Some lawmakers are wincing as President Donald Trump has ordered National Parks to remain open and operated by a skeleton crew during the government shutdown.
“I am concerned about parks being accessible, being safe, being maintained adequately, I think it’s a very serious concern,” said Sen. Angus King, an independent of Maine who caucuses with Democrats. “It’s one of the things that was bothering me yesterday, when I decided not to vote to shut the government down.”
King, the ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, has good reason for such concern: During the 2018-19 shutdown, parks were kept open by siphoning entrance fees to fund slimmed-down crews of park employees.
Staff were overwhelmed and couldn’t perform typical functions — leaving overflowing trash bins, dirty bathrooms and litter. In one prominent incident, several of the iconic trees at Joshua Tree National Park in California were felled.
