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Cedar Yasord climbs a tree next to her family's RV at the Mammoth Hot Springs campground at Yellowstone National Park during a recent summer.
Scenic national campground sites in the United States that require highly competitive reservations see more white, high-income visitors than campsites that don’t require reservations.
That’s according to a study recently released by outdoor recreation researchers at the University of Montana. They found the federal government’s online campground reservation system grappling with the surging popularity of outdoor recreation and not adequately finding ways to provide equitable access to all.
Because making a highly sought-after online reservation requires high-speed internet and also requires institutional knowledge on how the system works, fewer novice and low-income campers may be landing coveted sites. Also, studies have found that fewer minorities have jobs that allow them to plan a vacation six months in advance, which is often the time required by the federal system.
Will Rice, an assistant professor at the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation in Missoula, worked with colleagues on a novel way to figure who was winning coveted national park, monument and recreation area online reservations, which are extremely competitive.
