User Impact

State parks and forests are not immune to negative impacts from visitors and nearby residents.

With more than 40 million visitors a year to our state parks alone, imagine the foot traffic, litter, soil compression, and more that can occur, even when folks are following all park and forest guideline.

Then there are those that deviate from acceptable practices and carve their names or swear words into picnic tables, spray paint interpretive signs, steal light bulbs, and shoot out signs.

Some may inadvertently bring an invasive insect into a campground via their firewood or dump their trash on state forest land. And while the impact of this wear and tear is rolled into the annual major maintenance budget for state parks and forests and therefore not quantified on its own, these actions cost time and money, pulling resources away from other maintenance projects.

40 mil.


visitors a year to state parks alone

User Impact News

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The Problem

Explore the extent of the problems we face and what it means for our communities and residents across our commonwealth.