LIME REALTY GROUP recently heard a podcast about ways to lower certain public costs in national parks and one of the suggestions they brought up is one we think everyone should decide to do even if they’re not getting a break on a park entrance fee.  Hear us out and then let us know what you think.

So one of the panelists talked about the areas where the parks could save money in their budgets and one of her suggestions involved upkeep of public areas.  She suggested offer two types of Identification when you entered the park.  One would be your full price entrance fee showing you were there legally.  The other would be a discounted entrance fee that came with a trash bag.  When you left the park, you presented the full bag of trash and that’s how you earned the discount.  She believed people could easily fill a bag with trash they found on the ground and trash they created while in the park within the space of ten minutes or less.  And with everyone cleaning up, the parks wouldn’t need as much maintenance in public areas.  That reduced cost would go a long way to reigning in over-inflated operating budgets for these public land entities.

So that’s all well and good, but why not do that anyway?  And just because rather than as a way to earn a cheaper entrance fee.  Anyone who walks in a park or a trail in the Southern Utah area can certainly point out the “unseen” trash people have littered all around them.

If yo’re going to go to the park, or even for a walk on a paved trail, why not spend the first ten minutes, pull out a trash back and fill it up…  If more people demonstrated this degree of interest in the community we’d all find ourselves living in an even more wonderful place than we do now.

We’re gonna try it.  Can we count you in?