The good news is that national parks will remain open during the government shutdown.
The bad news is that national parks will remain open during the government shutdown.
Park roads, lookouts, trails, and open-air memorials will generally remain accessible to visitors, according to a national parks contingency plan issued just ahead of the shutdown.
But about ⅔ of agency staff were expected to be furloughed during the shutdown and national park advocates, including more than three dozen former superintendents, urged the government to close the parks.
“Past shutdowns in which gates remained open with limited staff have hurt our parks: Iconic symbols cut down and vandalized, trash piled up, habitats destroyed, and visitor safety jeopardized,” the letter stated.
In the days leading up to the October 1 shutdown, the National Parks Conservation Association called for the National Park Service to close the parks if the government shutdown, citing a long list of issues that occurred during the last shutdown, December 2018–January 2019 that included:
- Damage to park infrastructure from illegal off-roading, reports of stolen artifacts from battlefields and more.
- Prehistoric petroglyphs were vandalized and irreparably damaged at Big Bend National Park.
- Joshua trees, which are slow growth and can be more than a century old, were chopped down in Joshua Tree National Park.
- At Death Valley National Park campgrounds were kept open but restrooms were closed, leading to sanitation issues. Illegal off-roading vehicles drove through fragile archaeological sites.
- At Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, the human waste and trash issues became so problematic that the parks were eventually forced to close.
Call it Parks and Wrecks.
Shutdown plans for the parks include a provision that allows states, tribes, or other third parties to enter agreements with the Department of the Interior to use donations to keep parks open for more services. A number of nonprofit organizations and several states, including Arizona, Colorado, and Utah have done this in a previous shutdown, and Jared Polis, Colorado’s governor, hopes to make such an arrangement for Rocky Mountain National Park during the current shutdown. “If Congress does not fund the federal government, I urge the Administration to prioritize the operations of the national parks so that they can continue to be enjoyed,” he said. “Here in Colorado, we are evaluating all options, and are a willing partner if needed, to use limited State funds to keep our biggest park fully operational if necessary.” But Arizona’s governor, Katie Hobbs, said she did not plan on dedicating state funds to keep the Grand Canyon open this time around–you might want to hold off on scheduling that fall break vacation.
Another way to ruin a vacation, though, is to not get paid, which is what happens to a lot of federal workers during a shutdown. Maryland Governor Wes Moore announced his state is taking steps to protect the state’s 260,000 federal workers and those who rely on federal programs, including programs administered by the state, such as SNAP and Medicaid. He said the state is also working with the private sector to “shield federal workers impacted by the shutdown,” such as eviction, foreclosures, and utility shutoffs, and expanding emergency assistance programs for federal employees living there.
The government shutdown is also creating chaos in the contracting world, Federal News Network reports.
Meanwhile, the American Federation of Government Employees is suing the Trump-Vance administration “for forcing civil servants at the U.S. Department of Education to engage in partisan political rhetoric during the current federal shutdown.” The union sent a cease and desist letter and filed a lawsuit last week in District Court for the District of Columbia.
The oddball upside to the shutdown? Many of the people usually talking about how awful government is are now singing its praises. Cue Big Yellow Taxi.
Jeff Hagan
Communications Director
Image: Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, photo by Jeff Hagan