‘Not sure what’s happening’: US national parks in limbo as shutdown drags on | US federal government shutdown 2025

KIm Nachazel was looking forward to doing a road trip in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado this week. Her husband had been fascinated by the park since he read on this subject in high school, and she had planned them a full day of adventure – two visits to famous cliff homes, a campsite on BLM LAND, and even a place for her puppy in a bug place inside the park park.

She knew the government’s closure, but that didn’t discourage her. “I had hope and optimism that this park would not be really affected,” she says, “and that we would have an incredible day to explore.”

But when she arrived at the doors after driving from Salt Lake City, the parks worker thanked them and told them that the park was closed, she said. “We were devastated.”

On Wednesday, the government of the United States government funding from the government, the national national park system was pushed into limbo. Without budgetary agreement, 9,296 of the 14,500 employees of the Park Agency had to be conticated, according to an emergency plan published by the Ministry of the Interior. The plan also indicated how parks should remain partially open, leaving some confused visitors about their visit or not.

“Park roads, shares, trails and outdoor commemorative monuments will generally remain accessible to visitors,” says the emergency plan. Operators who direct the park hotels and other facilities could also remain open. “If an installation or zone is locked or secure during non-business hours (buildings, closed parking lots, etc.), it must be locked or secure during the closure duration,” also indicated the plan.

While the closure has closed large parts of certain national parks, such as Mesa Verde, some popular parks are still trying to operate – with a team of skeletal staff – using costs collected in campsite rather than funds appropriate by the federal government.

However, operations do not continue normally. In the Yosemite National Park, the doors are open – but no one is there to collect park costs – and the hinterland’s permits must be issued by hikers. In the national parks of Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Sequoia, little or no maintenance will be carried out, the parks will not provide regular updates on the road or the conditions of path and will only provide updates to their websites and their social media in an emergency. The police are still working, according to the National Park Service.

Guardian emails and calls have given public information agents parks for unanswered clarity, with a message on the “forfeiture of credits”.

Hodgepodge’s situation has workers in the park and defenders concerned, especially in the heels of an already difficult year. “Our national parks are facing multiple challenges at the moment, threatening everything that these places have been created to protect,” explains Angela Gonzales, with the National Parks Conservation Association, a plea organization for national parks. She underlines that since January, the National Park Service has lost more than 25% of its permanent staff. “With the government’s closure, thousands of park employees are now on leave, uncertain when they will see their next pay check. And with the administration threatening more personnel cuts, many fear that they do not have a job to return at all. ”

Staying open is also risky. James Jones, a veteran who mainly maintains the Blue Ridge Parkway National Park in North Carolina, says that the park is still recovering from the Héragan Hélène last year. And in a few weeks, visitors will come en masse to see the fall colors.

Jones has been on leave since the government closed on October 1, but it says it is on appeal and could be brought back for small jobs at any time. “They left the open park, which is new-this is the first time that they have in fact left entire areas of the open walk, especially like the areas developed such as camping grounds and picnic areas,” he said. “I suppose that the interior secretary wants to try to maintain the services by driving, to try to give the impression that there is no impact.”

He adds that during previous closures, the poachers made Ginseng work by collecting wild, and people were even injured and had to wait long times for medical care on the trails – all avoidable with the right level of personnel.

The previous judgment in 2018 lasted 35 days and wreaks havoc on the beloved national parks. In Joshua Tree, the trees were cut. In the national parks of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, the problems of waste and human waste have become so problematic that the parks were finally forced to close.

Kenji Haroutunian, Executive Director of Joshua Tree’s non -profit friends, a group that supports the National Park, stresses that each stop is different – it is therefore difficult to predict exactly how it will take place. “The most disturbing thing is not to be sure what is going on exactly, what resources are in place and what protections and infrastructures remain in order to protect the park, to protect and serve the public.”

He underlines that Joshua Tree, like many parks, is sitting alongside small towns which depend on the income of tourists to survive – and these cities take a blow whenever the visitors choose not to come because of a closure. According to the NPCA, every day, this closure takes place, the national park system will lose up to $ 1 million in costs, while gateway communities lose up to $ 80 million in visitors.

After Nachazel and her husband were diverted from Mesa Verde, they went to the national monument of the Aztec ruins – only to find a sign at the entrance that the park was also closed “until further notice” and that all the visits were canceled. “We were very disappointed,” she says.

And with the Congress in a dead end and the closure that drags in the weekend, it could be some time before she and others can resume their adventures.