With basejumpers leaping illegally from cliffs in Yosemite National Park and reports of squatters in Yosemite and park restrooms across the country overflowing with garbage, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is again being urged to close the National Park System while the government remains in a partial shutdown.
"These clearly demonstrate the problems with keeping parks open with minimal or no staff," reads a letter sent Thursday by 450 former national park leaders. "...there have been less high-profile reports of bathrooms overflowing, trash that is not being picked up, and trails that are not being safely maintained or monitored, which add urgency to our ask."
The letter, which did not point to areas where bathrooms were overflowing with garbage or where trash was piling up, comes a month after three dozen former national park superintendents called for the parks to be closed if the government shut down.
The latest letter, signed by former park superintendents, facility managers, chief rangers, interpreters, regional directors, park rangers, and many others who worked for the Park Service, reminded Burgum that the Park Service already was strained, staff-wise, during the summer months. Specifically, they pointed to internal operational data from the Park Service that surfaced in August and pinpointed how staffing and funding cuts implemented by the Trump administration were impacting facility maintenance, have led to canceled youth programs, and reduced staffing in campgrounds.
Those, some of which were predicted in a National Parks Traveler story in January, have led parks to seek volunteers to perform trail work and provide guided tours, stick to winter operational hours rather than expanding to summer hours, and slowed repairs to facilities damaged by past years' hurricanes.
"The shutdown has made this bad situation far worse," the letter said. "Fundamentally, keeping parks open without adequate staff is in violation of the National Park Service’s founding mission and inconsistent with the laws passed by Congress. Specifically, the department is in violation of the Organic Act, which states that the National Park Service will protect and conserve the natural and cultural resources and the wild life therein to leave them unimpaired for future generations, and the Redwood Act that says nothing should be allowed in derogation of park values unless specifically provided by the Congress.
"We recognize that closing parks is not an easy decision, but it’s the responsible one. Protecting our parks now ensures that future generations can enjoy them as we do today."
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