal experience with this.  Before DCNR took over Wild Creek Falls a few Boy Scouts camped there and some locals hunted and fished there.  Once the DCNR took over Wild Creek Falls, visitors began posting photos of swimmers and campfires and parties.  Soon hundreds of people picnicked in an area of shallow-rooted hemlocks and swam and partied in a a place that lacked toilets or even trashcans.  Finally two years ago DCNR closed that area of the park on weekends.  What was a fairly unknown and somewhat isolated natural area became a destination for hundreds, and it was ruined.

For the dilemma of the National Park Service, see Julia Busiek, “To Collect or Not to Collect,” National Parks (Fall 2022), pp. 24-26.