Courtesy of Maksym Samoiliuk

Vandalism is increasing throughout nature and parks, and it seriously isn’t cool.

Year round, people like to go outside, visit parks, and just take in the scenery. Everybody likes to enjoy nature, but that doesn’t mean you should destroy it. Everywhere in parks and reserves worldwide, people of all ages explore, view, and record lots of things around them. 

However, some people decide to remember the moment in more unorthodox ways. Some choose to take pictures, while some more reckless and “daring” people decide to commit vandalism. 

People in national parks, reserves, and other protected places decide to do things that range from putting their name on a rock or drawing a funny picture, to actually destroying property or defacing entire monuments. At the time, this may seem like a funny little thing you do to impress your crush, or a dare from your friends, but it has way more consequences than you think. 

Organisations like the National Park Service (NPS) have been struggling with people marking up historic or beautiful places. While there is a judicial side to this, the biggest impact this has is on the experience of others. People visit these reserves every day, and instead of being able to just enjoy nature, they have to stare at things like love messages or pictures carved into rocks. 

While this may seem harmless, this ruins precious monuments that have been there longer than most living things on earth. From my experience, the main demographic for this type of activity is high schoolers. 

You’re out with your friends, messing around, nothing bad in that. Then you or your friend get the idea to crave a funny message into the rocks for someone else to find. You get a sharp rock, and the rest is history. While the message may have been meant for other reckless teenagers that come here, all other visitors, from elderly people to children coming with their parents, are forced to see this. 

People want to enjoy things, and vandalism isn’t cool. Not to mention the criminal repercussions. These include vandalism charges, fines, and depending on what you did, even imprisonment. This is not meant to scare you away from going outside or enjoying nature, but just a callout, a note of sorts, reminding everyone to stay safe, be mindful of others, and appreciate nature without destroying it.

This was contributed by Maksym Samoiliuk

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