Joshua Tree

[Drunk Monk]

fuck

Joshua Tree National Park to close because of damage, likely for shutdown’s duration

By MARY FORGIONE
JAN 08, 2019 | 10:20 AM

  

Joshua Tree National Park will close 8 a.m. Thursday to visitors. Damage that occurred during the partial government shutdown prompted the decision to temporarily close the park. (Mario Tama / Getty Images)

Joshua Tree National Park will close to all visitors Thursday because of damage to the park during the partial government shutdown, now in its third week. Without rangers on hand, visitors created new roads by driving off pavement and defaced the park’s namesake Joshua trees, a park spokesman said Tuesday.
“The way it looks right now because of resources or lack thereof, we have about eight rangers that oversee a large park, we will remain closed until appropriations are put into place to reopen,” spokesman George Land said Tuesday.
The 790,636-acre park near Twentynine Palms, Calif., will close at 8 a.m. Thursday.
“Law enforcement rangers will continue to patrol the park and enforce the closure until park staff completes the necessary cleanup and park protection measures,” according to a park statement issued Tuesday.
Anyone with camping reservations with Recreation.gov will receive a refund.
Land said the decision to close the park was made at the national level. Earlier during the shutdown, the park’s toilets and trash barrels overflowed, prompting many volunteers to step up and try to help clean the park.
Other parks have felt the strain of visitors pouring into their unstaffed facilities without paying entrance fees. Yosemite National Park shut the popular Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias and two campgrounds because of human waste and trash on roadsides that pose a public health hazard.
In Death Valley, the Furnace Creek and Texas Springs campgrounds closed last week, along with access roads to Natural Bridge, Dante’s View and Keane Wonder Mine. The road to Salt Creek is also closed. Much of Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks are closed too.