National parks, created for the benefit and enjoyment of the public, will close if there's a government shutdown/NPS file

Tourism tied to the National Park System, and excitement tied to the highly popular Fat Bear Week at Katmai National Park and Preseve in Alaska, will take a blow if a Congressional government funding impasse leads to a shutdown Sunday, as the parks will close as well, according to a senior Interior Department official.

Impacts across the park system from a prolonged government shutdown would range from an Internet blackout of watching Katmai brown bears fatten up for winter and barriers to leaf-peeping season ramping up from Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Acadia National Park to impediments to wildlife viewing peaking in places such as Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone and possibly the loss of roughly two dozen park system units for watching the annular solar eclipse on October 14.

"October is prime fall color and hiking season. Historically, the month of October is always Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Great Smoky Mountains Association’s busiest month," said Laurel Rematore, CEO of the Great Smoky Mountains Association. "Park visitation is usually around 1.6 million visitors for the month. Typically, GSMA’s retail operations generate about 15 percent of our annual revenue in the month of October alone, even though our park is open year-round. 

"This region’s economy is based entirely on tourism, with the two big marquee draws being Dollywood and GSMNP," she added. "All visitor services, such as lodging, restaurants, and other entertainment options are located in the gateway communities around the park. I am concerned that if a shutdown continues for more than a few days, vacationers will cancel their plans to come to this area and that will impact the entire region’s economy."

While the Katmai bears will continue to fatten up on salmon in the Brooks River during next week's scheduled event, websites that normally focus on the bruins will be turned off in the event of a government shutdown, the Interior official said during a conference call with reporters Thursday evening.

You're likely to encounter closed national parks if there's a government shutdown this weekend.

Thousands of National Park Service employees stand to be furloughed during the extent of any shutdown, gates to many national parks will be locked closed, and campgrounds, lodges, and visitor centers will close. But not all park system sites can be completely locked down, and determined members of the public will be able to find access points. Knowing that, Interior officials are encouraging the public "not to visit sites during the period of lapse in appropriations out of consideration for protection of natural and cultural resources, as well as visitor safety."

While some Republican senators and congressmen have urged Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to keep the parks open in the event of a shutdown, guidelines released by Interior said that would be impossible without Congressional funding. However, individual states could gain permission from National Park Service Director Chuck Sams to fund national park operations — without the prospect of reimbursement — in their states. So far the governors of Arizona and Utah have indicated they will do that.

Remaining on the job during a shutdown, if there is one, will be law enforcement rangers and emergency response staff. Still, restrooms and garbage removal will not be guaranteed, and any emergency response could be delayed.

At Yosemite National Park, the Yosemite Conservancy was asked to "to consider funding some NPS staff to keep the VC and restroom open if the gates are still open. Our retail bookstores and naturalist programs would be impacted with a hard closure," said President and CEO Frank Dean.

The Great Smoky Mountains Association also would take a significant hit during a prolonged shutdown, said Rematore.

"If there is a shutdown of GSMNP’s visitor centers, GSMA will be unable to operate our four highest volume stores, which are all located inside the park," she said. "We will continue to operate three stores we have in gateway communities surrounding the park. I estimate that we will lose an average of $56,000 per day in gross sales revenue with in-park stores closed. If our in-park stores are closed, I estimate that 30 to 40 of our front-line sales and information staff will be displaced and unable to report to work. (We currently employ about 110 people, the majority of which are in our retail operations.) GSMA has committed to try to make displaced staff's wages whole for as long as we can because we will need them to report back to work as soon as the shutdown ends. We estimate we will spend an average of $4,200 per day to pay our displaced staff to stay home."

The National Park System routinely closed during government shutdowns until the one that arrived late in 2018 and carried over into 2019. The plan during that shutdown was for most Park Service employees to be sent home, or furloughed, for the duration of the closure. Key personnel, such as law enforcement rangers and those needed to keep the power on to buildings remained on the job. Concessions were allowed to continue to operate, and visitors were free to enter parks.

With no maintenance crews to collect trash or maintain restrooms, and no budget to pay for outside help, many parks were blighted by litter and human waste during that shutdown. There were reports of illegal off-road travel, metal detecting on battlefields in the park system, and damage to resources.

Joshua Tree National Park in California closed for a short period during the shutdown to clean up waste and address illegal roads blazed in the park. Officials at Big Bend National Park in Texas closed the Chisos Basin, Rio Grande Village, and Cottonwood campgrounds due to sanitation and resource impact concerns. At Mount Rainier National Park in Washington state, the 2018-19 shutdown prompted park officials to stop traffic at Longmire, with no public access allowed to Paradise. Death Valley National Park staff put out a release urging visitors to take their trash out of the park with them. In New Mexico, the public was accessing White Sands National Park, which was supposed to be closed to the public during the shutdown, by walking up a dune that covered a fence, according to local media. Yosemite National Park also closed due to human waste issues, and rangers were citing people who entered any of the park's closed areas.

Not so visible were the impacts being suffered in long-term environmental monitoring, work on visitor management plans and environmental impact statements.

If there is a shutdown this time, the Park Service will oversee the exodus of visitors from parks and operational closures, with most visitors likely gone by Monday evening.