Grand Canyon National Park is cherished by people from all over the world for its rich cultural history, its tantalizing landscape, its incredible access to recreation through canyons displaying more than a billion years of geologic time, and its unique opportunities for experiencing solitude and natural quiet. Unlike many physical resources such as archeological artifacts or wildlife, natural quiet is a resource that cannot be seen or touched. In our modern world, where natural quiet is increasingly rare, it's more important than ever we protect Grand Canyon’s natural soundscape.
Grand Canyon National Park defines the natural soundscape as "the natural ambient sound level of the park." It is made up of all the sound conditions in a park which exist in the absence of any human-produced noises. These conditions are actually composed of many natural sounds, near and far, which often are heard simultaneously.
For example, sitting next to a creek, your soundscape might include: wind through vegetation, flowing water, and bird songs. Natural soundscape is sometimes called "natural quiet," but it does not mean silence. Park staff take this definition as a basis for determining the "sound environment,” which is used to mitigate human activity that may produce intrusive impacts on the park’s soundscape. In an acoustic environment subjected to high levels of anthropogenic (human-caused) noise, natural ambient sounds may be masked by these other noise sources.
