Photo: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images
Many national parks have remained open during the ongoing federal government shutdown — but they aren’t properly staffed.
The resulting piles of trash, overflowing toilets and even anabandoned prom dress and champagne bottles in Joshua Tree National Park(surprise!) are the stuff of a park service staffer’s nightmare.
“Leaving the parks open without these essential staff is equivalent to leaving the Smithsonian museums open without any staff to protect the priceless [artifacts],” wrote Jonathan B. Jarvis, a former park service director,in a Thursday column forThe Guardian.
Previous government shutdowns caused National Park Service sites to close, but this time the contingency plan was to keep parks open but with a skeleton staff.
The government shut down, which began on Dec. 22, is taking its toll. Staff or no, the parks receive an enormous volume of traffic — almost331 million people visitedin 2017 , according to CNN.
With no one to empty out the waste, toilets are nearing capacity or overflowing at a number of parks. On top of that, vandalism, trash and off-road driving aredamaging the surrounding habitatat parks in California, according to theLos Angeles Times. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks have gone so far as to close completely because of these issues.
A closed and blocked campground at Joshua Tree National Park in California.MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty
Caution tape blocks urinals in the men’s restroom, in Everglades National Park, Fla.Wilfredo Lee/AP/REX/Shutterstock
At Joshua Tree, not only are necessary service stations closed, no one is manning the gates. Instead, vehicles are able to pass through without paying the standard $30 entry fee, per theL.A. Times.And at Rocky Mountain National Park, staffers can’t keep roads cleared of snow so roadways located above 8,000 feet have been closed until it melts, according to CNN.
While the situation will become increasingly dire as the shutdown continues, volunteers and charities are trying to keep the parks clean. The National Park Service has created more than40 agreements with states, concessioners and organizationsto provide important services until staffers can resume their jobs, according toUSA Today.
Arizona provided monies so Grand Canyon Park will have functioning bathrooms and trash removal. The Florida National Parks Association also made an agreement to keep four big parks open,USA Todayreports.
On a more localized level, volunteers took away more than 40 garbage bags of trash in their own vehicles from Joshua Tree on New Year’s Day, according to theL.A. Times.
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But it may not be enough: More park sites are expected to close because of the flood of unmonitored visitors.
Francis toldUSA Today: “President Trump took responsibility for creating this mess, and it will be National Park Service employees cleaning it up when they get back to work.”
source: people.com
