Four iconic Joshua Trees were chopped down and off-roaders scarred untouched rockface. A historic museum burned, illegal visitors stole invaluable items from gift stores, and unmanned toilets overflowed.
The recent government shutdown lasted a little over a month, but the effects from the damaged inflicted on America’s National Parks likely will last decades, experts say.
“Some of these are actions were intentional and some of these are people not realizing they are causing significant damage to the park,” Emily Douce, director of Budget & Appropriations for the National Parks Conservation Association, told the Daily News.
Since most National Parks had too few employees working during the shutdown, visitors were able to reach areas that are normally off-limits, causing immense destruction and threatening natural habitats.
John Lauretig, the executive director of the nonprofit Friends of Joshua Tree, said the damaged Joshua Trees “will take generations to grow back.”
The trees — technically part of the yucca plant family that are only found in the Mojave desert — grow up to 5 inches a year and can grow up to 25 feet tall.
Park visitors likely cut down the trees to create their own roadways when camping and building illegal fires.
“It’s unfortunate that the acts of a few bad people reflect poorly on the hundreds of thousands of people that come to the park and do exactly what they are supposed to,” Lauretig said.
Sagamore Hill National Historic Site in Oyster Bay, N.Y., experienced an extensive fire at its visitor center on Dec. 24, two days into the government shutdown, which destroyed retail products and caused structural damage to the park’s bathroom facilities.
If people had been in the building at the time of the fire, officials could have been notified sooner — but the park was closed for Christmas Eve, a designated federal holiday.
The Nassau County Fire Marshall determined the fire was the result of a furnace malfunction.
“Fire investigators and engineers will be looking at the structure to make sure its safe to enter,” the park’s superintendent Kelly Fuhrmann told The News. “We are looking forward to addressing the impact of the fire.”
While an investigation continues, the park’s Old Orchard Museum is being used as a temporary visitor center for guests touring President Theodore Roosevelt’s home, where he lived from 1885 until his death in 1919.
According to Carter Strickland, the New York State Director for The Trust for Public Land, the amount of destruction to other parks in New York is unknown, beyond the obvious signs of more trash.
“They don’t have security and patrols out there when they are closed down … specifically Gateway National Recreation Area, which is home to many historic buildings,” Strickland said.
In some parks, unruly visitors decided to make their own vehicle tracks.
At Joshua Tree National Park, 24 miles of unpaved land was etched with tire tracks from ATVs and 4×4 pickup trucks, and off-roaders drove over endangered plants such as a Grusonia parishii Calflora, a species of cactus commonly known as matted cholla, Lauretig said.
“The desert environment is fragile and sensitive, and those road scars could be there for decades,” Lauretig told The News.
At California’s Death Valley National Park, motorcycle and 4×4 tracks were carved into the delicate badlands, valley floor and alluvial fan.
The park is home to colorful clay and mud stone badlands, which makes up the dry terrain and is a result of extensive wind and water erosion. An alluvial fan is a fan- or cone-shaped deposit of sediment crossed and built up by streams.
“Vehicle tracks can be visible for a decade or more sometimes until enough rain happens to smooth out the tracks and re-form the crust,” Cunningham said.
Kangaroo rats, foxes, iguanas and other burrowing animals in the area could also be unintentionally crushed by off-roaders.
The 3.3 million acre park’s beauty was also diminished during the shutdown by soiled toilet paper and human feces left on the ground.
Abby Wines, Death Valley’s Public Information Officer, recalled some park visitors leaving their trash near completely full trash cans and dumpsters — but that littler got blown into the desert and spread by animals seeking food.
In Death Valley, the cleaning of a toilet took approximately two hours and a time-lapse video of park rangers cleaning a dirty bathroom was shared to the park’s Facebook page.
Wildlife was also impacted by human waste and trash.
According to a National Parks Conservation Association blog post, “waste management problems quickly led to wildlife management problems.”
Large amounts of garbage attracted coyotes, bobcats, and foxes to popular areas of Death Valley. As wildlife starts associating people to food, animals can become aggressive, leading to fatalities, the blog post explained.
“Now that the park is running again, I’m sure park rangers will go out and try to restore these areas, even just raking. They will check if animals are hurt,” Cunningham told The News.
“During shutdowns like this it’s really important for people to realize this is our public land …our park. We the people own this land and we want everyone to take care of it for future generations.”
The Great Smokey Mountains delayed openings due to staffing issues and overflowing trash cans have prompted fears of large black bears becoming habituated, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.
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Some wildlife in Yosemite National Park had to be euthanized after becoming accustomed to searching for food from humans.
In addition to animals eating and spreading around trash and unsanitary bathrooms, Sequoia National Park’s “lack of adequate parking has resulted in significant pedestrian use of the Generals Highway, creating risk of pedestrian-vehicle conflicts,” according a Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks news release.
Unsafe conditions were also seen in Kings Canyon National Park, which saw illegal fire rings and campfires.
The shutdown has also postponed scientific research, such as a 60-year predator-prey study with wolf and moose in Michigan’s Isle Royale National Park and a study of acid rain effects on wildlife population in Shenandoah National Park.
Shenandoah confirmed the theft of an iconic National Park Service arrowhead sign from one of the entrance stations.
“Our treasured national parks must be fully staffed and funded, not just for the next three weeks, but every week of the year. Reopening the government for the full year is the right next step that Congress and the President must take to protect our parks. I’m grateful that federal employees, including the incredible professionals of our National Park Service, will receive the back pay they so deserve,” Diane Regas, the president and CEO of The Trust for Public Land, said in a statement.
“We now need an immediate, comprehensive assessment of the damages our parks suffered during the shutdown and urge Congress to provide supplemental funding to the National Park Service to cover the costs of cleanup and repair at every affected unit.”
If another government shutdown were to occur, Regas thinks leaders should “close the parks or fully fund the Department of Interior to avoid any continued damage to our parks and unsafe situations for visitors.”
