Note to students: Read the "Background" below before answering the questions.

1. a) How large is Joshua Tree National Park?
b) Where is it located?
c) When was it designated a national park?
d) How many people visit the park each year?

2. How have park officials reacted to the recently escalating graffiti problem in the park (what did they say/what did they do)?

3. a) How much of the park has been closed?
b) For how long will it be closed?

4. What is the penalty for defacing National Park property?

5. Pat Pilcher, a park ranger at Joshua Tree said: "People are appalled and people are wondering how it [graffiti] could happen here, in a national park." What do you think: are national parks immune to vandalism? (If so, due to what? … the publics' respect for nature, the amount of effort it would take a graffiti artist/vandal to get to the park, etc.?) Explain your answer.

6. What solutions would you suggest to park officials for the following:
a) how to clean the graffiti off the rocks
b) how to prevent future vandalism
c) how to catch those who have defaced the park already (the sites in the park remain closed while investigators try to track the vandals - what methods do you think they are using to do so?)