National parks to stay open without staff in government shutdown
As the hours tick down toward a potential government shutdown, the National Park Service (NPS) is gearing up to clear out its staff across all national parks, but the parks will keep their gates open.
National parks across the country will remain open to visitors under a shutdown but most facilities —including bathrooms — will be shuttered according to the Interior Department’s 2018 contingency plan.
That means visitors who planned to visit a national park over the holidays will still be able to do so but will have to go without guidance from any park service officials.
Visitors centers, bathrooms, campsites, trash collection and road maintenance will all be closed and halted in a potential shutdown, according to the federal plan. NPS employees will have as little as four hours to complete their “shutdown activities” before entering furlough status.
“Effective immediately upon a lapse in appropriations, the National Park Service will take all necessary steps to suspend all activities and secure national park facilities that operate using appropriations that are now lapsed, except for those that are essential to respond to emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property,” according to the plan.
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/422487-under-shutdown-national-parks-to-stay-open-without-staff
Upside: Free stuff!
Downside: No protection from bear attacks.
Woo Hooo! This means that I can go to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park on Lake Michigan, and climb all over the trees and watch the sunset from places I'm not supposed to walk (because the park is not there for the people, it is there to make sure certain grasses keep growing and to make sure that not one grain of sand gets disturbed...we don't believe in erosion along the Lakeshore.
And it will all be free!! It will be very very cold, but it will be worth it.