A bag of Cheetos had a huge impact on the ecosystem of a national park

ALBUQUERQUE, NM – A bag of Cheetos is dropped and left on the floor. Seems inconsequential, right?

Barely.

Rangers at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southern New Mexico describe it as a “world-changing” event for the tiny microbes and insects that call this special underground environment home. The sack might have been there for a day or two, or perhaps just hours, but those salty bits of corn, softened by the high humidity, triggered mold growth on the cave floor and in nearby cave formations.

“It had a huge impact on the cave's ecosystem,” the park noted in a social media post, explaining that cave crickets, mites, spiders and flies soon organized to eat and disperse the alien filth, essentially spreading the contamination.

The bright orange bag was discovered by a ranger off the trail as park staff combed the Big Room, North America's largest continuous cave by volume, at the end of each day, looking for lost visitors and any trash or other debris left on the paved trail.

A popular spot in Carlsbad Caverns, the Big Room is a magical expanse filled with towering stalagmites, delicate stalactites, and clusters of cave popcorn.

From this underground wonderland in New Mexico to the lakeshores of Nevada, the tributaries along the Grand Canyon and the lagoons of Florida, park rangers and volunteers collect tons of trash left behind by visitors each year, part of an ongoing fight to prevent the destruction of unique ecosystems while allowing visitors access.

According to the National Park Service, more than 300 million people visit national parks each year, bringing with them nearly 70 million tons of trash—most of which ends up where it belongs: in trash cans and recycling containers.

But collecting the rest of the discarded snack bags and other waste often requires a lot of work, so organizations like Leave No Trace are spreading their message at trailheads and online.

At Carlsbad Caverns, volunteers comb the caves and collect lint, collecting up to 50 pounds (22.68 kilograms) in one five-day operation. Rangers also have sweeping and emergency equipment for the more delicate and sometimes unpleasant tasks, which can include mopping up human waste along the trail.

“It's such a dark area that sometimes people don't even notice it. So they walk through and it leaves traces all over the cave,” says Joseph Ward, a park guide who is dedicated to teaching the “Leave No Trace” message to park visitors and classrooms.

Ranger kits can include gloves, trash bags, water, bleach mixes for decontamination, vacuum cleaners, and even bamboo toothbrushes and tweezers for those hard-to-reach places.

As for the Cheetos spill, Ward told the Associated Press that it could have been avoided because the park does not allow food outside of the historic underground cafeteria.

After the bag was discovered in July, the park's cave specialists agreed on the best method to remove it. Most of the debris was picked up and a toothbrush was used to remove rings of mold and fungus that had spread in nearby cave formations. It was a 20-minute job.

Some work could take hours and involve multiple park employees, Ward said.

Robert Melnick, professor emeritus at the University of Oregon, has studied the cultural landscape of Carlsbad Caverns, including features such as a historic wooden staircase that has become another breeding ground for exotic mold and fungi. He and his team submitted a report to the park this week detailing these resources and making recommendations on how the park can manage them in the future.

The balancing act for park managers in Carlsbad and elsewhere is to meet the dual mandate of preserving and protecting landscapes while also making them accessible, Melnick said.

“I don't know exactly how you could monitor this other than constantly reminding people that the underground, the caves, are a very, very sensitive natural environment,” he said.

Signs are posted throughout the park asking visitors to treat the caves with respect. Rangers give visitors an introduction before they enter the cave, and rules of conduct are printed on the back of each entrance ticket.

But sometimes there is a discrepancy between awareness and personal responsibility, says JD Tanner, education and training director at Leave No Trace.

Many people are aware of the need to “keep everything in its original state,” but Tanner says that message is not always translated into action or there is a lack of understanding that small actions – even leaving trash behind – can cause irreversible damage to a fragile ecosystem.

“If someone doesn’t have a personal interest in preserving that environment, they may not take the regulations seriously,” Tanner said.

Diana Northup, a microbiologist who has spent years studying cave environments around the world, once crawled up the main corridor of Carlsbad Caverns to record everything humans had left behind.

“So this is just one thing among many,” she said of the Cheetos.

During peak season, up to 2,000 people pass through the caves every day. With them comes hair and skin fragments, and these fragments can contain their own microbes.

“So it could be really, really bad, or it could just be us and all the stuff we leave behind,” Northup said of human pollution of caves. “But here's the other side of the coin: The only way to protect caves is for people to be able to see them and experience them.”

“The most important thing,” she says, “is to get people to value the caves and want to preserve them. And you have to tell them what they can do to make that happen.”