What Leaf Peepers Teach Us About Common Resources

Overcrowded trails and environmental damage from leaf peepers show the tragedy of the commons in action

A crowd makes their way through Artist's Bluff Trail in Franconia, New Hampshire [Source: Tamara Breau | CBS News]

As autumn sweeps across much of the country, millions of people flock to trails and parks to marvel at the annual spectacle of fall foliage. The fiery reds, deep oranges, and golden yellows create a breathtaking display that draws in tourists and outdoor enthusiasts alike. But behind this picturesque scene, recent reports of overcrowded trails, littered parks, and environmental wear-and-tear reveal a deeper economic issue at play: the tragedy of the commons.

The influx of “leaf peepers” highlights the challenges of managing common resources—those shared spaces and natural assets that are available to everyone but susceptible to overuse. To understand the economic forces driving this seasonal strain on public goods, we need to explore why common resources often fall victim to neglect and what solutions can help preserve them for future generations.

For most of the United States, peak fall color arrives in October [Source: Explore Fall]

What Are Common Resources?

At the heart of the issue lies a key economic concept: common resources. The resources are based on two main criteria: excludability and rivalry. A resource is excludable if access to it can be restricted—think of a private beach or a subscription service like Netflix. A resource is rivalrous if one person’s use of it reduces its availability to others. For example, if you buy a slice of pizza, no one else can enjoy that same slice.

Common resources are non-excludable—it’s difficult or impractical to prevent people from using them—but they are rivalrous, meaning that as more people use them, their quality or availability decreases for everyone else. Parks, hiking trails, and forests fit neatly into this category. You can’t easily stop people from entering a national park, but overcrowding on the trails can ruin the experience for everyone.

The issue with common resources is that individuals often have the incentive to maximize their personal enjoyment, even if it comes at the expense of others. Economists refer to this dynamic as the tragedy of the commons—a situation where a shared resource gets overused because each person’s immediate benefit outweighs the long-term cost for the community.

The Tragedy of the Trails

During peak foliage season, public trails and parks in regions known for their vibrant autumn leaves become packed with visitors. While the experience of hiking through a colorful forest is awe-inspiring for most, the environmental toll is hard to ignore. Overcrowded trails quickly lead to issues like trampled vegetation and piles of litter.

Popular destinations struggle to keep pace with the volume of visitors, while less-visited areas bear the brunt as people seek quieter, "hidden gem" spots. As more tourists flock to these alternative locations, those quieter trails often become just as overrun, shifting the problem to places that are even less equipped to handle the influx.

Groups of people wander through heather meadows near the Paradise Visitors Center, within a half-mile from the parking lot [Source: satellite779 via Reddit]

Leaf peepers have a strong incentive to visit these trails—they get to enjoy nature’s beauty for little to no cost. However, because these trails are a common resource, their collective use leads to environmental degradation and crowding. In the end, the quality of the experience diminishes for everyone. This is the essence of the tragedy of the commons: each individual acts in their own interest, enjoying the resource, but without considering the broader cost of overuse.

The tragedy emerges from a misalignment between individual incentives and collective outcomes. On an individual level, it’s perfectly rational to visit a popular trail, even if it’s crowded, because the personal enjoyment outweighs the relatively minor inconvenience. But when everyone makes the same decision, the combined effect is ultimately a diminished resource for all. What feels like a harmless, personal choice becomes a collective problem when multiplied across thousands of visitors.

Can the Problem Be Solved?

Solving the overuse of common resources like public trails requires aligning individual incentives with the collective need to preserve these spaces. Economists often point to several common solutions:

1. Introducing fees or permits may be a practical way to manage access. By making trails excludable—charging a fee to enter or requiring a permit—parks can limit the number of visitors and reduce congestion. Many national parks already require entry fees, but state parks are often open to the public.

2. Another approach is setting quotas, limiting the number of visitors allowed at any given time. Popular national parks like Yosemite already use this system for certain trails, ensuring that foot traffic doesn’t overwhelm sensitive areas during peak seasons.

3. Elinor Ostrom’s influential work showed that communities can successfully manage common resources through collective action and local governance. While the "leaf peepers" come from outside local communities, there’s potential to adopt similar principles through better public awareness campaigns. Initiatives like “Leave No Trace” educate visitors about responsible trail use and the importance of protecting natural spaces.

Final Thoughts

The flood of leaf peepers crowding local trails is just one example of how the tragedy of the commons plays out in our everyday lives. What starts as a peaceful retreat into nature can quickly turn into an overcrowded experience if left unchecked. But this issue extends far beyond fall foliage. Think about overfishing in the world’s oceans, where the inability to restrict access has led to depleted fish stocks. Or consider urban traffic congestion, where public roadways—another common resource—become clogged and less valuable the more people use them.

The challenge with common resources is that solutions often involve trade-offs. Fees, quotas, and public awareness campaigns can help protect these resources, but they’re not always popular. People want free and unrestricted access to nature, highways, and oceans, even if such access leads to long-term damage. It’s important to find a balance between individual incentives and the collective need for preservation.

---

Thank you for reading Monday Morning Economist! This free weekly newsletter explores the economics behind pop culture and current events. This newsletter lands in the inbox of more than 5,600 subscribers every week! You can support this newsletter by sharing this free post or becoming a paid supporter:

---

• The top three US states that had the highest percentage of stays in the fall were North Dakota, Maine, and Massachusetts [Airbnb]

• The New Hampshire Travel Bureau expects 3.7 million people to visit New Hampshire this fall [CBS News]

• New England's colorful fall foliage generates around $8 billion in tourism revenue each year [National Park Service]

• Fall foliage in Maine’s Acadia National Park occurs two weeks later than it did in the 1950s [The Daily Yonder]

• Search volume data from Priceline found that Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is the most popular getaway for leaf peepers this year [Travel & Leisure Magazine]