The government shutdown is forcing Republicans and Democrats alike to balance political point-scoring with keeping up appearances at the country’s iconic national parks.
Before the National Park Service put out internal guidance Tuesday to keep the parks mostly open and staffed with skeleton crews, Republican Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah and Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado’s administrations were both strategizing about how to keep them open. And even with the federal government’s guidance, they were working on contingency plans to prop up operations in national parks with state funds.
The scramble by Western governors to keep parks open offered an early glimpse of the disconnect between Washington’s shutdown brinksmanship and the politics surrounding the economic fallout in rural towns like Moab, Estes Park and Springdale — where a prolonged lapse could strain an electorate’s patience with lost tourism dollars, shuttered businesses and overflowing trash cans.
As Republicans and Democrats raced to pin blame for the shutdown on each other, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said Tuesday night that “it’s true politically” that a blue state like his could let Republicans take the hit for closures or a lack of staffing at national parks. But he argued there are larger motivations to keep them open.
“It’s the economic impact. It’s the emotional impact,” Hickenlooper said. “[In] stressful times like this, parks are where a lot of people go to massage their spirit.”
Perhaps no other part of the federal government so captures the American public imagination, with destinations from the Statue of Liberty National Monument to Yosemite National Park drawing millions of visitors and billions in tourism dollars annually. Politicians from both sides of the aisle were already leveraging lapses at the National Park Service to lambast opponents for not striking a funding deal by Tuesday night — but they were also reckoning with the potential economic losses of diminished park operations and the optics of trash and bathrooms going untended at “America’s Best Idea.”
Redge Johnson, deputy director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, said on a Tuesday webinar that state leaders were “really concerned” about the shutdown’s impact to towns on the outskirts of parks like Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park.
“The state of Utah is doing everything it can to work with the Department of Interior to see if we can keep these national parks open, so that people are still able to go there and enjoy the parks,” he said. “We want to see the restrooms open, the trash still collected; we want to see them managed properly.”
Utah mayors said Tuesday that their towns were prepared for a shutdown but optimistic because of the state’s commitment to keep parks open and operating well.
“Of course we’re concerned, the economy is something that is uncertain right now,” said Moab Mayor Joette Langianese, whose city lies on the doorstep of Arches National Park and a short hop from Canyonlands. “Moab seems to be doing OK in that regard, but we really don’t want this to have an impact on our economy — and it could.”
“There are times like we’re facing today where those parks might be closed and there will be huge impacts not just to the visitors but also to the businesses that rely on that visitation that won’t come depending on how long the shutdown is,” Johnson added.
National parks have long been a political flashpoint in past funding lapses. Their shuttering has been one of the earliest and most obvious signs of impact outside of Washington, D.C., and its federal worker-heavy suburbs.
“The NPS always is the public face of a government shutdown,” said Jon Jarvis, who served as director of the National Park Service during the Obama administration and oversaw closures during a 16-day shutdown in 2013.
The National Park Service on Tuesday afternoon recommended park officials keep parks open by tapping visitor fees to pay for a skeleton staff, mirroring the Trump administration’s approach during a 35-day shutdown in 2018 and 2019. But the plan faced fierce blowback then, after high-profile incidents like the felling of Joshua Tree National Park’s namesake trees.
Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.), whose district includes Joshua Tree National Park, urged Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and National Park Service Acting Director Jessica Bowron on Tuesday to keep the park open, calling it “the economic backbone for the communities that surround it.”
“For small businesses, hotels, and restaurants, even a short disruption in access to the park has real consequences,” he wrote. “With careful management to ensure visitors’ safety and protect park resources, I believe Joshua Tree can and should remain open.”
Forty former superintendents sent a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Friday arguing that parks should be completely closed if Congress fails to clinch a deal, citing concerns about vandalism, visitor safety and the accumulation of trash.
Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit, compiled a 26-page list of incidents from that 2018-2019 shutdown that ranged from damage from off-road vehicles in Antietam National Battlefield to illegal fishing in the Everglades National Park to widespread graffiti and broken windows. She said that rangers’ oversight would likely be tested even more now because of the Trump administration’s layoffs earlier this year.
“So many parks are already in a tough position,” she said. “The consequences can be very permanent for national parks if a resource gets harmed.”
But in states like Colorado, where outdoor recreation makes up three percent of the state’s GDP, keeping the parks open, staffed and safe is so important that Polis signed an executive order in 2023 preemptively giving state agencies the authority to create a plan for how to keep the parks operating and the natural resources protected during a federal shutdown.
“It starts with the governor,” said a senior Colorado government official granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal conversations with state and federal officials. “The governor is really interested in keeping our national parks open. He’s really nervous about the resource damage that could occur if it’s not managed.”
The Colorado official said he wasn’t as worried about damage because federal officials said they’re committed to staffing levels devoted to protecting visitors as well as natural and historical resources.
“I was really pleased to hear that,” the official said. “And we’ll see. The devil’s in the details.”
Some of those details include closing buildings like visitor centers, according to NPS’ Tuesday directive. Federal officials have also communicated that they’re trying to find ways to manage visitors at high-volume parks like Rocky Mountain and Arches, as well as maintaining shuttle service that reduces car traffic in Zion, one of the nation’s most popular parks, according to the Colorado official.
But funding NPS is authorized to collect under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, for entrance and camping fees, will likely last only a few weeks if repurposed to fund operations, the same official explained.
“We’re willing to help fill the gaps, but we need to have a willing participant,” the official explained. “Right now, [federal officials] have not asked for help.”
As the shutdown took effect Tuesday night, partisan finger-pointing was in full swing both in Washington and the states. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a New York Republican whose district includes part of the Gateway National Recreation Area, faulted Democrats for park closures, saying, “The House has done its job — now it’s up to Senate Democrats to do theirs and decide whether our military gets paid, our national parks stay open, and government agencies keep serving Americans.”
In Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs joined Sen. Ruben Gallego, a fellow Democrat from the state, in pinning blame on Republicans. Arizona used state money to fund temporary operations at the Grand Canyon National Park in a 2013 shutdown, but Hobbs said that won’t happen this time around because the Trump administration’s health care and tariff policies have cost state coffers.
“Arizona cannot afford to keep the state’s national parks open,” Hobbs’ press secretary Liliana Soto said in a statement. “Arizona taxpayers cannot and should not continue bearing the cost of dysfunctional politicians in Washington, D.C. who would rather shut down the government than reach across the aisle and work together.”
But there were other examples of partisan line-crossing, too. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Tuesday bemoaned the impact on Acadia National Park, saying it “will not have the staff able to handle all the visitors.” Polis said in a statement he’d be willing to “use limited state funds” to keep Rocky Mountain National Park running, calling it his “top priority” in a federal shutdown.
Another fight looms when the shutdown ends. Cox, of Utah, noted in 2023 that though the state spent $1 million to prop up park operations during a shutdown ten years earlier, it was never reimbursed. And the Government Accountability Office previously determined that the Trump administration’s use of entrance fees to pay for services during the 2019 shutdown violated federal law. (The Office of Management and Budget disagreed with those findings.)
“These partisan tug-of-wars in Washington may make for great ratings on national news networks, but they leave rural areas in a lurch,” said California state Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil, a Republican whose district includes both Yosemite National Park and Death Valley National Park.
Scott Streater contributed to this report.
