We all have heard about the government shutdown. Recently there was a government shutdown as a result of a disagreement on border security between the Democrats and Republicans. Trump, backed up by Republicans wanted a bill funding the construction of a wall on the Mexican border. Democrats were opposed to such a bill. On December 22, 2018, the shutdown began when Democrats refused to support a continuing resolution that included $5 billion for a new border wall. The shutdown has impacted hundreds of thousands of federal employees and has had significant consequences.

Unfortunately, the parts of the government that face the shutdown includes the interior and environment. During the shutdown, many national parks had to be left ungated and unsupervised. The effects due to limited resources are horrifying. One of the differences between this shutdown and previous ones is that the parks were still open to the public, they were just extremely understaffed. Nothing was able to be maintained. They was garbage and human feces everywhere.

 

Image by Kevin N. Hume/Examiner

 

With some of these national parks, it can take hundreds of years to undo the damages that selfish humans have caused during the shutdown. The park that was most affected during the shutdown was the Joshua Tree National Park. Joshua trees live up to 150 years in the deserts of Southern California. There is even one that is believed to have lived up to 1000 years. It can take damaged trees up to 300 years to recover. The true nature of some people was apparent during the shutdown. According to Smithsonian, with little to none staff to enforce the rules and supervise the parks, “people used off-road vehicles in sensitive areas, camped illegally all over the park and even chopped down some Joshua Trees, which is currently considered for inclusion on the endangered species list.” It is horrible to see how reckless humans can be when rules aren’t being enforced, especially when their actions have a significantly negative impact. This should not be justified as ignorance. You can not just go out and destroy parts of the environment. Soon after, the Joshua Tree National Park announced that is would close completely to protect its natural resources. The park’s superintendent David Smith reported “we have two new roads that were created inside the park. We had destruction of government property with the cutting of chains and locks for people to access campgrounds. We’ve never seen this level of out-of-bounds camping. Every day use area was occupied every evening… Joshua trees were actually cut down in order to make new roads.” People are also graffitiing rocks and starting campfires in illegal areas. What are people doing? Just because no one is there to tell you no, does not mean it is alright to do this. Through some readjustments, the park decided not to close. There is still concern that this entire cycle will occur again once the government’s three week resolution is over. Even worse, these trees might not even get to recover due to climate change.

 

Image by Gina Ferazzi via Getty Images

 

There has been some criticism at the government for refusing to close the parks when they do not have the funds to pay employees and protect the natural habitat. This is not too surprising, since the current administration does not seem to care much about the environment: pulling out of the Paris Climate agreement.

Joshua Tree National Park is only one of many national parks who have suffered severe damages during the shutdown. Pacific Standard reports others who have been affected:

1. Trash accumulated in wildlife-rich parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone. This could ruin efforts to de-habituate bears from human food and result in a rise in bear attacks.
2. At Death Valley National Park, tire marks from off-road vehicles etched into the delicate landscape will take centuries to fade.
3. While 16,000 furloughed park service employees stayed home and missed paychecks, unsupervised park visitors put themselves at greater risk of harm. According to the National Parks Conservation Association, a hiker at Yosemite died from a fall after chasing his dog down a dangerous trail that park rangers would have typically prevented him from taking.
4. On top of the harm done to parks and visitors themselves, the NPCA estimated that the National Park Service lost $400,000 per day from entrance fee revenue.

That last point is especially important. National parks are already underfunded as it is to maintain the natural resources. On top of that they have to deal with all the revenue they lost and damages. It is such shame at both ends of the neglect towards nationals parks: from the government and from the public. Nationals park were designed as a conservation effort. The mission of the National Parks Conservation Association is “to protect and enhance America’s National Park System for present and future generations. At the rate we are going, this does not seem likely. These national parks consists of resources that are finite. Once they are gone, they are gone. More needs to be done to make maintaining this parks possible.