The National Park System could close this weekend if Congress can’t move past its budget impasse and fund the federal government.
While Congress appeared on track this week to adopt a bipartisan proposal to fund the government through March under what’s known as a Continuing Resolution, hard conservative members in the House of Representatives were balking against it, and then President-elect Donald Trump urged Congress to reject the agreement.
Along with forcing a government shutdown, rejection of the proposed budget package would block delivery of $2.3 billion to the National Park Service to help park units impacted by tornadoes, wildfires, and hurricanes.
“Communities across the country that rely on parks receiving the repairs they need from disasters continue to wait for relief,” John Garder, the National Parks Conservation Association’s senior director for budget and appropriations, told the Traveler in an email. “Park advocates and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are urging that more than $2 billion in critical, overdue aid to the National Park Service get into a final package this week, and we’re joining in that chorus.
“Park visitors, the park resources that depend on congressional investments, and communities that rely on hundreds of millions of dollars in visitor spending deserve nothing less.”
National Park Service officials in Washington said Thursday afternoon that, in the event of a shutdown, visitor services in the parks would continue through Sunday.
“Because we are reviewing the NPS contingency plans and working to determine specifics for individual parks I don’t have additional details to share at this time,” said Park Service spokesperson Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles.
In September 2023, when the government was on the verge of a shutdown, the agency acknowledged that not all park system sites could be completely locked down — the National Mall in Washington is one example, and many parks in the West have roads or highways that run through them — and determined members of the public can always find access points.
Knowing that, Interior officials encouraged the public “not to visit sites during the period of lapse in appropriations out of consideration for protection of natural and cultural resources, as well as visitor safety.”
It was six years ago when Trump, then in his first term, presided over the longest government shutdown, a 35-day closure, after the Republican refused to sign a Continuing Resolution if it didn’t fund construction of a wall along the southern border of the United States.
That closure didn’t fully shutter the parks, but rather left them open under skeleton staffing. During the 35 days, vandalism and damage was reported at some parks. The most egregious report came from Joshua Tree National Park in California, where park staff reported at that Joshua trees were toppled, locks on gates were cut off, and some off-road enthusiasts drove across the pristine Mojave desert.
At Big Bend National Park in Texas, motorists in SUVs drove around barriers into closed sections of the park, while Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks in California were closed because of sanitation and safety issues created, in part, by garbage overflowing trash cans and restrooms that couldn’t handle the load of human waste. Off-roaders also made tracks illegally in Death Valley National Park, which also had reports of illegal camping.
Later that year the U.S. Government Accountability Office ruled that then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt twice broke the law when he directed de facto National Park Service Director P. Daniel Smith to shift Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act funds to pay for maintenance and custodial work during the partial government shutdown. Bernhardt directed the funding shift early in January 2019 as garbage was piling up in national parks and restrooms were becoming disgusting without daily cleaning. He gave Smith permission to use nearly $253 million in FLREA funds to bring back park maintenance staff and additional support to clean up and protect the parks during the 35-day shutdown.
At the time of the shift, Democrats in Congress and conservation groups sharply criticized the move and questioned its propriety.
While the GAO sought an explanation from Interior on its view of the law regarding the funding shift, Interior did not respond, the report noted. “We take our responsibility to Congress seriously, and will not allow an agency’s lack of cooperation to interfere with Congress’s oversight of executive spending,” the report’s authors said in defending their decision to move forward with issuing an opinion in the matter.
In September 2023 the government appeared headed for another shutdown, but a last-minute agreement kept the doors open and the lights on. Prior to the agreement, officials in Utah and Arizona were prepared to keep national parks in their states open with state funding, and Colorado officials were working to do the same.
This story was first published by the National Parks Traveler.
