Conservationists have urged visitors to stay away from US national parks, as they called for the scenic attractions to close during the government shutdown.
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) said skeleton staffing means visitors will be “probably on your own” with limited facilities available to them.
The National Park Service (NPS), which oversees 433 sites, said on Tuesday it was keeping national parks partially open, but placing more than half its workforce on furlough, or leave.
Conservation groups and former rangers have objected to the sites being kept open during the shutdown, arguing that the decision puts both visitors and park resources at risk.
“The park service doesn’t have communication staff to help them inform the public, so you’re really walking into a situation not knowing what facilities are going to be available to you,” Kristen Brengel, the NPCA’s senior vice-president of government affairs, said.
“We wouldn’t recommend going into them over the weekend… you’re really taking your chances going in with a limited staff that are going to be there,” she added.
Under its contingency plans, the NPS said essential services, such as maintaining restrooms and sanitation, rubbish collection and road maintenance, would continue.
The Trump administration kept national parks, which attract around 325 million visitors annually, accessible to the public during the last shutdown in 2018, with few to no federal workers there to staff them.
It led to vandalism, as visitors drove through protected landscapes, looted historical sites, and rampantly littered, according to park advocates.
“We saw off-roading, damage to petroglyphs, wildlife poaching and even some facilities were broken into,” Ms Brengel said.
Many sites are already under strain because of mass layoffs earlier this year, which were part of a push by the Trump administration to cut federal spending.
“One of our concerns is that once this shutdown is over and if any damage happens to national parks, there are fewer people to take care of them,” Ms Brengel said.
In a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum last week, dozens of former park superintendents said leaving sites open during past shutdowns saw “iconic symbols cut down and vandalized, trash piled up, habitats destroyed, and visitor safety jeopardized”.
Parks being kept even partially open with reduced staffing during the shutdown “is reckless and puts both visitors and park resources at risk”, they wrote.
Bill Wade, executive director at the association of national park rangers, said it was “dangerous” to leave parks open as visitors “could get in trouble and have to wait a long time for assistance”.
“The potential damage to park resources drastically increases,” he added.
The government shutdown began on Wednesday, after Republicans and Democrats in Congress failed to agree a new spending plan.
While Democrats and Republicans are blaming each other for the current standoff, they both scrambled to keep the parks open.
Senator John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat, told Politico that a state like his could blame Republicans for park closures and staffing shortages. But he said there are greater reasons to keep them open.
“It’s the economic impact. It’s the emotional impact,” Hickenlooper said. “[In] stressful times like this, parks are where a lot of people go to massage their spirit.”
