National parks, including Yellowstone, will remain ‘generally’ open during the shutdown

NEW YORK (AP) — Crowds of people loaded onto boats to tour the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Wednesday morning with no immediate signs of the government shutdown that is triggering the furlough of about two-thirds of National Park Service employees.

But in Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace, tourists enjoying a crisp fall morning on Independence Mall were thwarted in their hopes of visiting the Liberty Bell. They were being turned away at the entrance and could only steal glances of it inside a glass pavilion.

Access varied widely across the more than 400 sites overseen by the National Park Service as the shutdown began, according to on-scene reporting by The Associated Press. Some tourists chafed at the limited services remaining for visitors, while others didn’t notice the changes or simply soldiered on.

A shutdown contingency plan released by the park service late Tuesday said “park roads, lookouts, trails, and open-air memorials will generally remain accessible to visitors.” However, given sharply reduced staffing, parks without “accessible areas” will be closed during the shutdown. And sites currently open could close if damage is done to park resources or garbage is building up, the plan says.

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Yet with limited information offered on government websites, questions were popping up across park service social media sites on Wednesday. People asked if camping permits would still be good at places like Chaco Culture National Historical Park in northwestern New Mexico and if the gates would be open at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

Almost 9,300 park employees furloughed

The widespread furloughs mean parks that stay open can provide only limited services such as protection of life, property and public safety, the plan says.

At Acadia National Park in Maine, would-be hikers in search of trail maps found empty receptacles outside a closed visitor center. With no park rangers in sight, Jim Feather of Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, said he and his wife were unsure about tackling Cadillac Mountain, with its panoramic views of the North Atlantic coast.

“It’s frustrating that they’re playing politics in D.C.,” Feather said. “Their job is to pass a budget.”

In Mississippi, the state’s most-visited cultural attraction, Vicksburg National Military Park, was shut down. A nonprofit group was trying to work out an agreement to reopen it using donated money to pay for staff.

There was no access to the caves or evening bat flights at Carlsbad Caverns in southern New Mexico because roads into the park were closed.

In Florida’s Everglades, tourists from Switzerland who encountered a blocked road decided to put on packs and hike into the park. “For us, it’s kind of special,” Andy Jeker said of being able to visit national parks in the U.S., pointing to their vastness and connection with nature.

The plan did not specify which of the service’s sites are considered inaccessible. The Associated Press requested further details in emails and a telephone call to officials with the National Park Service and Department of Interior on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The park service oversees large national parks such as Yellowstone and Grand Canyon, national battlefields, national monuments such as the Statue of Liberty and historic sites including Independence National Historical Park, home of the Liberty Bell.

Bill Wade with the Association of National Park Rangers, an advocacy group for park employees, said a shutdown means park workers must figure out how to pay bills while they go without pay.

“It’s just a really bad situation for everyone,” Wade said, noting that people will be visiting parks to see fall foliage.

Donations to keep parks open

Many national parks stayed open during a five-week shutdown in Trump’s first term. Limited staffing led to vandalism, overflowing garbage, damage to natural resources and illegal off-roading.

A group of 40 former National Park Service superintendents had urged the Trump administration to close the parks during a shutdown to prevent a repeat of the damage that occurred in 2018 and 2019. They warned a shutdown now could be even worse with parks already under strain from a 24% staff cut and severe budget reductions.

During a 2013 shutdown, the park service under former President Barack Obama turned away millions of visitors, leading to more than $500 million in lost spending. It also caused economic damage to gateway communities that border national parks and depend on their visitors.

The contingency plan allows parks to enter into agreements with states, tribes or local governments willing to make donations to keep national park sites open.

Utah agreed to donate $1.7 million in 2013 to keep its national parks open. Arizona, Colorado, New York, South Dakota and Tennessee have also donated money to keep parks staffed during shutdowns.

Colorado’s governor suggested the state could do that again this time for Rocky Mountain National Park. But a spokesperson for the governor of Arizona said last week that it cannot afford to pay to keep open its national parks that include the Grand Canyon.

National Park Service visitor services alert

• Park roads, lookouts, trails, and open-air memorials will generally remain accessible to visitors.

• Parks with accessible areas that collect fees under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA) will utilize available retained recreation fees balances to provide basic visitor services in a manner that maintains 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.

• Parks must develop daily cost estimates for all employees and services to be supported by recreation fees for review and approval by the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks. This may include costs that parks planned to fund out of appropriations that have lapsed. Where excepted activities as described above are appropriate under FLREA at these parks, they may also be proposed for FLREA funding.

• Parks with accessible areas that do not collect recreation fees or have insufficient balances must develop daily cost estimates for all employees and services to be supported by regional or national recreation fees for review and approval by the Director. This includes excepted activities as described above where appropriate for FLREA.

• In exceptional circumstances, the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks may consider whether to maintain some services as exempted at parks not otherwise able to operate under the guidelines set forth above.

• At parks without accessible areas, the NPS will not operate parks during the lapse. Excepted staffing will be held to the minimum amount needed for the excepted activities outlined above. No visitor services will be provided. The NPS will not issue permits, conduct interpretive or educational programs, collect trash, operate or provide restrooms, maintain roads and walkways (including plowing and ice melting) or provide visitor information.

• As a general rule, if a facility or area is locked or secured during non-business hours (buildings, gated parking lots, etc.) it should be locked or secured for the duration of the shutdown.

• Park websites and social media will not be maintained, except for emergency communications. Parks will not provide regular road or trail condition updates. As part of their orderly shutdown activities, park staff will post signs notifying visitors that only basic or no visitor services, maintenance, or other management activities will be conducted, and emergency services will be limited.

• At the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks’ discretion, parks may close grounds/areas with sensitive natural, cultural, historic, or archaeological resources vulnerable to destruction, looting, or other damage that cannot be adequately protected by the excepted or exempted law enforcement staff that remain on duty.

• If visitor access becomes a safety, health or resource protection issue (weather, road conditions, resource damage, garbage build-up to the extent that it endangers human health or wildlife, etc.), the area must be closed.

• At the superintendent’s discretion and with approval of the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, parks may enter into arrangements with State, local, or Tribal governments, cooperating associations, and/or other third parties, including concessioners and commercial use authorization holders, for donations to fund the full operation of an individual park unit or for specified services. This includes donation of funds for NPS personnel and/or donation of in-kind services for the third party to conduct the work.