Tags
camping, federal governement, government, government shutdown, hiking, National Park System, national parks, nature, outdoors, parks, shutdown, state parks
Photo Courtesy of http://www.LATimes.com
I know I’m a few days late with this issue but by no means should this be ignored! On October 1, 2013, the government shutdown 401 National Parks across our country. All park grounds, visitor centers, hotels, campgrounds, and park roads – except for thru ways – are closed. All programs are canceled and permits issued for special events on park grounds nationwide are rescinded. Hikers and campers were given 2 days to vacate the premises- by October 3. With our nation entering fall, this is one of the busiest times of the year for our nation’s parks. The National Park System hosts more than 282 million people per year, and more than 715,000 people per day in October. Those visitors spend about $76 million per day in communities near national parks.
It’s not just the outdoor enthusiasts that are being affected by this shutdown- more than 20,000 National Park Service employees, who are furloughed until an appropriation is passed (3,000 employees continue to work, providing essential services, including security, emergency services and firefighting) are being affected.
**Above information was provided by www.nationalparks.org
It was even difficult finding information on this shutdown because www.NPS.gov is temporarily shutdown closing off access to 750,000 web pages about national parks and programs. NPS.gov is used extensively for educational purposes and travel planning by 91 million unique visitors every year.
Positive effects to the National Park shutdown?
With visitors cut off from National Parks, there have been a flood of campers and hikers heading to state parks. Even though some of our Nation’s beloved scenery is cutoff right now, it shouldn’t keep us back from exploring the great outdoors. Now I know you have some thoughts on this- please share:)
Girly Camping® 
Three of our seven writers for The Lucky Ones work full-time for NPS (at the HQ in DC). All of us, are furloughed. It is a sad day when the government is able to shutdown the ability to access parks, monuments, campsites, and memorials. We all hope that they will come to a resolution soon and reopen our Parks!
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Simply put, our government including the president, congress and many top administrators are out of touch and out of control.
While it won’t help in the immediate future, the long-term solution is to vote out every last member of the Current congress and replace them with people with real ideas, vision and substance instead of being satisfied with ideology and partisan politics. It doesn’t matter which side of the aisle you camp on they all need to go. Its time for statesmen, not career politicians.
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That is profoundly brilliant: “out of touch and out of control”. I have spoken thousands of words, but those few spoke volumes.
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I have to say that I find the whole concept of a Government shutting down to be bewildering. To have it affect the populace in so many negative ways cannot be good.
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Agreed!
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Every other president and senate majority leader of the senate in the history of this country knew that they wouldn’t get everything that they wanted in a budget and were willing to negotiate. However, President Obama and Harry Reid seem to think that they can blame the Republicans in Congress for this shut down to score political points for the 2014 elections, so those two are willing to shut down the government. As one senior official in the Obama administration said, they don’t care how long the government is shut down, they’re winning. Meanwhile we the people are losing!
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I’m guessing the limo drivers are still working and the private jet pilots.
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Yeh, well, they sure didn’t shut down the Pres’ private golf course — go figure. That’s all I’m going to say cause I can’t keep a civil tongue once I get started….so I try to never get started.
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Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell demanded congress allows us access to our national parks. Our state passed a law that allows access to NP no matter what… Google it.
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That is an excellent idea. States could then automatically take over the parks during any future shut-downs.
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Are you kidding me? This is awful! How anybody could even think about something like that? I hope that the parks will be reopened as soon as possible.
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VALLEY FORGE, Pa. (CBS/AP) — A marathoner says he was fined $100 for running in Valley Forge National Historical Park during the government shutdown.
John Bell, a 56-year-old realtor, said he parked his car on Sunday in a remote parking lot, not one blocked by a barrier.
Bell, of Chadds Ford, has competed in a marathon on every continent of the world, but one of his favorite places to run is Valley Forge.
“From a safety standpoint, I like running down there, along with the scenery,” he says.
But on Sunday, Bells says there were two rangers waiting with their car lights flashing when he returned. They slapped him with the $100 citation.
While Bell says he knew that national landmarks were closed, he didn’t realize Valley Forge would be affected.
“I’m not putting together that [the park is] closed. Even if it was, I’d be thinking, ‘Oh, they’re just closing the visitor center,’” he explains.
Bell says he saw many other runners and bikers in the park, and he plans to fight the ticket in federal court, along with his lawyer, Jeremy Ibrahim.
“Washington may have shut down the government, but due process is not shut down,” Ibrahim agrees.
He finds it ironic that one of the disagreements in Congress is the Affordable Care Act, “Yet we tell folks that we should all be healthy, we all should go online and sign up. He goes outside, does some running and gets a ticket for it,” Ibrahim says.
Meanwhile, Bell says he has received many calls and emails from other runners expressing their support, including a cyclist who heard his story.
“I believe he should fight it; it’s kind of a ridiculous scenario. Maybe the judge or whoever is in charge will see he was just using the land his tax dollars paid for,” Mike Festa, the cyclist, says.
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I heard about this…. Absolutely unreal!!
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It’s one thing to shut down things like the visitors center or campgrounds that are attended by rangers, but how in the world are they justifying to themselves shutting down NATURE?!?!? I’ve heard they even blocked access to scenic turn-outs along some roads. Who paid the folks that had to transport and set up those blockades? Were they thinking, “oh the people will be upset and blame the other side for the shut down”? I’m not going to vote any incumbent ever again!
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It’s discussing !!!
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I’ve written about the government shutdown in the following posts. You’re most welcome to come and check them out. 🙂
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We can all understand shutting down facilities that require an attendant, but why is it necessary to block access to areas like Valley Forge, the mall, the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, national sea shores, national forests, etc. where a hiker seldom encounters a federal employee in the normal course of a visit?
Most of this was simply a political maneuver designed to intimidate voters.
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I believe they spent more money closing things down than they would have if places were kept open.
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