Overcrowding challenges
With many people eager to get outside during the coronavirus stay-athome orders and business restrictions, Tennessee State Parks are experiencing an increase in park visitations.
“It is very busy at all of our parks,” said Jim Bryson, Deputy Commissioner of Tennessee Parks and Conservation.
“At some parks, we are seeing 30 to 40% over capacity. Other parks are at capacity. The park staff says it feels like the Fourth of July every day.”
The Tennessee Parks and Conservation department uses car counts to estimate the number of park visitors, Bryson said.
The visitation number typically cited for the statewide system of 56 parks and 20 of the natural areas, is between 30 million and 38 million annual visitors — but he estimates visits for some parks are up 30% or more this year. “And that may be low.”
“We want people to come out. Studies have shown being outside is good for their mental and emotional health and of course good for their physical health,” he said.
Parks that have experienced dramatic increases this spring include Radnor Lake and Harpeth River and the plateau parks, like South Cumberland, along with Burgess Falls, Frozen Head, Warriors Path, Big Hill Pond, Meeman-shelby and Pinson Mounds.
“At South Cumberland, they were so overwhelmed that they have turned people away. And Burgess Falls is very crowded,” Bryson said.
Bryson said parking has been a challenge in some of the busier parks.
Harpeth River State Park Ranger Gary Patterson had to resort to towing cars on a recent weekend when boaters and hikers parked irresponsibly and blocked access to emergency vehicles and other visitors.
“It has been crazy and hard to manage,” Patterson said.
Visitation at the Hidden Lake area of Harpeth River State Park jumped from a monthly average of 5,000 -6,000 visitors to an estimated 22,000 for the month of March, he said.
“The Narrows is even worse,” he said of the park’s beautiful Narrows of the Harpeth area that is perennially popular with kayakers, canoers and hikers.
Patterson says he has not yet received official monthly counts at the two sites for April or May. “But it has gotten worse since (March). I would say the number has doubled” on recent weekends. “We have had to spend our time directing traffic instead of patrolling.
“It has been madness. We have had to tell people to go home. We rangers pray for a rainy weekend,” he said.
Patterson is encouraging people to visit other Harpeth River access points and avoid the Narrows on weekends.
Patterson said that while his park’s 40 miles of river give visitors plenty of room to kayak, canoe and fish, the access points where people put boats in are crowded, and “people are not social distancing.”
Bryson agreed: “They seem to think that because they are outside there is no need to social distance.”
The lack of social distancing is not just on the river, he said. “You see people crowded together at overlooks and on the trails” at many of the parks.”.
Social distancing
State Parks staff has been adding signage about social distancing, and rangers have been encouraging the wearing of masks and discouraging families from playing on park playgrounds.
The department announced that its pools would be closed for the 2020 summer season, and they are limiting park programming, like Birds of Prey programs and ranger- led hikes, to small groups.
Public Lands Day on June 1, when all
See PARKS, Page 3B