National parks with no workers: how the shutdown affects your plans

At midnight on October 1, the United States government began what could be a prolonged shutdown after Republican and Democratic lawmakers failed to agree on a spending bill for the rest of the year.

A shutdown means that many federal services are on hold until a resolution is reached.

While services deemed essential will continue uninterrupted, even as employees wait for their paychecks, nonessential government workers risk being placed on unpaid leave. In addition, services from benefit distribution to scientific research and new passport and veteran card applications could be halted or significantly delayed.

Located on land owned and administered by the federal government, the 63 national parks across the country are affected by the shutdown, despite the immediate plan to keep them mostly open.

Here is what happens to national parks during a government shutdown

According to an internal National Park Service (NPS) memo sent to employees, and as first reported by Politico, the U.S. Department of the Interior, under which the NPS falls, will keep parks open. This is the plan, even if the majority of the 16,000 employees that work for NPS are expected to be furloughed.

"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," Utah Department of Natural Resources Deputy Director Redge Johnson said in a Sept. 29 webinar on the looming shutdown. 

Related: National park director just told visitors this season is 'not going to be great'

"We want to see the restrooms open, the trash still collected; we want to see them managed properly."

Services like the ones mentioned above have been the first to suffer under the past government shutdown going into January 2019 from the previous year. 

In the first months of its time in the White House, the Trump administration abruptly fired thousands of national parks workers in what officials claimed was an effort to cut down government spending and waste. 

A judge later ordered many to be reinstated, but the haphazard nature of the firings and returns threw what was already an understaffed agency into chaos during peak visitor periods.

Parks to stay open but no workers: how does that work?

"Without seasonal staff during this peak season, visitor centers may close, bathrooms will be filthy, campgrounds may close, guided tours will be cut back or altogether canceled, emergency response times will drop, and visitor services like safety advice, trail recommendations, and interpretation will be unavailable," reads a letter that 17 Democratic and Independent lawmakers sent to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum back in February.

With very few NPS workers deemed essential during the shutdown, the current plan is to cut off access to trails or sites that can be cordoned off and leave open the wider territory of the park that visitors can drive into.

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Some workers overseeing services like emergency response and trash collection will continue operating, while visitor centers or other sites that rely on staffing will be closed.

"The NPS will continue to keep parks as accessible as possible during the lapse in appropriations," the agency said in a statement to local outlet KQED. "[...] Critical functions that protect life, property, and public health will remain in place, including visitor access in many locations, law enforcement, and emergency response."

Related: Thousands of people protest against making a new national park