Last week political leaders visiting Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area were exposed to the dark side of our well-loved parks.

Superintendent Debbie Bird took the group on a boat tour, stopping on one of the lake’s many camping beaches. There she showed them the piles of human waste that degrade the environment and endanger the health of campers.

Clearly, visitors to Lake Roosevelt – last year there were 1.28 million of them – need a rapid education on the proper way to dispose of human waste near their camp sites.

This reservoir laps up onto more than 600 miles of shoreline, making it impossible to build bathrooms at every location where visitors might need them. Currently, campers are required to bring portable toilets, but the area is so short-staffed that rangers can’t enforce the rules. Lake Roosevelt has eight full-time rangers this summer, down from 20 in 1997.

The National Park Service hasn’t tested the water of the lake’s swimming areas for E. coli and other health risks, but Bird knows it has to be affected. When lake levels rise, these waste-strewn beaches can wind up submerged.

Bird believes the solution lies in ramping up an education program, which will require additional staff, and possibly a new permit and fee system to help cover the costs. Campers need to learn about new degradable waste disposal bags, called WAG Bags, which transform stools into an odorless gel. They can be easily carried out and thrown in the trash.

In addition, long-range park plans should include building additional bathrooms in key locations.

Fortunately, the approaching National Park Service Centennial in 2016 has inspired plans to update the country’s national parks, monuments and recreation areas, using additional federal funds and private donations. As powerful symbols of democracy, national parks transform many of this country’s most beautiful settings into public sites all Americans can enjoy. Now it’s also time for citizens to play our part in preserving these regions. For Lake Roosevelt, a new public awareness campaign about the proper disposal of human waste will be the key.

Park rangers would do well to pose that question to campers that your mom probably asked: “What would happen if everybody did that?”

The answer, we dare say, certainly isn’t pretty.