Panelists exchanged comments, which were kept anonymous to maintain survey neutrality during the rating process. These excerpts offer a glimpse of panelists' varied points of view and the reasoning behind each score. They are not the views of the National Geographic Society.
Acadia National Park, MAINE
Score 64
Coastal beauty and helpful local groups vie with summer crowding and tacky commerce in the otherwise attractive gateway of Bar Harbor. Adds a local panelist: "The increase in PFAs (People From Away) is eroding social integrity"—lobstermen can't afford to live on the coast.
"The rocky Maine shores are wonderful. Unfortunately the town of Bar Harbor is just not that enjoyable. The little towns of Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor fit into the landscape and offer every amenity."
"Some strip commercial development detracts from the scenic quality of the area. Bar Harbor is an intensely developed commercial town, but it retains some of its historic character."
"This incredibly inspiring park suffers from massive over-use throughout the summer and at specific locations, e.g., visitor center, Cadillac summit, and Jordan Pond."
"Some of its more isolated areas are relatively unspoiled. Car pollution, excessive tourism, and not enough large parcels of pristine land."
"The park has faced many challenges, but when I recently revisited Schoonic Point after many years, I found it in better condition, with well-established trails and less litter."
Antietam National Battlefield, MARYLAND
Score 66
"An overlooked treasure!" The park gets high marks for historical interpretation, management, and sense of place. Its main problem? "Surburban encroachment is engulfing it." Gateways seem to be fighting back, though. "Sharpsburg, Boonsboro, and Shepherdstown are special in their preservation efforts."
"The park and its environs are amazingly bucolic considering how close it is to the greater Washington megalopolis. The town of Sharpsburg is a lovely walkable community with locally owned coffee shops and stores that seem to be prospering without being overwhelmed."
"An outstanding example of cooperative efforts with the state and private sector to preserve the historic setting of a park."
"Extremely well-run and preserved park. Park interpreters give an excellent overview of past and current status of the historic homesteads, battlefield, and surrounding community."
"The site is special despite the suburban encroachment that is engulfing it."
"A true 'sense of place'."
Cape Breton Highlands National Park, NOVA SCOTIA
Score 78
Cape Breton Island retains its charm despite changing demographics. "Spectacular coastline, villages seem authentic, and the area is fairly unspoiled." "Tourism is built on the Celtic and French heritage of the island." "The park's Audubon-certified golf course is a model for collaborative action between conservation and recreation."
"Tourism benefits the local people—most businesses are operated and owned by locals."
"Cape Breton has done an excellent job developing sustainable tourism by using its musical heritage to spread tourism into the fall months [Celtic Colors Festival] and seeking to build a winter tourism trade."
"The Cabot Trail and the communities near Cape Breton Highlands National Park offer a great visitor experience. Still relatively uncrowded."
"Locals still seem genuinely happy to see tourists. That's a good sign."
Cape Hatteras National Seashore, NORTH CAROLINA
Score 50
The nation's grandest stretch of barrier island beach is "obscenely over-developed" north of the National Seashore. "This place doesn't have the same family feel that it used to have." At the south end, Ocracoke still draws praise.
"Development to the north is so intense that [keeping] some unrelieved open space is critical."
"At one point the beach itself devolves into a highway for 4x4s. It's actually dangerous to lie in the sand for fear of being run over."
"More needs to be done in the region to control the size and impact of housing."
"The National Seashore, which is itself in pretty good shape, stands in stark contrast to the gateway area to the north, which is grossly overdeveloped and becoming quite congested."
Colonial National Historical Park (York/Jamestown), VIRGINIA
Score 59
The two historic sites linked by a parkway are deemed authentic and appealing, but not so the neighborhood. "The surrounding gateway areas are becoming overcommercialized in a way that does not enhance the region's sense of place. Too many chains are degrading the experience."
"In general in good shape, but surrounding real estate development makes the park's integrity uncertain."·
"Although a heavily managed area, the existing environment appears to be sustainable. Outstanding heritage resources. Surprisingly aesthetic region."
"Area is threatened by suburban and exurban development, while the visitor experience is degraded by increasing traffic."
"The buffer areas really need to be expanded and protected."
Cumberland Island National Seashore, GEORGIA
Score 62
On this barrier island, "the gloomy ruins of wealth and grandeur couple with incredible beaches." Debate swirls over whether to maintain the historic but decaying plantation houses. The boat to the park leaves from St. Marys, "still an authentic little fishing town with shrimp boats."
"Very protected with a limit of 300 visitors a day. This has caused some controversy over the 'wilderness' designation, which some in the community feel restricts access to local people. St. Mary's, GA, the embarkation site for the NPS boat, is still an authentic little fishing town with local eating places, stores, and some shrimp boats."
"Perhaps the best wild beach experience available to the general public along the entire Atlantic Coast. The solitude is wonderful."
"The story of the early African American dwellings and churches on the end of the island is marginal, if told at all."
"This park is in great shape except for a proposal to destroy historic buildings in the park. That would be a very bad thing."
Everglades National Park/Big Cypress National Preserve, FLORIDA
Score 34
"Clearly a paradise in jeopardy," the Everglades is dying of thirst and other maladies. Upstream demand for water by the sugar industry and growing cities has slowed a much-heralded restoration program to a crawl. Promised federal funding has not been forthcoming. The national park is not over-visited, but off-road vehicles have scarred Big Cypress. "A culture of big swamp buggies, high-speed watercraft, and airboats does little to preserve the more fragile areas." Birding is still good, if only a shadow of what it used to be. "Rapid development on all sides has created an unpleasant, unattractive gateway to one of the planet's unique places."
"The threats to these areas are too great to count. Perhaps the most serious is the flagging interest in financing and implementing the Everglades Restoration program. Ecologically, these parks are on life support."
"The urban environment has covered both coasts and forced expansion toward the interior of Florida. The Everglades are becoming an island ecosystem cut off from central Florida."
"Encroachment by housing and retail development has thrown the precious ecosystem into a tailspin, and if man doesn't back off, there will be nothing left of one of this country's most amazing treasures."
"Tourism development in the gateway region is totally unplanned and unsustainable."
"The larger problem is the park's intensely compromised water flow from highly developed areas some distance away."
"Everglades is a wonderful park, but heavily impacted by mismanagement of the water regime 'upstream,' with the sugar industry primarily to blame, followed by the large metropolitan areas and their demands for water."
"A natural treasure, but it is undervalued, the victim of the rape of south Florida."
"The Everglades is surrounded by practically every encroachment, e.g., suburbanization, run-off from urban and agriculture, growing numbers of exotic plants and animals, slow progress in returning natural water flows."
Fundy National Park, NEW BRUNSWICK
Score 68
This "beautiful little park" on the tide-famous Bay of Fundy earns praise for aesthetics, few crowds, and "a strong program of ecological restoration to bring back American martens and peregrine falcons" despite disruptive logging on the border.
"The environment, heritage, culture, and aesthetics are doing fine. Tourism is being developed well and maintained within the capacity of the area."
"The gateway town is a popular stopping point for tourists and could be more linked with the park, as by buses, to protect the park's ecosystem over the long term."
"Fundy NP has ecological integrity problems, particularly because of forestry development in the region. The north boundary, in particular, has large areas of clear-cut right up to the boundary road. Manicured lawns, lawn bowling, and golf in the park near the Alma entrance are inappropriate."
Gettysburg National Military Park, PENNSYLVANIA
Score 51
The consensus on notoriously tacky Gettysburg? It's getting better. "Taking down the observation tower and curtailing the most obnoxious elements in the encroaching phalanx of fast-food establishments represents a victory." Park management is improving, and the historic downtown thriving, but so is adjacent sprawl and "a dense corridor of wax museums, T-shirt shops, and chain eateries."
"Used to be the most overcommercialized national military park, but it is getting better. Inappropriate development in and around the battlefield is being removed."
"The Steinweir Avenue has improved, but it is still a prime example of commercial development that detracts from the quality of visitor experience."
"The town should enact stiff sign controls and ban construction of all new billboards."
"Gettysburg was placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 11 Most Endangered List in 1992. Sprawl and development around the park continue to be an issue."
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, NORTH CAROLINA, TENNESSEE
Score 40
Terrible traffic, vista-choking haze, invasive species, and crowded trails number among the problems facing the beloved Great Smokies, a treasure house of biodiversity. Topping all negatives are the "horrible," "appalling," "distasteful" gateways of Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, and Cherokee: "theme parks, outlets, and billboards." Federal policy hasn't helped, either: "Kicking people off 6,600 tracts of land to create the park has led to huge cultural problems."
"Too many people, too many cars, too much pollution, not only from car exhaust, but from coal-burning power plants to the west."
"The National Parks Conservation Association's State of the Park report shows that the park's air pollution has greatly reduced visibility, from an average of 113 miles under natural conditions to an annual average of 25 miles. Nonnative pests and diseases are killing Fraser firs, hemlocks, and beech trees in the park's forests. Each year more than two million people tour popular Cades Cove, creating traffic congestion and causing damage."
"Great park, wonderful hiking, superb historic buildings and landscapes, but this is all degraded by the distasteful tourist schlock presented by Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, Cherokee, and other gateway towns."
"Great Smoky Mountains are beautiful. The visitor centers are heavily visited. Many of the trails are heavily impacted. The gateways into the park are glorified amusement parks."
Gros Morne National Park, NEWFOUNDLAND
Score 78
The geological, scenic landscape of Gros Morne receives praise, despite grazing problems with nonnative moose. "I've never felt more welcome anywhere in North America." "A model of the collaborative actions of local communities and park management."
"A model of the collaborative actions between local communities and the park management. Authentic and unspoiled, and given the approach to interpretation and management, is likely to stay so."
"Gros Morne is spectacular. Limit snowmobiling, and try to support private sector tour operators."
"High environmental and social integrity. However, the increasing development of second homes and resorts may lead to substantially increased visitor pressure."
Shenandoah National Park, VIRGINIA
Score 48
Best of the beset by far, Shenandoah needs a buffer zone to protect its famous vistas from more residential sprawl. Haze, invasive species, and plant diseases add to its troubles. Several panelists agree on the secret to a visit: "Hoards drive along Skyline Drive and see each other's bumpers, but a back dirt road can take you to miles of hiking without a soul in sight." Gateway town centers retain some charm.
"It is a beautiful place, spoiled by the amount of cars that drive through. Cars need to be regulated!"
"Increasing number of day visitors from Washington, DC, use the parkway and popular trails and then leave without giving anything back to the region."
"High visitation, and the aesthetic condition in gateway areas is stressed by the poorly planned and developed tourism."
"The National Parks Conservation Association's "State of the Parks" assessment shows that the park's average visibility has been reduced from 115 miles to 25 miles, with visibility as low as 1 mile on some days, the third worst summer visibility of any national park monitored. The wooly adelgid, a nonnative beetle from Asia, is destroying the park's hemlock forests; 20 percent of plant species in the park are now nonnative. Gone from the park are bison, elk, river otter, timber wolf, cougar, red fox, and gray fox; restored are the white-tailed deer, black bear, wild turkey and bobcat."