Overview

• About 9,296 of the National Park Service’s 14,500 employees are furloughed under a Department of the Interior plan that keeps most roads and trails accessible but curtails many services.
• Parks are operating inconsistently, with closures at places like Mesa Verde and White Sands, while others such as Yosemite remain open with skeleton crews, suspended fee collection and self-issued permits.
• Law enforcement continues on duty, yet routine maintenance and updates are limited at major parks including Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Sequoia.
• Select states and nonprofit partners are funding operations at some sites, with reported stopgaps in West Virginia, Utah and Hawaii that create uneven access across the system.
• Advocates cite 2018 shutdown damage to warn of vandalism, sanitation and ecological risks, and the NPCA estimates up to $1 million per day in lost park fees and as much as $80 million in daily visitor-spending losses.