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Letter: Utah needs more national parks

Erin Alberty|The Salt Lake Tribune Many Pools is a beautiful, family-friendly hike with little traffic and great educational value in Zion National Park. Photo taken March 10, 2017.

Brian Maffly’s article on overcrowding in Arches National Park tends to illustrate just how out of touch many of our Utah legislators are with modern reality.

Strangely, they seem unwilling to apply classical business solutions to the problem of overcrowding in our Utah parks. The state’s “Mighty Five” promotion has been so successful that overcrowding in the parks is now the norm. Arches and Zion are especially suffering due to their popularity.

When faced with a demand far exceeding supply, a wise business approach would be to increase the supply. Instead of looking to expand our parks and monuments, these politicians have supported dramatically shrinking Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the near-elimination of Bears Ears National Monument. Why not recognize the potential tourist appeal of these monuments and promote them as we have the “Mighty Five”? The resulting economic benefits would be considerable — just as the economic benefits of the “Mighty Five” have become a major driving force in the economy of much of southern Utah.

Supporting an expansion of our tourist-based economy would enable our leaders to actually demonstrate their alleged business knowledge and skill.

David R. Smith, Sandy