The vast, untouched landscapes of national parks make them special, but they also present challenges. How do you preserve the rugged character of these areas while also protecting visitors, monitoring wildlife, and employing staff effectively? Increasingly, it seems that AI and cutting-edge technologies like Starlink are the answer.
The National Park Foundation (NPF), a nonprofit dedicated to supporting these public lands, recently awarded $10 million to support new technology projects at 21 National Park Service (NPS) sites. As national parks continue to grow in popularity, parks are betting that updating their technology can help better manage these precious areas.
what is the event?
Since 1967, NPF Have sought to support national parks. In 2023 alone, it will provide $115 million in funding to parks across the country. This round of funding focused on innovative ideas for better management of parks. More than 200 projects applied, and the NPF awarded 18 projects that will help 21 NPS sites.
“These grants provide funding directly to the people who know the parks best, empowering them to test new approaches, implement scalable technologies, and share what they’ve learned so parks are stronger and visitors have better experiences,” NPF said in a statement. Press release.
What are the projects?
The projects that received funding fall into three main categories: connectivity, data analytics and real-time traffic management. The parks themselves are not recipients of funds. Rather, each park’s nonprofit support arm, such as the Grand Canyon Conservancy or Friends of Acadia National Park, will receive the funding and implement the projects.
connectivity
Part of the allure of going into the great outdoors is unplugging your phone and going off the grid. However, the lack of cell service can also create challenges when it comes to updating park visitors about emergency services and potential closures or dangers. And so, the five NPS sites will use the funding to install Starlink or fiber internet at strategic locations.
Buffalo National River in Arkansas, for example, will install Starlink at campgrounds and river access points “to improve visitor experience and safety by providing access to park-approved websites and applications for emergency communications, navigation and visitor information,” the NRF said in a Announcement.
In other cases, an Internet connection will help speed up lines at the entrances. Muir Woods National Monument in California will install fiber internet so visitors can pay entrance fees electronically. Other sites that fall into the connectivity category are Piscataway Park, Virgin Islands National Park, and Grand Canyon National Park.
data analysis
Knowledge is power, it’s a cliché, but it’s true. To understand where to staff and how to best allocate the park’s limited resources, these sites need to know where visitors go. Six NPS sites – Gateway Arch National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, Minute Man National Historical Park, National Mall and Memorial Park, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Steamtown National Historic Site – will use the funding to analyze cell phone data to optimize operational decision making.
Many of these sites do not have dedicated entrances, making it difficult to keep track of the number of visitors and where they are going. “These sites will work with Pennsylvania State University to analyze available cell phone data to help park managers make more informed decisions about operations, staffing, resource protection, and visitor services,” NRF reported.
real time traffic management
If you’ve been to a popular national park, you’ve undoubtedly experienced long queues at the entrances or trouble finding a parking spot. These issues have become worse after the Trump administration ended the timed admission reservation system at many parks in 2026.
The eight parks will use NRF funding to install sensors, badge readers, traffic counters and other technology to better track visitor numbers and behavior in real time and then disseminate that information to the public.
Acadia National Park, for example, aims to deploy “sensors, predictive analytics, and communications tools that give visitors and park managers real-time information about congestion and wait times in key corridors,” the NRF said.
Yosemite National Park offers text alerts when some parking lots are full, but that’s the extent of communication to visitors at present. The park is hoping to “design an integrated, park-wide system that integrates real-time data on traffic, parking and road conditions into automated, multi-channel visitor information.” Visitors will have a one-stop shop for all the information they need to plan their trip and quickly adjust as needed.
Other parks under this umbrella include Cabrillo National Monument, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, Glacier National Park, Indiana Dunes National Park, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, and Zion National Park.
And besides, poop and pass
The NRF funded two additional projects that do not fit neatly into these categories. As a chain of islands located 22 miles off the coast of California, Channel Islands National Park faces a fundamentally difficult task: dealing with human waste.
Currently, it transports all human waste from pit latrines and other bathhouses out of the islands via ship. This process is expensive, ineffective and potentially disruptive to wildlife. Instead, the park hopes to use NRF funds to install a waste incineration system. Yes, burning sewage may be better for the environment than transporting it by boat.
The final project focused on the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Unlike many other NPS sites, the site does not currently charge an admission fee for day-use visitors. This recreation area will use the funds to set up a pass system and charge visitors a fee, to be able to make updates to the infrastructure. According to this, Delaware Water Gap could attract 3.9 million visitors in 2025 nps dataSo adding a fee system could mean big bucks for the site.
How does it matter?
In 2025, the NPS lost a quarter of its staff due to cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency. A reduced number of staff attempting to handle the increasing number of visitors can create serious challenges. Upgrading technology to better inform park staff and visitors may help lighten the burden, or allow remaining staff to respond to visitor needs more efficiently.
NPS may face further budget cuts in future. President Trump’s 2027 budget proposal calls for a $736 million, or 25%, cut in the NPS budget compared to 2026. The organization also currently faces a $24 billion backlog of deferred maintenance. In an environment of increasingly limited budgets for parks, organizations like the National Park Foundation can help fill gaps and facilitate improvements.
