"For more than a month from December 2018 through January 2019, thousands of National Park Service employees were furloughed nationwide but the Trump administration kept many national parks open. Unsupervised, visitors drove through wilderness and historic sites, camped where they weren't supposed to, and vandalized plants and buildings at parks across California. The trash and the feces piled up. In the days after the shutdown ended, park staff found at least 1,665 clumps of toilet paper littering Death Valley alone,"
"It was insane to leave the gates open and tell the staff not to show up in the park for our public lands, and all of our special places in this country, to be unprotected, said Lauretig, a retired law enforcement park ranger and president of the Friends of Joshua Tree nonprofit. Now, facing the prospect of another imminent shutdown, conservation groups and retired park service employees including Lauretig are calling to keep the gates locked at national parks and historic landmarks."
From December 2018 through January 2019 thousands of National Park Service employees were furloughed while many parks remained open, leaving sites unsupervised and vulnerable to misuse. Visitors drove through wilderness and historic sites, camped illegally, vandalized plants and buildings, and left large amounts of trash and human waste; park staff later found at least 1,665 clumps of toilet paper in Death Valley and an estimated half-ton of human waste outside restrooms. Retired rangers and conservation groups urge closing gates during future shutdowns to protect public lands. Political negotiations over funding and healthcare subsidies risk another shutdown, and both sides face high-stakes choices.
Read at www.ocregister.com
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