The National Park Service said it plans to keep most national parks open amid the government shutdown, which began Tuesday at midnight, but restrictions will be in place due to limited staffing.
The NPS released its contingency plans on Tuesday evening before the shutdown, saying, “Park roads, lookouts, trails, and open-air memorials will generally remain accessible to visitors.”
However, NPS will furlough at least 9,296 employees, a majority of its staff, according to the plan. The total number of employees working at the agency before the shutdown was 14,500.
Due to limited staffing, NPS will be unable to provide comprehensive services to national parks. The parks’ “websites and social media will not be maintained, except for emergency communications,” according to the plan.
NPS said the parks will not provide regular updates on road or trail conditions. It added that park staff will post signs notifying visitors that only basic or no visitor services will be available. There will be minimal maintenance, and management activities and emergency services will be limited.
Parks that collect fees under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act will use those funds to provide “basic visitor services” such as maintaining “restrooms and sanitation, trash collection, road maintenance, campground operations, law enforcement and emergency operations, and staffing entrance gates as necessary to provide critical safety information,” according to the plan.
The government shut down after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a consensus on a short-term funding bill. Democrats pushed to include extensions of added Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of the year, in a government funding bill. However, Republicans rejected that request, so Democrats blocked legislation to fund the government without the subsidies.
NPS’s plan follows a letter sent earlier this week by former superintendents of national parks to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, urging the closure of national parks amid a government shutdown due to safety and maintenance concerns.
“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. If you don’t act now, history is not just doomed to repeat itself, the damage could in fact be much worse,” the former superintendents wrote.
They noted that over the summer, national parks were “pushed to the brink” due to the administration’s budget and staffing cuts. The former superintendents added that it is “reckless and puts both visitors and park resources at risk” if national parks remain open with limited or no staffing.
“As stewards of these American treasures, we urge you to prioritize both conservation and visitor safety and protect our national parks during a potential shutdown, and into the future. If sufficient staff aren’t there, visitors shouldn’t be either,” they wrote.
The National Parks Conservation Association also called on the administration earlier this week to close all national parks in the event of a government shutdown, as parks would be left “understaffed and vulnerable.”
NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVATION ASSOCIATION CALLS FOR PARKS TO CLOSE IF GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN
Under the Trump administration, the NPS has experienced significant staffing and budget cuts, resulting in a loss of at least 24% of its permanent employees as of July. President Donald Trump warned Democrats that additional layoffs and program cuts could happen if a government shutdown were to occur.
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump told reporters in the White House Oval Office on Tuesday.
