With Congress once again barreling toward a government shutdown, America’s parks and public lands are in a precarious position.
In a new Westwise blog post, Center for Western Priorities Deputy Director Aaron Weiss reflects on the Trump administration’s illegal 2018–2019 decision to keep parks open with skeleton crews during the longest shutdown in U.S. history that led to widespread and lasting damage.
During the 2018–2019 shutdown, the Trump administration kept most national parks accessible while furloughing nearly 16,000 National Park Service employees, and the results were both predictable and devastating: Across the country, parks saw overflowing toilets, mounting piles of trash, vandalism, illegal off-roading, and resource damage that in some cases will take centuries to repair. Gateway communities that rely on park tourism lost hundreds of millions in revenue as visitors canceled trips or found parks in disarray.
As another shutdown looms, it’s unclear if Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is planning to repeat the mistakes of the past. “The parks didn’t have staff and there was overflowing garbage and sewage, vandalism that puts people at risk, and so I hope that doesn’t happen again,” said Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks. As the clock ticks down toward the government funding deadline on September 30, the lesson from last time is clear: keeping parks open without staff is illegal, irresponsible, and a recipe for disaster.
White House directs mass firings if there is a government shutdown
President Donald Trump’s administration instructed federal agencies Wednesday night to prepare for mass layoffs if the government shuts down October 1, after federal funding runs out. Sources confirmed to the publication Government Executive that the Interior department is preparing “Reduction in Force” (RIF) lists lists of employees to be laid off starting in mid-October, although the exact timing could be disrupted by a government shutdown that would begin October 1, absent congressional action. Interior has already lost around 7,500 employees, nearly 11 percent of its workforce, through incentivized retirements and the deferred resignation program pushed by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Quick hits
Rep. Ryan Zinke: Public lands sale threat remains
The Interior Department is taking steps to implement more layoffs
Zion National Park will soon dump its portable toilets
Lawmakers push Forest Service to protect firefighters from cancer
Record high Utah oil and gas lease sale could cost taxpayers hundreds of millions
Nonprofit buys 480 acres on Colorado 14er to help preserve public access
Amid Forest Service cuts, one Colorado community pushes back with public messaging campaign
Opinion: Trump’s proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act are ‘environmental sabotage’
Quote of the day
This is not a conservative-liberal thing. This is not a rural-urban thing. This is 99% of the American people saying, ‘Don’t do this.’ You really are looking at the very, very margins of public opinion to find anyone who thinks rescinding the Roadless Rule is a good idea.”
—CWP Deputy Director Aaron Weiss, Deseret News
Picture This
At @katmainpp in Alaska, salmon sustain one of the richest coastal ecosystems on Earth. At Brooks Falls, they must run a gauntlet of hungry bears, wolves, birds, and other predators before spawning further inland.
Every summer, sockeye salmon return from the ocean, where they have spent two or three years, and travel up rivers, lakes, and streams to return to the headwater gravel beds of their birth to deposit their young before dying.
A sockeye salmon fresh from the sea in July contains around 4,500 calories, while one that has spawned in September may only have half that many. Bears feast on them and turn into the chonky celebrities of Fat Bear Week.
Fat bears exemplify the richness of Katmai National Park and Bristol Bay, Alaska, a wild region that is home to one of the largest populations of brown bears and also the healthiest run of wild sockeye salmon left on the planet.
Featured image: Overflowing trash cans on the National Mall during the 2018 government shutdown. Photo: National Parks Conservation Association.