How to Protect Our National Parks During a Shutdown? Keep Them Closed

An Entrance of Yellowstone National Park during the 2013 Government Shutdown
Source: NPCA Photos, Flickr.com

A child peering through a locked fence at Lincoln Memorial.  A line of cars being turned away from campgrounds in a National Park.  These were the sort of images that spread across the media during the 2013 Federal Government shutdown.  The photos of unfulfilled family vacations and interrupted field trips fueled a large backlash against the Obama Administration, who had shut the parks and monuments down due to a lack of congressional funding.  When the Federal Government again shut down this year, the Trump Administration remembered the vitriolic tone of the images shared in 2013 and how they had been weaponized against their predecessors.  They looked to avoid such a backlash and appease the public, so this time they kept the gates open to some of our most precious national resources.

The gambit did not work.  A different backlash soon spread across the media.  Instead of faces of sad children, pictures of trash heaps were shared along with dirty bathrooms and mobs of cars.  The masses were allowed into the parks but there was little to no staff to control them.  The administration could not avoid the criticism and their decision caused damage to be wrought at numerous National Parks.  But public attention and the media cycle are both short, and the government shutdown now seems in the past.  Yet the effects of this tumultuous time will be felt in the National Parks and other protected lands for years to come.  The litter has been removed and the bathrooms are now clean, but it will take some time before the parks fully recover.