PUBLIC LANDS -- If you were in a Yellowstone National Park tourist traffic jam last summer, you might be surprised at what worries parks managers most about the future.

National Park Service looks beyond short-term crowding to looming apathy
At the Outdoor Retailer winter market expo in Utah last week, National Park Service Director Jay Jarvis said the national parks system can handle the problems of overcrowding brought by record visitor numbers at parks across the nation. More records are expected to be exceeded this year as the National Park Service plans special events to commemorate the agency's 100th anniversary.

But Jarvis said the millennial generation's apathy about public lands presents a problem for the parks.

--Salt Lake Tribune