US national parks are overcrowded.

Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help

Level: Advanced

1
  Warmer

a. Write the names of five natural attractions or national parks where you live. Which of them
have you visited?

2
  Key words

a. Write the correct word from the wordpool next to the definitions below. Then find and highlight
them in the article to read them in context.

anticipate clogged congestion corral enhance

geysers muting overrun quirky reckless
repurposing shuttle strain throngs trails

1. not thinking about the possible bad effects of your actions

2. large crowds of people

3. paths through the countryside, especially ones designed for walking for pleasure

4. with such large amounts or numbers of people that it is dangerous or unpleasant

5. organize a group of people and persuade them to do something

6. slightly strange and unusual in an interesting way

7. pressure caused by a difficult situation

8. guess that something will happen and be ready to deal with it

9. a situation in which a place is crowded with people or vehicles so that it is difficult to move around

10. reusing something in a different way to what was originally intended

11. blocked so that nothing can get through

12. a bus, train, or plane that makes frequent short journeys between two places
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 US national parks are overcrowded. Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help
Level: Advanced
13. making something become silent __________________________

14. natural features where hot water and steam shoot up out of the earth
__________________________

15. improve something or make it more attractive or more valuable __________________________

b. Use some of the key words above to complete these sentences.

1. Our teacher was known for his slightly sense of humour.

2. Annoyingly, the pipe was for the third time that month.

3. A service operates between the hotel and the beach.

4. She showed a disregard for her own safety.

5. This pandemic has put a great on the economy.

6. Three different led down to the lake.

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 US national parks are overcrowded. Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help
Level: Advanced
The park service is turning to
selfie stations, timed tickets
and crowd-monitoring apps
to preserve public lands
Katharine Gammon
31 August, 2021
1 Arches National Park had to close its gate
more than 120 times in summer 2021 when
car parks filled up, creating a safety hazard
for emergency vehicles. Yellowstone National
Park reached one million visitors in July for
the first time in its history. At Zion National
Park, the wait for a hike was four hours. And
with the visitors came graffiti, rubbish and
reckless behaviour.
2 The record-setting crowds of people surging
into public lands this summer has posed new
challenges for park managers, explains Jenny
Anzelmo-Sarles, the chief spokesperson for the
National Park Service. The Service are using
tricks like encouraging selfies in one place to
prevent them in another, and they are rolling
out algorithms and autonomous vehicles to
manage the throngs of recreation-seekers.
3 They are also acknowledging a hard truth:
perhaps there simply isn’t enough space at
America’s most iconic attractions for everyone
who wants to visit them.
4 One of the biggest issues facing parks is the
many visitors all aiming to get the perfect
photograph. At popular spots in Yosemite and
10 That could mean a future where a hiker scans
near the Grand Canyon, some have even
fallen to their deaths in the process, prompting
the National Park Service to create a guide
for safe selfie-taking. And in 2018, the tourism
board in Jackson Hole, Wyoming made an
unusual request to visitors after local trails
were overrun with photo-tourists: stop
geotagging photographs.
11 To cut down on traffic, some parks are
5 Enter the selfie station: a simple wooden stand
in front of a stunning vista, ready to hold a
camera for a safe and easy photo experience.
They are part of an effort to corral people’s
natural desire to take photos and to promote
less-well-known areas.
6 Tom Hazelton, who leads Iowa’s County
Conservation System, has overseen the
installation of more than a hundred selfie
stations in his state. Hazelton says some of the
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stations celebrate quirky parts of history, like
the first train robbery west of the Mississippi,
while others point people to a lake, vista or
nature centre they might not otherwise come
across. Similar efforts exist in Wisconsin
and Minnesota.
7 Another tactic to reduce the strain on parks is
to cut the number of visitors permitted to enter
them. The National Park Service oversees
423 protected places that include national
seashores, national lakeshores and national
monuments. Popular places require timed
entry slots, available on Recreation.gov. More
public lands are turning to such systems to
reduce the number of visitors in any one part
of a park, especially as the pandemic affected
staff numbers.
8 The Recreation.gov programme uses
algorithms to show where there might be less-
trafficked attractions in the vicinity in real time.
The National Park Service also launched an
app in 2021 that points people to other potential
public lands outside the parks. “If you’re going
to Glacier, what else is in the area if you can’t
get that reservation in Glacier National Park?”
says Anzelmo-Sarles.
9 For the future, the Park Service is focusing
on rolling out predictive technologies that
will allow people to anticipate crowds and
plan accordingly. Anzelmo-Sarles says they
are taking tools used in urban planning and
congestion planning and repurposing them for
recreation and parks.
a QR code to check in at a trailhead, sending
information back to when the trails are most
clogged with people. That way, the next group
could be advised to wait an hour or come
another time to take the same adventure. It
also could mean that traffic is routed to less
popular areas of the parks.
experimenting with autonomous cars.
The Wright Brothers National Memorial in
North Carolina and Yellowstone tested out
driverless shuttles this summer. The idea,
says Anzelmo-Sarles, is to stop people driving
between the sights and get them in the
driverless shuttle instead.
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 US national parks are overcrowded. Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help
Level: Advanced
12 Another way to maintain a sense of peace on
public lands is simply by reminding visitors that
it’s what they came for. At Muir Woods National
Monument, where 500-year-old trees tower
above a mossy forest, a number of signs ask
visitors to “maintain natural quiet” by speaking
softly, muting electronic devices and being
aware of their noise levels.
13 A study showed that signs declaring quiet
zones or quiet days worked: surveys showed
visitors were supportive of the idea, and sound
level measurements showed substantial
decreases on days and in places the signs
were posted.
14 The quiet zones drive home the importance
of the acoustic environment as a way to
experience natural places, says Rachel Buxton,
a conservation biologist. She adds that it’s one
thing to see Yellowstone’s famed geysers – but
part of the experience is hearing them, too.
15 Despite the crowds and the traffic and noise,
the Park Service says it’s a good thing that
more people are getting out to experience
parks and public lands. “We want people
to have exceptional experiences and we’re
looking at ways to enhance opportunities for
people to plan to have the best experience and
stay safe,” says Anzelmo-Sarles.
© Guardian News and Media 2021
First published in The Guardian, 31/08/2021

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 US national parks are overcrowded. Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help
Level: Advanced

3
  Find the information

a. First, find and highlight all the problems and challenges in the article that the National Park
Service currently faces.

b. Complete the table with information from the article.

Challenge or problem Cause Solution

e.g., parks having to close more visitors than they can deal limiting the number of visitors
their gates with at any one time through timed entry slots

c. Say which of the challenges you consider to be most serious and why.
Talk about the solutions that have been introduced to deal with these challenges and
your opinion of each one. Finally, suggest any further ideas you have to help combat
these challenges.
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 US national parks are overcrowded. Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help
Level: Advanced

4
  Key language

a. Find the following phrases from the article. The paragraph numbers will help you.

1. a fact that might be difficult to accept (2 words, paragraph 3)

2. while you are doing something (3 words, paragraph 4)

3. an incredibly beautiful view (2 words, paragraph 5)

4. specific times when someone is allowed to gain access to a public space (3 words, paragraph 7)

5. nearby (3 words, paragraph 8)

6. introducing a new product or service (2 words, paragraph 9)

7. keep the feeling of a relaxed and quiet atmosphere (5 words, paragraph 12)

8. make people aware of how important something is (5 words, paragraph 14)

b. Now use the phrases to talk about the article.

c. Finally, choose the ones you would most like to learn to use well and write one or two example
sentences with each.

5
  Discussion

a. Discuss these questions.

• What challenges have you encountered when you visited a popular attraction in the past year or
two?

• What potential dangers have you noticed or read about connected with increased visitor numbers
at popular tourist attractions?

• What do you think about the selfie stations?

• How has the way you take and keep photos of your days out and holidays changed over the last
decade?
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 US national parks are overcrowded. Some think ‘selfie stations’ will help
Level: Advanced

6
  In your own words

a. Choose one of the natural attractions or national parks that you mentioned in task 1.
Find out more about this place, for example:

• its most well-known features and elements

• when it was established and by whom

• when and how you can visit it

• how long you should plan for your visit

• the most congested times

• price of entry

• facilities, trails, any restricted access

• whether it has quiet zones or silent spaces

• what innovative technology is used there.

b. Hold a short presentation about this place and your findings.

7
  Extra reading

a. Read first-person accounts about how record numbers of visitors are changing national parks
in this further article from The Guardian:

‘It’s not sustainable’: overcrowding is changing the soul of US national parks by Mai Tran on www.theguardian.com

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