PHOENIX (AZFamily) — As the government shutdown continues, it’s impacting Arizona’s national parks. Walnut Canyon is completely closed, and other Arizona national parks and monuments are only partially operational.
Park employee advocates said this is just another blow to these workers after already dealing with mass layoffs at the beginning of this year.
About 5 million people visit the Grand Canyon every year; however, because of the shutdown, this week, there were no park employees to service the park full of visitors.
At national monuments like Sunset Crater and Wupatki, it was a similar scene. Alex Johnson with the National Parks Conservation Association said almost two-thirds of the staffing is furloughed.
“In situations like this, where the government shuts down, it’s a real challenge to maintain that level of service, to protect the wildlife, to keep people from walking off trail, et cetera, et cetera, cleaning bathrooms,” Johnson said
He said because of the lack of staffing, it can be dangerous and challenging not having staff, so they would like to see the park’s closure.
“Because there’s really no guarantee unless the parks are fully staffed and fully funded to protect all of the things we love about national parks,” Johnson said.
He said it’s not just impacting the visitors but also the staff without work.
“We’re hearing from those furloughed workers that, you know, they’re just concerned about what the impacts will be to these park units, while they are not working,” Johnson said.
On top of the shutdown, Johnson said there is a real risk that there could be more mass layoffs of park employees.
Just this summer the Supreme Court lifted a lower court injunction that was blocking President Trump’s order for federal agencies to prepare for large-scale layoffs.
“Some of these short-term impacts that we’re seeing just this weekend and into next week, if the shutdown continues, some of those may become permanent if the Trump administration does move forward with these mass staff terminations,” Johnson said.
He said they are urging the Trump administration not to pursue mass layoffs because it’s not just visitor experience that will be impacted, but also research and long-term park care.
“All of those things aren’t necessarily seen by visitors when they come for, a couple hours or a couple days, but all those are really critical to, keeping these parks what they are for generations to come,” Johnson said.
For the parks that are open, conservation groups said visitors can help in during the shutdown by taking their trash with them when they leave and supporting businesses around these parks and monuments during the shutdown.
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