Former national park superintendents urge Trump administration to close parks in case of shutdown

Audio By Carbonatix

WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of former national park superintendents is calling on the Trump administration to close the parks to visitors in case of a government shutdown.

Past shutdowns in which parks have remained open have led to the vandalism of iconic symbols, destroyed wildlife habitat and endangered visitors, 40 former superintendents said in a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.

A shutdown now could be even worse as parks are already under strain from a 24% reduction in staff and severe budget cuts, the former park officials said in a letter Thursday. A secretarial order by Burgum directing parks to remain open has led parks to neglect trash collection and other routine maintenance work, the ex-officials said.

The April directive was issued as Burgum came under criticism for staffing cuts across the country amid efforts by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to slash federal spending. Burgum directed national parks to “remain open and accessible” despite job cuts and said his department and the National Park Service “are committed to ensuring that all Americans have the opportunity to visit and enjoy our Nation’s most treasured places.”

But the former superintendents said poorly staffed parks are a danger to the public and the parks themselves.

“Leaving parks even partially open to the public during a shutdown with minimal — or no — park staffing is reckless and puts both visitors and park resources at risk,'' the former officials wrote.

“National parks don’t run themselves. It is hardworking National Park Service employees that keep them safe, clean and accessible,” they said.

“As stewards of these American treasures, we urge you to prioritize both conservation and visitor safety and protect our national parks during a potential shutdown, and into the future. If sufficient staff aren’t there, visitors shouldn’t be either,” the former superintendents said.

Park staff manage everything from routine maintenance of buildings and trails to educational programs that teach visitors how to safely engage with nature and guided tours that share the nation's collective history, they said. Long-term projects and research are also in jeopardy during a shutdown, they said.

“We don’t leave museums open without curators, or airports without air traffic controllers, and we should not leave our national parks open without NPS employees,” said Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, one of the groups that organized the letter.

“The most sensible outcome here is to not only keep the government open but to fully fund and staff our parks,” she said. But if there is a shutdown starting Wednesday, “safety must come first,” she added.

The Interior Department and the National Park Service declined to comment Friday.

During a 35-day government shutdown in 2018 and 2019, during President Donald Trump’s first term, national parks stayed open. But with limited staffing, problems quickly emerged: Visitors cut new trails in sensitive soil, pried open park gates while no one was watching, and one off-roader even mowed down an iconic twisted-limbed Joshua tree in California.

During a 2013 shutdown, the park service under former President Barack Obama turned away millions of visitors to its more than 400 parks, national monuments, and other sites. The service estimated that the shutdown led to more than $500 million in lost visitor spending nationwide. That also caused economic damage to so-called gateway communities that border national parks and are heavily dependent on the visitors they draw.

Hoping to minimize the economic damage in their state, officials in Utah reached an agreement with federal officials to donate $1.7 million to keep its national parks open. Utah and other states made similar deals ahead of the 2018-19 shutdown.

____

Associated Press writer Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this story.