The negative effects of the Trump Shutdown are becoming more glaring as it is now in its third week. Joshua Tree National Park, which has been maintained by volunteers since the beginning of the shutdown, has announced that it will close on Thursday morning.
The closure will allow park staff to assess and fix safety and resource protection issues inside the park. Officials hope to reopen the park in a few days.
Park officials plan to restore accessibility to the park in addition to limited basic services in the coming days. During the federal government shutdown, we will not monitor social media.
— Joshua Tree NPS (@JoshuaTreeNPS) January 8, 2019
“While the vast majority of those who visit Joshua Tree National Park do so in a responsible manner, there have been incidents of new roads being created by motorists and the destruction of Joshua trees in recent days that have precipitated the closure,” officials with the park stated in a news release.
Officials added,, “the communities near Joshua Tree National Park have provided significant assistance and support to the park, and park officials hope to restore visitor access to the park as quickly as possible to mitigate any negative impact to the local economy.”
Tourism at Joshua Tree National Park has a benefit to the community of more than $182 million per year, according to the National Park Service. That’s an average of nearly $500,000 per day that will clearly be negatively impacted by Trump Shutdown – which began on December 22 over a wall that the New York Times notes, was simply a “mnemonic device” thought up by a pair of political consultants to remind Donald Trump to talk about illegal immigration while on the campaign trail in 2016.
