A wildfire burning inside Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California is nearly contained more than a week after it started.
But a group that helps support the park says the ongoing government has made it harder to communicate with visitors.
According to Kenji Haroutunian, executive director of Friends of Joshua Tree, the park is partially open with law enforcement and maintenance teams still working.
“I’m just not sure how long that’ll last,” Haroutunian said, “as people are unsure if they’re getting paid and many staff have already been furloughed.”
5 questions with Kenji Haroutunian
Is the park busy right now?
“Yes, it’s busy. There’s no charge to get into the park right now. There’s no way for them to take entry fees. So on the weekends, it’s quite busy. This is the beginning of the busy season for all the High Desert area. And that it certainly includes Joshua Tree National Park. So that’s the fear, that it’s going to not be maintainable and then we’ll start to lose those functions of enforcement. We’ve already lost research. Most of the staff is laid off or is off.”
The fire started at a campground inside the park a little more than a week ago. It’s been contained, but is that only because federal firefighters are still working?
“Yes. And local firefighters are pulled in as well when there’s fires out there, which happens almost every year now.”
During President Trump’s first term, he demanded that parks stay open during a pretty lengthy shutdown. The parks were left overflowing with messy trash cans and toilets, and people even cut down some of the Joshua Trees. Have you seen any big problems like that this time around?
“Not so far because there’s still some enforcement going on and maintenance, and it did happen last time where there was no maintenance being done. Volunteers had to step up. But by that time, the trash bins were overflowing. The bathrooms were a mess — and there’s over 90 of them in the park — so it was quite an ordeal. So hopefully we’re not gonna go there.”
Joshua Tree is also surrounded by a lot of small towns that make a living off of tourism in the area. It’s the same story at national parks across the country. What are you hearing from residents there in California?
“One of the main concerns is the impact not only to the environment there, but to the local economies of Joshua Tree, Twenty-Nine Palms and Yucca Valley. This is the beginning of their season, and it’s a limited season. It runs essentially October through March. So they’re trying to get going and people have trepidation about coming out to the park because they’re not sure. I’m glad you’re covering this because there’s a lot of confusion. Each time there’s been a federal shutdown in the past seven years, it’s a different story and it’s different this time too. So families and such are just unsure of what the situation is.”
It sounds like this time around isn’t quite as bad as last time yet, but what are the risks to the park as the shutdown drags on?
“Well, not only an impact to the local communities and businesses but inside the park, the ecology there is very sensitive. It does require some specific behaviors for people in order to have minimum impact there. And so, as we saw last time, some folks just don’t know how to operate in that High Desert. It’s easy to wander around and impact the soils there, which affects all the wildlife there. The big horn, the ringtails, the tortoises, all the floor fauna, and of course the Joshua trees themselves. It’s a sensitive environment.”
This interview was edited for clarity
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Thomas Danielian produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Catherine Welch. Allison Hagan produced it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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