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Hiker Prompts Nat'l Parks Graffiti Probe

It’s easy to paint over unwanted graffiti on someone’s fence. But when a nature is defaced, polluting the pristine settings in protected national parks, fixing it is a lot harder.

The National Park Service is now investigating several instances of graffiti in western parks, including Utah's Zion and Canyonlands National Parks, both of which are frequent destinations for Las Vegans looking to get away for a weekend.

But the park service was first tipped off to the work, believed to be scattered over 10 national parks, by Casey Schreiner, editor and founder of ModernHiker.com.

Based in southern California, Schreiner told KNPR's State of Nevada that national parks have long served as a respite from the chaos of urban life. When he learned about the streak of graffiti under investigation, he said it felt "like a punch in the gut."

The culprit's style has been to paint cartoon-like portraits on rock faces. Pictures of the graffiti appeared on Instagram that are consistent with all the locations of the graffiti. Officials are investigating the Instagram user.

GUEST

Casey Schreiner, founder and editor, ModernHiker.com
Copyright 2015 KNPR-FM. To see more, visit http://www.knpr.org/.

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