Overview
- Roughly 80% of the more than 430 park units remain at least partially accessible while 9,296 of about 14,500 NPS employees are furloughed.
- More than 400 former NPS employees, including two former directors, sent a letter urging Secretary Doug Burgum to close parks, citing overflowing bathrooms, trash, unsafe trails, and recent incidents at Yosemite and Joshua Tree.
- An Interior Department court filing disclosed plans to eliminate 2,050 positions across 89 competitive areas, separate from the shutdown furloughs.
- Department officials say closures would strip gateway communities of tens of millions of dollars per day and they attribute the shutdown to Democratic lawmakers.
- House GOP leaders warn that operating with limited staff cannot continue indefinitely and predict worsening sanitation and ecological impacts without funding.