National Park staff call for Grand Canyon closure amid government shutdown

National park leaders urge Trump to close parks

Around 450 national park leaders are urging the Trump administration to immediately close all parks, citing dangers including wildfires and illegal activities, due to minimal staff. FOX 10's Ashlie Rodriguez takes a look into the Grand Canyon.

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. - Around 450 former national park leaders are urging President Trump to immediately shut down the national parks until the government reopens. They said parks are open with minimal or no staff, and already numerous dangerous incidents have occurred since the shutdown began 28 days ago.

Local perspective:

At the Grand Canyon, it’s business as usual with visitors from all over the world, taking a trip that they had planned months ago, not knowing that there would be a government shutdown.

While national park leaders are concerned about dangerous incidents happening, there is a lack of rangers.

Outside the closed visitor center, Cathy and Mel stare at a map of the Grand Canyon, trying to figure out its landscape on their own. There are no park rangers around to ask. But they’re not concerned.

What they're saying:

"We come from Australia, we have more dangerous things in Australia," they said.

Hundreds of former and current national park employees are concerned, though, sending a letter to the Secretary of the Interior asking him to close the parks immediately.

They point to a wildfire started in Joshua Tree, illegal base jumping at Yosemite, and reports of dirty bathrooms and trash on trails that are not being safely maintained or monitored.

"This summer, well before this shutdown, our parks were already being pushed to the brink by funding and staffing cuts," they wrote. "The shutdown has made this bad situation far worse."

One visitor said NPS staff were correct, after what she saw in California parks.

"Toilets that weren’t cleaned. And it was a little bit overflowing. It was definitely a lot dirtier than it was here," she said.

What we know:

At the Grand Canyon, there was trash on the ground and left on the floor in the bathrooms.

"I’m really surprised. I grew up in this area, so it looks pretty much the same. The only difference is you’re not seeing park rangers," said a visitor.

While a park ranger wasn't found at the Grand Canyon, a shuttle driver told FOX 10 they had just closed another department today, and he was worried the shuttle service was next.

Dig deeper:

In the meantime, the concession store remained open to generate income. The clerks complained to us that visitors kept asking questions they couldn’t answer.

When asked if it was dangerous to not have rangers, one said, "Yes it is. Because if someone gets hurt or lost how are you going to find them?"

Another visitor disagreed. "I don’t think it’s dangerous if people read the signs and act responsibly. If you want to go balancing on the ledge, it’s pretty dangerous," he said.

National park leaders ended their letter by saying that closing the parks may not be an easy decision, but it’s the responsible one.

So far, neither President Trump nor Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has responded.

But most people disagreed that the park system should be shut down.

"I think they should leave them open because people make plans way in advance for this and it would be very unfair," a visitor said.

What's next:

Overall, there wasn’t much trash lying around the national park, and the bathrooms were relatively clean.

But the biggest impact on the park is that no one was there. While visitors don’t have to pay, there is a potential loss of thousands of dollars each day as the government remains shut down.