The Silence of the Lands: Noise and our National Parks
An Interactive Dialogue

(The following is an introduction to the issue of Sound in the National Parks. You may enter the forum at the bottom of this page).

"The National Park Service," a report from the agency declared in 1994, "believes there should be National Parks where natural quiet can be preserved and experienced by visitors." And yet human-generated noise is an unmistakable presence in the Parks, and a source of growing contention among Westerners. Seeking silence and solitude in the outdoors, some urban and suburban dwellers feel that they trade one noisy environment for another when they visit the nation's parks.

"Natural quiet" - the term may convey peace and tranquility, but it's a concept evoking contention and friction these days. A demand for the protection, restoration and maintenance of "natural quiet" appears with greater frequency in publications of environmental groups, while an opposing demand for the right to engage in motorized recreation appears in the writings of such user groups.

Groups who oppose man-made noise in the parks cast their position as a stand in favor of the environment, wildlife, and the opportunity for visitors to hear natural sounds and have peace and solitude. They are against big business interests.

Groups who feel that man-made noise should be allowed in the parks cast their position as a stand in favor of the rights of equal access for all and in support of local economies, and against government interference with personal freedoms.

Which position is right? Is there a third position that might offer a compromise?

From one point of view, silence is a crucial resource of the parks - like clean water and wildlife - and falls within the mandate, given to the Park Service in 1916, to "conserve the scenery and natural objects" in our parks. By this understanding, visitors' experiences of a park's natural beauty cannot be separated from what they hear - or are prevented from hearing.

Folks whose ideal National Parks experience involves off-road motorized recreation emphasize other features in the National Park mandate. In 1872, when Congress designated Yellowstone as the world's first national park, it set the area aside specifically as a "pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people."

"Pleasuring ground" and refuge for "natural quiet" - can these describe the same place? The National Park Service Natural Sounds Program Office is charged with the difficult task of solving this dilemma. Dedicated public servants with much experience in natural resource management, they find themselves in the middle of disputes over the use of off-road vehicles, personal watercrafts, automobiles, and even power generators at campsites and parks facilities. Meanwhile, far above the Parks, few passengers in airplanes and helicopters may think about how jet and propeller noise can intrude upon the outdoors experience of those on the ground below. The Natural Sounds Program Office takes on the role of the traffic cop, literally and symbolically, trying to steer us away from direct collisions, while also trying to ensure that the park natural soundscapes are preserved and protected. The Natural Sounds Program Office personnel hold one of the most challenging jobs in the West today. They deserve our admiration, and also our help.

If Westerners learn about and consider the motives and concerns of the various parties, is there a way to figure out better "traffic control" strategies? The National Park Service, in their general management plans, zones different areas of the parks for different uses. Should they correspondingly set noise standards and levels for those park management zones? Is the concept of alternative use days in the parks a viable one? Can we find a way of negotiating a peace when one group's dream of free and rapid movement runs head-on into another group's dream of solitude?

In February 2003, the University of Colorado's Center of the American West and Natural Resources Law Center, in collaboration with the National Park Service Natural Sounds Program Office, hosted a conference testing our faith in the benefit of reasoned discussion between people with different, and sometimes competing, visions. The conference, "The Silence of the Lands: Noise and Our National Parks," succeeded in hosting a lively and good-natured discussion about the present and future of sound and noise in our National Parks.

In an effort to continue the conversation and open the dialogue to people who could not attend the conference, the Center of the American West has established an on-line forum where you can submit your own comments and review those made by others. We invite you to share your thoughts and ideas with us in a structured and civil environment. In the spirit of the Silence of the Lands conference, we ask that you recognize that this is a very complex issue, and that progress will occur only through respectful debate.

Click here to enter the forum.