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, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Thursday January 31 2019, @04:43AM (2 children)
You are probably aware of this, but others may not be: generally the National Parks *do* close during shutdowns. The Trump Administration made a deliberate decision to keep them open while unstaffed, a completely irresponsible policy. Why they didn't also order the doors of the Smithsonian to be flung open while the staff went home, I don't know -- it would make as much sense.
Of course this was all playing politics. Despite our President claiming to own the shutdown and be proud of it, the national park closures became an issue in past shutdowns, so he clearly hoped to avoid bad press... and this is what we got for it.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday January 31 2019, @10:48AM
You say "unstaffed." That's a horrible horrible lie. From the DUMB MEME that's going around on internet. Look at Summery -- "reduced ranger supervision." We kept a minimum staff. NOT ZERO!!!!!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday January 31 2019, @01:59PM
1) Hiking is prohibited during the shutdown. [makes sense - nobody to save you when you run into trouble]
2) Travel allowed for essential reasons. [makes sense] And you can't stop at a pull off to take in a nice view, animal, or snap a picture. [huh?]
3) You can only leave the park either to leave the park indefinitely or conduct essential tasks (like buying food). No leaving the park to see a movie. [unless of course, you don't tell the ranger at the gate that you're doing that!]
The shutdown didn't require the various parties in the party to not have fun. That was just some bureaucrats being dicks.
I think the point here is that not that there's some imaginary law that forces the president to deny popular services when it's not in his or her interests to do so, but rather that they have a lot of leeway in how much they make such shutdowns hurt. Such things can be played up as well as played down.