Foundation raising funds to repair national parks once shutdown ends

Breaking News Emails

Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

By Phil Helsel

Amid reports of overflowing trash cans and bathrooms at the nation’s national parks during the partial government shutdown, and the destruction of Joshua trees in Southern California, the charity supporting the parks system is seeking donations for repair once the government reopens.

Will Shafroth, president of the National Park Foundation, said the fundraising drive launched Thursday night is most analogous to its efforts helping parks recover after natural disasters.

“Part of the challenge we have right now is we really don’t know the whole extent of it,” Shafroth said, referring to reported damage at national parks during the shutdown.

The government shutdown that began on Dec. 22 over a dispute over President Donald Trump’s demand for funding of a border wall affected approximately 800,000 federal workers, around half of whom are furloughed and half working without pay. Congress on Friday passed a bill guaranteeing back pay to federal workers, and Trump said he will sign it.

The National Park Service did not issue a blanket decision to close the attractions despite the lapse in funding caused by the shutdown. In previous government shutdowns in 2013 and 1995 all parks were closed.

The park service announced over the weekend that it would use recreation fees which typically are used for future park projects to maintain services and access at parks.

The fundraising effort by the National Park Foundation, which is a Congressionally-chartered charity and the main charity for the federal park service, does not have a set goal and it just started, Shafroth said. He said the response so far has been positive.

The foundation will work with park rangers to determine where the damage is and where the money raised to repair them should be spent, the foundation said. It’s unclear how long the shutdown, now in its third week, will last.

“For right now, this is a way for people to help us be able to jump when the opportunity arises,” Shafroth said. People from all over the U.S. and the world visit national parks and the park service recorded more than 330 million recreational visits in 2017.

People visit Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California’s Mojave Desert, on Jan. 10, 2019.Jae C. Hong / AP

Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California, around 130 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, has reportedly suffered vandalism and damage that includes destruction of the iconic desert trees and new paths cut for off-road vehicles, according to Park Service officials.

Researchers believe the average lifespan of Joshua trees is about 150 years, but some of the park’s largest trees may be much older than that, according to the park. They are adapted to the desert landscape there, said Taylor Jones, endangered species advocate for the conservation non-profit WildEarth Guardians, which focuses on the American West.

“The national park is one of our last best places to preserve Joshua trees,” Taylor said.

source: nbcnews.com