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from the blame-it-on-the-guy-with-a-blue-ox? dept.
Joshua Tree national park 'may take 300 years to recover' from shutdown
The former superintendent of Joshua Tree national park has said it could take hundreds of years to recover from damage caused by visitors during the longest-ever government shutdown.
"What's happened to our park in the last 34 days is irreparable for the next 200 to 300 years," Curt Sauer said at a rally over the weekend, according to a report from the Desert Sun. Sauer retired in 2010 after running the park for seven years.
The park reopened Monday after the record 35-day shutdown, and park workers returned to a state of chaos, including damaged trees, graffiti and ruined trails. The reduced ranger supervision during the shutdown saw increased vandalism at the park, causing officials to announce on 8 January that Joshua Tree would temporarily close. It was announced a day later that officials were able to use recreation fee revenue to avoid the closure.
"While the vast majority of those who visit Joshua Tree do so in a responsible manner, there have been incidents of new roads being created by motorists and the destruction of Joshua trees in recent days that have precipitated the closure," said park spokesman George Land in the news release.
Related: Cost to Enter National Parks Will More Than Double
(Score: 5, Interesting) by driverless on Thursday January 31 2019, @01:11AM (3 children)
The scary thing about this one was that exactly the same thing had happened 50 years earlier at the end of WWII in Germany. The US shut down the German police/law enforcement and the scum of Europe poured into the country (if they weren't already there) to loot, pillage, and rape. Given that there'd recently been a war on, even the occupying troops were sometimes outgunned and outfought by the brigands, until they finally put a lid on it after a few months. You'd think someone would have looked at the history books and said "yeah, that wasn't handled so well the last time, let's do it differently this time".
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Thursday January 31 2019, @06:22PM
People who don't read history are doomed to repeat it.
People who do read history are doomed to watch everyone else repeat it.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday February 01 2019, @02:49PM (1 child)
> at the end of WWII in Germany
It isn't really the same. The Russian army was out for revenge following depradations of the invading Germans and were particularly foul, though the Western army was not without sin. Thousands died in the terrible winter of 1944/5 fleeing the incoming Russian army. The German army moved West in 1945 so that when they (inevitably) surrendered, they would surrender to the Western powers.
Random wikipedia articles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_during_the_occupation_of_Germany [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evacuation_of_East_Prussia [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by driverless on Friday February 01 2019, @11:53PM
I wasn't referring to the Russians (that's another story entirely), I was referring to what happened in the Allied zone of occupation. The rape and pillage wasn't done by the occupying troops (well, there were a few rare cases, e.g. French colonial troops) but by people from other nations.