Mistreatment of National Parks proves Congress are not the only ‘bad guys’ in the government shutdown
Imagine: the wild Mojave stretches out in front of you and mingles with its neighboring Colorado desert. Twisting, hundred-year-old Joshua trees reach toward a starry sky. Pale hillsides line the horizon. And you, standing in the center of this surreal scene, decide the ground below you seems like a perfectly good place to toss your Coca Cola bottle.
Is Congress really to blame for that?
As of today, the government has been shut down for 13 days. That’s 13 days of National Park rangers not being able to look after our lands and waters, and 13 days of visitors delighting in an unexpected, modern Wild West.
Since the start of the shutdown, Nationals Parks have reported large amounts of littering, fighting over parking and camping spots, entering unauthorized zones, defecating in the open, and disrupting wildlife.
Surely, guests of the parks can’t be expected to understand all the rules and regulations without help. Part of park rangers’ duty is to educate visitors on things they might not be aware of — how to properly put out your campfire to avoid spreading, for example. But should they really need to explain why throwing trash out of your car window in a protected area (or any area, for that matter) is a bad idea? Or that, if a sign says you are not permitted to enter an area, you shouldn’t enter it?
Of course, not all visitors to the parks have caused any harm during the shutdown period. Many, if not most, visitors are just trying to enjoy the free entry, or to see through that road trip they’ve been planning for months. The issue here is not with trash cans overflowing or bathrooms running out of toilet paper— problems that can be chalked up to the lack of employees on deck. Issues like those are the result of well-meaning visitors being forced into behaviors they wouldn’t normally adopt, not adopting behaviors because there is nobody around to force an alternative. It should not be ignored, however, that the National Park Service has advised people against visiting the parks until the shutdown has ended to avoid putting excessive pressure on the sensitive landscapes. To this end, even visitors who want to respect the parks should recognize that the best way to do that in a time like this is often to hold off their visit until the grounds are fully operative.
That people are quick to default to behaviors that damage our parks, their wildlife, and the people they support is not a result of the government shutdown. It’s a sad example of the way we understand nature: as a commodity to be enjoyed and used as we please, in disrespect of what it needs to thrive.
A government shutdown is never ideal. But if there is a silver lining, it might be an understanding of the need for a dramatic shift in the way we view and treat our National Parks and our planet in general.
