Why the Federal Gov’t Shutdown Has Not Been Great For Public Lands

Many National Parks have resorted to partial road closures to help curtail the number of users entering remote areas. Nora Fierman photo.

Let’s be real: keeping a National Park and other public lands open and running smoothly is a logistical miracle. It takes a lot of hard work from those involved, and that means quite a bit of money needs to flow in the right direction. That becomes even more apparent the second funding is cut and those workers are forced to go home and sit by watching, especially during one of the busiest seasons of the year for many Parks across the nation.

As of January 3, 2019 the partial shutdown has been going on for nearly 13 days, now making it the fourth longest in US history. Unlike the last major shutdown that directly affected National Parks during the Obama Administration in 2013, most National Parks remain open, yet unstaffed, today.

Of course, to most of us that’s great news; it means we can still play outside just like normal. It even means that most of the parks are free to enter since nobody is staffing the gatehouses. However, as developing stories from Yosemite, Death Valley, Rocky Mountain (RMNP), and Joshua Tree National Parks are showing, that lack of staffing is presenting a major problem: visitors leave waste (both human and material), and there is no one around to get rid of it.

It's a long walk from here, as some Colorado locals have found out. Nora Fierman photo.

Yosemite and RMNP have resorted to closing some roads to curtail the number of users entering the more remote areas of the park. Visitors are still allowed to walk or ski in, but say goodbye to ease of access into popular backcountry ski and snowboard zones like RMNP’s Bear Lake and Hidden Valley for now.

In the already popular parks, the problem of human waste has turned into a literal sh*tshow. Toilets and other facilities like campgrounds are officially closed, but the waste has been piling up to pretty gross levels. While many local users have offered to assist in cleaning up the park by cleaning bathrooms and removing trash, they are strongly discouraged from doing so.

“Park service volunteers are also by federal law not allowed in the same way that park staff is not allowed to work in the park,” Rivera Murdock told Denver’s 9News. Murdock is the director of the Rocky Mountain Conservancy, a nonprofit that supports RMNP and has set up a makeshift visitor center on private land outside the park. While cleaning bathrooms might seem like a great way to help, it is, but most NPS toilets are pit toilets and require special machinery and a Hazmat suit to properly clean. Instead, she urges visitors to keep it simple and practice Leave No Trace principles.

As Washington battles with politics, the shutdown continues to affect the communities many of us live and recreate in, in ways that may not have been foreseen. For now, it’s on us to make sure our playgrounds remain in tip top shape. As users of these lands, we must continue to be stewards and recreate responsibly.