Shutdown episodes: Vandals ravage Joshua Tree National Park

Since Friday, the US budget freeze has been lifted for a limited time. But in one of the insufficiently guarded since December, national parks have caused serious damage: in the Joshua Tree National Park in southeastern California. "What has happened in the park over the past 34 days will be irreparable for the next 200 to 300 years," said Curt Sauer, former head of the National Park, at a Saturday protest.

During the budget freeze in the US, a total of about 800,000 state employees were either sent on forced leave or had to work without pay. In the national parks of the country, the service was mostly set - toilet facilities, campsites and roads were closed, waste not abfahren. The result: the protected areas littered.

At the time of the shutdown, the gates of the Joshua Tree National Park remained open, reports the newspaper "Desert Sun". Vandals invaded the sheltered desert landscape: driving their cars off the roads through nature, leaving behind a trail of more than 30 kilometers of devastation. They painted rocks, set campfires in restricted areas, and felled juniper, acacia and Joshua palm trees. These trees, up to 15 meters high, which gave the park its name, are natural wonders: they can live for up to 900 years.

I do not care if you're a Democrat or Republican, what's going on at Joshua Tree National Park is a travesty to this nation. True Americans do not destroy and trash our national parks just because no one's looking., Only thugs and criminals do. https://t.co/KdWMCwXQZi pic.twitter.com/obhSgVf9N7

"Some of Joshua's palm trees are 300 years old," said the current head of National Park David Smith of the newspaper SF Gate. "Everything grows very, very slowly here in the desert." In a fragile ecosystem such as the mojave, even tire marks in the soil have long-term consequences: "Once the surface has broken down, the soil is no longer fertile enough for the plants, and it takes a very long time to recover." The Rangers covered the tracks with mulch. Smith hopes that these measures and the recent rainfall will help save the desert floor 200 years for regeneration.

John Lauretig, director of Friends of Joshua Tree, denounced at the demonstration on Saturday that the US government had not completely closed the park. "The community is fed up with taking our parks hostage," he told Desert Sun. "If the government can not finance or equip the national parks, they should close them to protect the parks and the people."

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As in other national parks, Joshua Tree National Park volunteers have also provided some services. According to Lauretig, they cleaned up 30 to 50 toilets a day for weeks and provided for supplies of toilet paper. "The congregation keeps together," said Ethan Feltges, who runs a souvenir shop nearby and has a toilet cubicle in front of it, the AP news agency. "Everyone loves the park and there are many companies dependent on the National Park."

Already during the shutdown, there were warnings: "We fear that nature can be seriously damaged, and possibly historical and other sites," said John Garder of the non-governmental National Park Conservation Association in early January, "A Nightmare Scenario."