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Illegal Camping In Death Valley National Park, Anonymous Ranger Fears For Yosemite

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Published Date

January 2, 2019
Alleged illegal camping in Death Valley National Park/Basin and Range Watch

This photo allegedly shows illegal camping off the Keane Wonder Mine Road in Death Valley National Park/Basin and Range Watch

Beautiful desert views. No crowds. What's not to like about camping in Death Valley National Park, especially when there are no rangers about to ticket you for camping illegally? Meanwhile, as the partial government shutdown continues to show the ugly side of keeping national parks open without adequate National Park Service staff, one Yosemite National Park ranger voiced concerns about managing crowds with a skeleton staff.

A photo of campers distributed January 1 by Basin and Range Watch, a nonprofit working to conserve the deserts of Nevada and California, purported to show three campers off the Keane Wonder Mine Road east of Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley. They had their easy chairs set up, tent in place, and were unloading their SUV.

"Gov shutdown encouraging illegal camping in National Parks. Seen here off Keane Wonder Mine Road in Death Valley National Park, these people drove off the road about 200 yards on desert habitat. Sign says do not drive off rd," a caption to the photo read.

Park staff, most on furlough, could not be reached Wednesday morning to confirm the incident.

Meanwhile, a ranger who claimed to work in Yosemite wrote anonymously of the futile effort to manage crowds with just 12 rangers.

"We held Yosemite open to 4th of July-level traffic with no support staff whatsoever," the ranger wrote in a message that appeared on Facebook and Twitter. "We did so with 4 rangers in Wawona/Badger, 4 in Yosemite Valley, and (may be slightly off...) 4 in Mather. That is 12 people working while we were seeing 240-270 cars per hour coming into South Entrance. Let that sink in. TWELVE people. In a park the size of Rhode Island. Badger sold almost 1,000 lift tickets today. (Their limit is 1200)."

Elsewhere across the National Park System, ranger-led snowshoe hikes were canceled in places such as Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah and Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, funding from the Great Smoky Mountains Association to keep visitor centers and restrooms open at Great Smoky Mountains National Park ran out Tuesday, and campgrounds at Joshua Tree National Park in California were to close to overnight use Wednesday due to accumulating human waste and garbage with no maintenance crews to remove it.

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Comments

Submitted by Steph on January 2, 2019 - 10:47am.

Just another example of USA turning into the armpit of the world with our stupid divided politicians that supposedly are looking out for our natural resources.  It's sad they don't hold our national parks in higher regard. I would rather have them completely closed to preserve them.


Submitted by Charlie Smith on January 2, 2019 - 1:48pm.

Agree....they should just be temporarily closed until sufficient support staff and resources are available. Without oversight, some folks have no respect or conscious regard for pristine wilderness areas.


Submitted by Audrey Peterman on January 2, 2019 - 2:58pm.

As a fan of our public lands system and particularly our national parks, I salute the valor and dedication of these and all park rangers. America was the fitst country on Earth to establish national parks, and now more than 100 other nations have followed suit. Thid means we are arguably responsible for protecting hundreds of millions of acres around the globe. I love the fact that we describe our national parks as our " Crown Jewls," spread out for all the world to enjoy and marvel at, unlike the British Crown Jewels for example that are held under lock and key in the Tower of London. 

So what does it say about us when we've cone to this point where we trash our natural, national treasures, some of which are World Heritage Sites, meaning they belong to thr entire Family of Mankind? 

I hope this marks a turning point where we look at ourselves and our conduct and are so repulsed that we say " Enough! No more!"

Then we all commit to working to restore and maintain our treasures, and ourselves


Submitted by Lee Dalton on January 2, 2019 - 4:45pm.

The only thing more stupid than trump are the people who have allowed themselves to be duped into supporting him. 


Submitted by leca1959 on January 2, 2019 - 7:11pm.

Uummmm... yeah. This is a partial shutdown, very different from Obama's shutdown in 2013. He even had all of the pull outs, even to National Monuments like Mount Rushmore, closed off. Pull outs!! Trump hasn't done anything like that. Your hypocrisy is shining through brightly. SMH...


Submitted by Mike B. on January 2, 2019 - 10:17pm.

T think Lee said it best.


Submitted by Rick B. on January 2, 2019 - 10:29pm.

Hypocrisy?  Your Trump guy had the House and the Senate all ready to send a bill for his signature, but at the last minute [after rumblings from his political base] he sent word back down the line that he didn't want to see any bill that didn't have his wall nonsense funding.

 

And now he wants to blame it on everyone but himself - the person responsible.


Submitted by Pattie pitts on January 3, 2019 - 5:22am.

been to these parks several times but couldn't go in 1990 for the same reason because the parks were CLOSED with that shut down.  The last government shut down didn't have these results or publicity (Obama for 16 days) The no trump people will go to any extremes to keep him from doing his job. 


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