The Trump administration will keep the national park system open for visitors during the government shutdown, repeating a controversial choice made during President Donald Trump’s previous term that resulted in significant damage at some parks.
About 5,000 of the 14,500 people currently employed by the National Park Service will be asked to continue working unpaid, while about 64% of the agency’s staff will be on furlough while the parks remain open.
The Department of the Interior will use the recreation fees it collects to maintain restrooms, collect trash, and perform other basic services, according to the planning document.
This redirection of funds could be illegal. The Interior Department did the same in the first Trump administration, and the Government Accountability Office ruled it was a violation of the Antideficiency Act because the agency spent the recreation fee money in areas that are normally funded by the appropriations that had expired.
“With this decision, we will consider such violations in the future to be knowing and willful violations of the Act,” the GAO wrote in its decision in September 2019.
The Department of Interior did not respond to a request for comment.
The National Parks were already short-staffed before the furloughs because of hiring cuts made by the Trump administration: The service has 4,500 fewer people on staff than it had during the Biden administration, according to NOTUS’ analysis of shutdown planning documents.
Earlier this week, 38 former national park superintendents wrote a letter to the Trump administration urging that the parks be closed during a shutdown.
“Past shutdowns in which gates remained open with limited or no staff have hurt our parks: Iconic symbols cut down and vandalized, trash piled up, habitats destroyed, and visitor safety jeopardized. If you don’t act now, history is not just doomed to repeat itself—the damage could in fact be much worse,” they wrote.
The National Parks Conservation Association and the Center for Western Priorities also urged the Trump administration to close the parks.
During the previous shutdown, while vandalism and trash-buildup at many parks were common, the most high-profile and controversial damage was when old, very slow-growth, iconic Joshua trees were cut down at Joshua Tree National Park.
Rep. Jay Obernolte, who represents part of Joshua Tree National Park, urged the Department of Interior to keep the parks open.
Republican lawmakers, Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, and Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox also all pushed for the park service to find a way to keep parks open. The national parks are critical sources of tourism revenue for many states and towns.
States can help supply the money to keep them running during the shutdown, which Polis has suggested Colorado may try to do.
The Biden administration’s shutdown contingency plans called for national parks to be closed during lapses of government funding.