Kentucky environmental attorney Sanders says attendance in National Parks grew 4.5 million during great recession from 2008 to 2009.

America’s national parks are seeing more visitors in 2009 than a year earlier, according to visitation information collected by the National Park Service (NPS). In the first half of 2009, national park units experienced 127,728,898 visits, an increase of nearly 4.5 million visits over the same period in 2008. In June alone, visitation to national parks increased by over 718,000 visits between 2008 to 2009.