President Trump, close our national parks.
You heard me right.
Ever since the government shutdown began Oct. 1, the parks are being trampled, trashed and turned into macabre theme parks.
My husband and I recently returned from our beloved Rocky Mountain National Park, disheartened by those who now appear to feel free to disregard courtesies commonly afforded to both Mother Nature and mankind now that there’s no one to mind the store.
Park officials were given the directive to leave the gates open and hope for the best.
We saw motorists parking willy-nilly along roadsides, ignoring designated sites so that the high-altitude flora and fauna would be protected.
Trails were becoming littered with trash. Trash cans were overflowing.
Most worrisome is the way the hordes trekked after the herds of elk, cameras in hand. It is rutting season, after all. More than once, we saw tourists get so close, a bull would break away from the herd in a threatening manner.
Since the shutdown began, more than 9,000 park employees, or 64% of national park staff, have been furloughed without pay, putting an enormous strain on those remaining.
These furloughs are on top of a 25% cut earlier this year in permanent National Park Service staff.
Even more ominous is President Trump’s 2026 budget that requests cutting one-third of the National Park Service’s budget, from just over $3 billion to $2 billion. If passed, the NPS would lose another 5,500 employees and be forced to eliminate funding for approximately 350 parks, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.
Since the government shutdown, the park rangers who normally work the front desk at the one RMNP visitors center that remains open have been replaced with volunteers through the Rocky Mountain Conservancy staff.
That’s nice, but hardly sufficient to handle the crowds.
The YMCA of the Rockies in nearby Estes Park is also organizing volunteer trash pick-up days on trails that include educational talks about enjoying the national park responsibly.
Compounding the chaos is the lack of communication from the federal government, leaving the public in the dark about the status of their parks.
Every day the shutdown continues, the more imperiled are our national parks.
