Joshua Tree National Park left wide open and abandoned - by order of the DOI - during government shu
Joshua Tree National Park gates and entry restroom were left wide open - with no National Park Service staff working - as the shutdown of the federal government began Saturday morning. The park was packed with visitors.
In our story last night on the shutdown of the federal government and its impact on our national parks, I noted parks had been silent on the topic. No mentions on social media, no press releases, no guidance of any sort to the public. Now, it seems that silence may have been mandated by the Department of the Interior.
It appears other things, things that could lead to irreversible damage to our national parks, may also have been mandated by DOI. While the DOI's contingency plan for government closure noted that parks "may still be accessible to visitors," though staffing the parks does not appear to be an option for NPS management. The DOI contingency plan stated:
While parks may still be accessible to visitors, parks may not use the presence of visitors in the park to justify higher staffing numbers than approved during previous shutdowns.
In parks such as Joshua Tree, the gates were closed and locked during the previous government shutdown, which meant no visitors were allowed into the main routes throughout the park. But in the current shutdown, while the visitor centers were closed, the gates were left wide open, along with the Joshua Tree entrance bathrooms, with no NPS staff on hand. A steady stream of traffic was entering the park - a normally busy weekend with a difference: no one was paying entrance fees, and the only greeting visitors received was a one page notice taped to the ticket booth.
The "Important Notice to Park Visitors" read:
Due to the lapse in federal appropriations, the National Park Service (NPS) is unable to fully staff the properties under its management. It is not feasible to close of otherwise prohibit all access to NPS properties. Park visitors are advised to use extreme caution if choosing to enter NPS property, as NPS personnel will not be available to provide guidance, assistance, maintenance, or emergency response. Any entry onto NPS property during this period of federal government shutdown is at the visitor's sole risk.
The NPS will not operate parks during the shutdown period, and no visitor services will be provided. The NPS will not issue permits, conduct educational programs, collect trash, operate or provide restrooms, maintain roads or walkways (including plowing and ice melting), or provide visitor information.
The NPS will cease providing services for NPS-operated campgrounds, including maintenance, janitorial, bathrooms, showers, check-in.check-out, and reservations. Visitors in campgrounds will not be asked to leave, but no services will be available, including check-in/check-out services. Visitors holding campground reservations should be aware that there is no guarantee their reserved campsite will be ready and available should they arrive during a government shutdown.
Of course, the notice is ludicrous in that, it is quite feasible to close access to some NPS properties, and it was seen as the best and most cautious course of action during the previous government shutdown in 2013. Some parks, such as Death Valley National Park, have highways running through them that cannot be closed or gated. But in the case of Joshua Tree National Park, that is not the case, and the park was closed during the 2013 shutdown to prevent vandalism, theft, and other potential problems.
Joshua Tree National Park's entrances were gated and closed to the public during the 2013 federal government shutdown.
The Department of the Interior's planning to force parks such as Joshua Tree to remain open, despite the potential for theft, vandalism, and destruction, don't appear to take into consideration how costly it is to allow national parks to be further degraded. With well over $10 billion already in deferred maintenance and infrastructure upgrades necessary to keep up with the popularity of the parks with the public, leaving parks such as Joshua Tree open for use with no NPS staff or support, could prove extremely costly.
The DOI plan notes that "park roads, lookouts, trails, and open-air memorials will generally remain accessible to visitors, but there will be no NPS-provided visitor services, including restrooms, trash collection..." So, thousands of visitors may visit parks but families may arrive for the day or to camp for the weekend without bathrooms? How that could possibly be a good idea is anyone's guess. We've already encountered "turds in the trail" while hiking in Joshua Tree - and that's with bathrooms open and maintained.
With no backcountry permits issued for camping, that, of course, does not mean people will not camp in the backcountry, only that they'll do it without the permit or guidance of NPS staff. Camping in the campgrounds, which are usually at capacity this time of year, especially on weekends, are to be a free for all, with those campgrounds that did take reservations not guaranteeing the reservations will be honored. How conflicts will be resolved between campers will be up to the campers themselves.
And while the contingency plan does note that "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. Parks may not bring on additional staff to accommodate visitor access."
But closing a site with overflowing pit toilets and piles of garbage is addressing only half the problem. With no resources to actually clean it up, that means garbage or sewage will still be left on site, just that the site will be closed to the public. With thousands of visitors and campers with no trash pickup, that means desert winds and wildlife will have plenty of opportunity to spread garbage far outside of campgrounds and day use areas.
Then, as any desert resident can tell you, there is the threat of wildfire. Visitors who normally would have a ranger patrolling campgrounds to ensure fires were only allowed in established fire pits, now have nobody to stop them from deciding to build their bonfire wherever they'd like - even in strong winds such as those we are experiencing in the Joshua Tree area today. With no cell service in much of the park, and no rangers on hand, by the time an out of control bonfire could get reported, it could have become a major wildfire. Luckily, we have had rain recently, but that's no guarantee a fire could not spread quickly.
Of course, there's no way to guarantee historical and cultural resources won't be looted from the park. There are no gates to keep the public from all sites that could be looted or destroyed, and in the desert, while a gate may prevent easy vehicle access, it doesn't necessarily prevent vehicle or foot access to those who are determined. Even with rangers patrolling, there have been incidences of vandalism and attempted looting of resources. Go look for the Bagley Stone. It's no longer on the Wall Street Mill trail. It's locked up. Someone tried to steal it.
"NPS employees everywhere are worried about the parks. Some of even stated they are scared for the parks. Employees are trying to stay at the parks to help monitor the situation without pay."
Having worked with Joshua Tree National Park staff for the better part of two decades, it didn't seem that the NPS staff at the park would leave the park open if they had the choice, knowing full well the potential for disaster. It seemed there had to have been additional instructions beyond the DOI contingency plan made public. One NPS source noted, "There was a lot of additional instruction... NPS employees everywhere are worried about the parks. Some of even stated they are scared for the parks. Employees are trying to stay at the parks to help monitor the situation without pay."
We'll be monitoring the situation inside the park during the government shutdown, and we welcome readers to send us comments and photos of their experiences as well. Please send comments and photos HERE.
We have also reached out to NPS employees for their comments and any information they may have regarding the shutdown and how it was handled. They may also reach us HERE.
In the meantime, we strongly encourage all visitors to our national parks to care for them as if they were your own precious property, because they are.