‘Not sure what’s happening’: US national parks in limbo as shutdown drags on | US federal government shutdown 2025

KIm Nachazel was looking forward to going on a journey to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado this week. Her husband was fascinated by the park for studying high school and planned them on a full adventure-day-two famous gap housing tours, a camping point in BLM Land and even a dog board in the parking areas.

He knew how to close the government, but that didn’t determine him. “I had hope and optimistic that this park will not really be affected, and he says,“ Discovering it will be a great day. ”

However, when he came to the doors after driving from Salt Lake City, the park worker thanked them and said the park was closed. “We were destroyed.”

As the US government came to a halt on Wednesday, the expanding national park system was pushed into the limb. Without a budget agreement, 9.296 of the Park Agency’s 14,500 employees were expected to be fur. According to an unexpected situation plan Published by the Ministry of Interior. The plan also summarized that parks should remain partially open and confused whether they could really visit some visitors.

“Park roads, surveillance, trails and outdoor monuments will usually remain accessible for visitors,” he said in an unexpected situation plan. Operators operating the hotels and other facilities of the park may remain open. “If a facility or area is locked or fixed at out of operations (buildings, door parking lots, etc.), it should be locked or fixed during the closure time.” He said.

Closing when it cuts most of some of the national parks VerdeSome popular parks are still trying to work with a skeleton team – using wages collected from camping areas rather than federal funds.

However, operations do not continue normally. In Yosemite National Park Doors are open-But no one does not to collect parking fees-and backcountry permits must be given by the hikers to themselves. Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Sequoia National Parks will have little maintenance or no maintenance will be done, parks will not update regular roads or traces, and will provide updates on websites and social media only in an emergency. National Park Service, law enforcement officers are still working.

Guardian’s calls to public information officers in the parks for further clarity remained unanswered with a message about “jumping in allowances”.

In the case of Hodgepodge, especially in the heels of a challenging year, there are related park workers and defenders. “Our national parks are currently dealing with more than one challenge, threatening everything that these places are created to protect, Ange says Angela Gonzales, with the National Parks Protection Association, an advocacy organization for national parks. Since January, the National Park Service has lost more than 25% of its permanent personnel. “When the government is closed, thousands of parking employees are no longer sure when they will see their next salaries. And the administration may not have a job to return to return, threatening more personnel deductions.”

There are also risks to remain open. North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Parkway National Park is a veteran James Jones, the park is still survived the effects of Hurricane Henkigası last year, he says. And within a few weeks, visitors will be driven to see their autumn colors.

Jones has escaped since the government’s closure on October 1, but he said that he has called and could be brought back for small jobs as soon as possible. “They left the park open, this new – they left all the areas of Parkway for the first time, especially like camp areas and developed areas such as picnic areas, or he says. “I think the internal secretary wants to try to round the services and try to look like it has no effect.”

During the past closure, illegal hunters can be prevented by the right personnel level – all the right personnel level – that the wild hunters are running ginseng and people are injured and have to wait for a long time on the trails.

The previous closure in 2018 lasted 35 days and damaged the beloved national parks. Trees were cut at Joshua Tree. In Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, human waste and garbage problems became so problematic that the parks were forced to close at the end.

Kenji Haroutunian, General Manager of Joshua Tree’s non -profit friends, a group that supports the national park, points out that every closure is different – so it is hard to predict how it will play. “The most disturbing thing is not to make sure what protections and infrastructure are left to protect the park and protect and serve the public.”

Like many parks, Joshua Tree says that he is sitting next to small towns relying on the income from tourists to survive, and these towns have a stroke when visitors chose not to come because of the closure. According to NPCA, this closure is dragged every day, the national park system fee income will lose 1 million dollars, Gateway communities will lose 80 million dollars in visitor spending.

After Nachazel and her husband moved away from Mesa Verde, Aztec went to the National Monument of Ruins – to find a sign that the park was closed only until the next announcement at the entrance and all the tours were canceled. “We were very disappointed, or he says.

And as the congress is dragged into a dead end and the closure is dragged to the weekend, it may be for a while for those and others to return to their adventures.