When Fernando Paz of Louisville, Kentucky, arrived at the Charlestown Navy Yard this week to see the USS Constitution, he was surprised to see a sign that said, simply, “ship is closed.”
He was there well before the scheduled closing time, wondering why he couldn’t get in. The answer, he was told, was because of the federal government shutdown.
“Yeah, OK, checks out,” he said. “Unfortunate. Frustrating.”
The federal shutdown has left more than 9,000 National Park Service staff members furloughed without pay. That includes employees at the 16 national park sites in Massachusetts that attract nearly 9 million visitors a year. And without an end to the shutdown in clear sight, park rangers and other staff are left without much-needed paychecks, and visitors are finding a more limited experience at national parks.
Usually, visitors can board the world’s oldest commissioned warship that’s still afloat. But for now, Old Ironsides is cordoned off and only visible from across a parking lot.
“It’s quite disappointing,” said Maria King, a tourist from Scotland. “Don’t understand why they’re closing things down. Don’t get it. In Scotland, we wouldn’t do that.”
Brian Poll is visiting from the Netherlands, and said this doesn’t happen there, either.
“At the moment, we also have some struggles with the government,” he said. “But everything is still working and we can visit everything, still.”
At Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord this week, visitors encountered a sign outside a locked visitor center.
“During this lapse in appropriations, national parks will remain as accessible as possible,” the sign reads. “We are doing our best to take care of your parks at this time, but some amenities and services may not be available.”
That means no access to the indoor bathrooms or the parking lots. Fortunately there’s a town-owned lot across the street that people can use, along with the most basic amenities.
“Right there are the porta-potties that are being cleaned and those are being provided by the town of Concord so people have facilities to use,” Kristen Sykes of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association pointed out as she walked through the park.
The shutdown is taking its toll on national parks, Sykes said.
“I know that there are national park sites where people are damaging resources because they’re just parking everywhere where they can find a place,” she said. “There are places where people are taking off-road vehicles where they’re not allowed.”
And, of course, the shutdown impacts park service employees.
“It’s unfortunate that we don’t get to get the full experience, but what’s even more unfortunate is that people aren’t getting paid their salaries and able to make a living,” said Caleb Sylvester of Groton, Massachusetts, as he visited Minute Man park this week.
Bob Krumenaker worked for the park service for 41 years and is now with the Association of National Park Rangers. Park employees don’t make a ton of money, he said.
“And so people are worried about their rent, paying their car bills, paying their student loans, and eating right now,” Krumenaker said, adding that, unlike earlier shutdowns, there’s no guarantee of back pay when this one ends.
Krumenaker said rangers are also worried about the work that’s not being done, such as at the Cape Cod National Seashore.
“That would be wildlife management. That would be monitoring sharks in the water. There’s restoration work in wetlands that have been degraded,” he said. “None of that’s happening right now.”
Even after the shutdown is over, many of these park employees may not be able to come back.
In a lawsuit challenging federal worker layoffs, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget filed court documents this week describing the Department of the Interior’s plan to permanently cut more than 2,000 positions, including hundreds of National Park Service employees. And that’s on top of major cuts that have already happened.
In a written statement, a Department of the Interior spokesperson said any cuts the agency is contemplating predate the federal government shutdown.
“Since the start of the current administration, with several court ordered pauses, the Department of the Interior has repeatedly reviewed and evaluated its current workforce and its Departmental needs,” they wrote. “This includes examining efficiencies, reducing redundancies, as well as offering deferred retirement programs and exploring options related to reductions in force (RIFs).”
Back at Minute Man National Historical Park, Melissa Cameron was visiting from Washington state with her family to see where the American Revolution began.
“History is important, that’s why we have our kids with us,” she said. “And so having these parks is a tactile reminder of, yes, this really happened. And those are the things we need to have access to.”
Like Cameron, many visitors are probably looking forward to the time when they can call this federal shutdown “history”.
