The dual mission of the National Park Service is “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

While a central purpose of 36 C.F.R. § 2.1 is, as the name of the section suggests, to preserve natural resources—which fits nicely into the former half of the mission of the NPS to conserve natural objects and wildlife—that’s only half the agency’s mission. If it’s true—as Visscher, Rabins, and Scot argue—that a host of unclear and conflicting foraging rules and information deficits discourage visitors from using and enjoying our National Parks, then that’s a serious problem, and one that strikes at the latter half of the agency’s mission.

A public that eats from the park will protect that park.

Such divergent policies among adjacent parks can’t help but breed visitor confusion, or simply encourage some visitors to—as the NPS’s own report claims—“avoid the parks altogether.”

However, the NPS suggests this problem simply doesn’t exist.

Read the full article on legal foraging by Baylen J. Linnekin at The New Food Economy