Posted on 12/27/2018 9:21:38 PM PST by yesthatjallen
National parks across the U.S. are facing a number of complications amid the current government shutdown, including excess garbage and illegal activities.
Because of the partial government shutdown that has been in effect since last week, employees of the National Park Service haven't been working.
At Joshua Tree National Park in southern California, that has resulted in illegal fires, illegal parking and an increase in littering, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Rand Abbott, a volunteer at the park, told the Times that he has tried to talk people out of littering and other illegal activity but said that 70 percent of the people he encounters "are extremely rude."
“Yesterday, I had my life threatened two times," he added. "It’s crazy in there right now.”
Toilets have also not been maintained at that park due to the lack of workers. Abbott told the Times that he has "gone through 500 rolls of toilet paper" as he's tried to do it himself.
Big Bend National Park in Texas has also faced problems of overflowing garbage, resulting in the potential for black bears to be attracted to the park.
Big Bend Superintendent Bob Krumenaker told National Parks Traveler in an email that "trash WILL attract bears."
"And that creates a safety problem for people and puts the bears at risk as they quickly become habituated to human food," he added.
National parks across the country have stayed open during the shutdown, but a former director of digital strategy for the Interior Department last week warned of the dangers of the parks remaining open.
"As someone who worked @interior during the shutdown in [2013], let me tell you how dangerous this is," Tim Fullerton, who worked for Interior during the 2013 shutdown, wrote on Twitter.
“If someone falls, gets lost, or has any issue in a National Park or wildlife refuge, they’re on their own,” he added.
Worse than man-made global warming!
After only 7 days, the people visiting our national parks have gone feral!
How ‘bout shifting the 95% of overpaid bureaucrats that seem immune to “gubmint shutdowns” to the park service ?
lol..
Lease the parks to property managers and give them a percentage of the profits.
Parking problems at national parks! Heaven forefend!!
End this shutdown NOW!
Congress ain’t doing nothing. Put them on trash detail. They can get off their a@@ and do real things for a change. They can keep the recyclables as a tip while they earn there pay.
I live next to the Cumberland Gap NP and BEFORE the shutdown the road through it is like a third world pot hole festooned mess and trash in and around the roads is unreal. I wonder what park employees actually did before the shutdown.
I say let's start DIScouraging most people.
litter. my god, we’re doomed.
It’s called the Tragedy of the Commons. The feral-Americans aren’t much for the outdoors, so that leaves the rest of us. I’m thinking millennials. They assume wood elves do the cleanup, if they give it any thought at all.
Start fining people.
Post their pictures at entrances with the fines they paid.
Only trash I’ve ever seen picked wasn’t by Conservatio but by volunteers.
Not too hard to figure out who the litterers are...
Compare the trash left behind after a Tea Party rally and its lack of vandalism to what trash is left behind after a liberal protest which almost always includes vandalism...
Time to build a Wall around the National Parks.
These activities aren’t illegal...they’re undocumented. (snark)
Here come all the sob stories.
Wow, sounds like the National Parks have devolved into San Francisco.
Is this article trying to imply that there was NO “litter, illegal activity ... BEFORE the ... shutdown”????
Gimme a BREAK!
When is the last time you saw a ranger picking up trash?
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