Overflowing garbage cans in Big Bend National Park, such as this one at the Santa Elena Traihead, could attract black bears/NPS
Garbage at Big Bend National Park is serving as chum for black bears as the park lacks maintenance crews to haul away the trash during the government shutdown, while in Shenandoah National Park some areas were closed Thursday due to unspecified resource and public safety concerns.
Staff at Big Bend in Texas on Wednesday closed the Chisos Basin, Rio Grande Village, and Cottonwood campgrounds due to sanitation and resource impact concerns. The Santa Elena Canyon Trailhead and trail also was closed due to resource impact concerns. In both instances, the lack of maintenance crews to remove the garbage from overflowing can was creating a sanitation problem as well as being an attractant for the park's black bears.
"No bears have seen yet near here, but this is happening in numerous places around the park, and trash WILL attract bears," said Big Bend Superintendent Bob Krumenaker in an email. "And that creates a safety problem for people and puts the bears at risk as they quickly become habituated to human food."
At Shenandoah, staff alerted the public via Twitter that "(t)he Dickey Ridge Visitor Center and Elkwallow areas (including restrooms) are closed due to visitor impacts to resources and public safety concerns." Park staff could not immediately be reached to explain the issues, though they could mirror those in Big Bend as Shenandoah also has a healthy population of black bears.
Uncollected garbage in the Chisos Basin of Big Bend also was a sanitation problem as well as bear attractant/NPS
Elsewhere in the National Park System, staff at Independence National Historical Park in Pennsylvania announced Thursday that "Visit Philadelphia Inc. has signed an agreement with the National Park Service to provide the necessary funding to open Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell Center from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, 12/28, Saturday, 12/29 and Sunday, 12/30. No tickets required."
The Statue of Liberty also was open, thanks to funding from New York state. Reservations for tickets to visit Ellis Island and enter the statue could be purchased at this website.
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Comments
Let's use some common sense here. If they are closed then close them completely!!! It shouldn't matter that it's "public" land. Aren't our politicians "public" servants of us?? Do we not pay their salary, pensions and benefits with our taxes?? It they cannot agree and have to close certain parts of the government then they need to be closed!!!
Would it be too much to ask that if you are going to visit a national park, TAKE YOUR TRASH WITH YOU until this mess can be resolved!
Close
Mar-a Lago NOW-!!!
Folks keep getting confused with what they say or ask for.
It takes effort by real breathing people to close things and keep them closed, to pick up trash and keep it picked up, and so forth.
In Yellowstone, the only evidence that the park is closed at all is that you may have to drive an extra few hundred yards for a bathroom, and you don't have to pay your entrance fee to offset your impact on the park as you would almost any other day of the year.
Now some people may take this as a net positive. To me, the more we blunt the impact of these dangerous and ill-advised lapses in appropriations, the more they are likely to occur.
Pack it in, pack it out. The remote areas that I visit (backpack) require that you take your trash with you and dispose of it properly. Leave no trace!
EXACTLY what I was thinking! People need to use a little common sense! It's ridiculous for adults to expect other people to always pick up after them anyway!! I'm glad at least one other person is on the same wavelength as I am though!
common sense lacks in this situation, we witnessed the mess in Big Bend, people are just clueless and idiots.