Snack attack: How a dropped Cheetos bag attacked the Carlsbad Caverns ecosystem

A recent visitor to Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico got the munchies in one of the caves and left behind some incriminating evidence — a bag of Cheetos. While losing their snack might be a minor inconvenience, park officials took to social media, highlighting this as a “world-changing” event to the caves’ tiny inhabitants.
The Carlsbad Caverns National Park is home to “high ancient sea ledges, deep rocky canyons, flowering cactus, and desert wildlife — treasures above the ground in the Chihuahuan Desert. Hidden beneath the surface are more than 119 caves — formed when sulfuric acid dissolved limestone leaving behind caverns of all sizes,” per the National Park Service.
According to the park service website, the most popular route is the Big Room Trail — a 1.25-mile walk that leads to the largest single cave chamber by volume in North America.
The Washington Post reported that heavy foot traffic from nearly 400,000 visitors to Carlsbad Caverns generated about $32 million for the local economy, according to the park service report.
These tourists are under strict restrictions, only allowed to pack plain water inside the huge cavern. So, the crunchy, crispy, cheese-dusted snack did not make the list.
“At the scale of human perspective, a spilled snack bag may seem trivial, but to the life of the cave it can be world changing,” the park said in its facebook post about the Cheeto bag found on the side of Big Room Trail.
“The processed corn, softened by the humidity of the cave, formed the perfect environment to host microbial life and fungi. Cave crickets, mites, spiders and flies soon organize into a temporary food web, dispersing the nutrients to the surrounding cave and formations. Molds spread higher up the nearby surfaces, fruit, die and stink. And the cycle continues.”
Rangers spent time removing traces of the airy orange puffs, carefully cleaning away molds and foreign debris from inside the cave. The post noted, “While some members of this delicate ecosystem are cave-dwellers, many of the microbial life and molds are not.”
The Washington Post reported that Jut Wynne, an assistant research professor of biological sciences at Northern Arizona University, said people tend to treat national parks like theme parks. Another post by park officials stated, “Contrary to popular belief, the cave is NOT a big trash can.”
Another post revealed that over 60,000 cave formations have been damaged in Carlsbad Cavern. Many are believed to be the work of tourists taking home illegal souvenirs, according to The Washington Post.
As tourists, it’s time to step up as the National Park Service urges a “Leave No Trace” message when visiting parks. Carlsbad Caverns National Park said, “A common saying is to take only photographs and leave only footprints.”
An article by the Deseret News notes that in recent years, national parks have experienced a surge in visitation, which has placed a burden on park facilities. Utah alone saw its five parks reach a peak of more than 325 million visits in 2023, according to the National Park Service.
“Backcountry trails are clogging up, mountain roads are thickening with traffic, picturesque vistas are morphing into selfie-taking scrums. And in the process, what is most loved about them risks being lost,” per The Guardian.
Along with the millions of visitors our parks receive each year, the harsh effects of Mother Nature have impacted their well-being. In the West, tree mortality and wildfires are at the forefront of these challenges, aggravating the strain on park ecosystems and management efforts, per the National Park Service.
Although climate change might be a daunting challenge, there are things we can control to prevent “loving our parks to death.” Yellowstone resource experts believe that limits on traffic entering the park are long overdue, according to The Guardian.
“Great or small we all leave an impact wherever we go. Let us all leave the world a better place than we found it,” the Carlsbad Caverns’ social media post concluded.