When the government stopped in 2018, A Mississippi The non-profit organization intervened to fund the crew of a bare-bare-bounds to keep one of the state’s largest cultural attractions operated. Now, the group is once again committed to the Wicksburg National Military Park to do so.
Pahari Home Battle Field where soldiers fought for control Mississippi River In 1863, run by National park serviceOn Thursday, a campaign was made to pay $ 2,000 per day for a commitment to Wicksburg National Military Park’s friends and to keep it open during the current shutdown.
“It is mainly and an issue of protection of the park for us,” the Executive Director Base Achret said about the site, the house for more than 18,000 graves of veterans of six wars and some former park staff. “Shutdown or during time when there is no park staff, it is really unsafe for barbarity and residual hunter.”
The contingency plan of the park service allows the parks to enter agreements with states, original American tribes, local governments or other groups, which are willing to donate to keep the sites open.
Organizations supporting individual national parks across the country have also moved forward to welcome visitors. West Virginia A donation agreement was also signed by the village Patrick Morris to reopen the centers of visitors in two national parks of the government.
Many national parks are largely open but with the closure of visitors’ centers. The US internal department, which includes the park service, has only released limited information and directed people for a general casual scheme how to work with less staffing more than 400 sites during shutdown-such as a wide, user-user-friendly list.
The plan allows parks with some entertainment charges to use revenue that has already been collected to provide basic services such as toilets, waste collections and law enforcement.
Hele Smith and his two children, who were traveling from Louisiana to Arkansas, were among them who tricked the Wiksburg National Military Park on Wednesday, but could only see a lineup of canon and some monuments. A gate blocking the Park Tour Road stopped him from searching the most. They plan to stop again on their return journey.
“It is a great thing for these children to see history and know about our national parks,” he said.
Another park opens again with the help of non -profitable
On the island of Ohu in Hawaii, the gates of Pearl Harbor National Memorial were closed for several hours on Wednesday morning due to the federal shutdown. The popular tourist destination was opened at 11 am local time, thanks to the non -profit organization, which is a partner with the park service to support the memorial.
With the help of money raising, the Pacific Historical Park site, the USS Arizona Memorial house will be open during shutdown, until it could, the group said.
“The way the process works will provide us an estimated daily cost and then for the number of those days we can fund it,” said Ellen YouTudte, president and CEO of Pacific Historic Parks, and CEO Elene YouTerke said.
This will be an estimated $ 9,000 per day, which she expects to cover by reaching the Governor, Tourism Authority, Tour Operators and other businesses of Hawaii, which benefit from more than 1.7 million annual visitors on the site.
He said that the petition to raise money can be implemented in any park.
Other groups assist visitors in the absence of park employees
In Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado this week, drivers were waived without paying the entry fee. Roads were busy there, and a long line was built in a freestanding toilet near the center of a closed visitors.
Employees for Rock Mountain Conservancy, who raise money for the park, are helping to welcome people at a visitor center outside the park boundaries, which is open under an existing joint agreement with the park service, spokesperson Kasi Yoh said. Employees operating a gift shop in the center, usually help park rangers who are currently not working there, advise hikes, pass the map and guide people to honor the park’s landscape, Yoh said.
The group plans to add more employees during the shutdown, but they are not authorized to take oath of children at the Junior Ranger program, they said. The program allows children who vows to be good steovers of national parks to get a badge.
“We are not Rangers. We are the best we can,” Yoh said.
Employees are also serving as ambassadors through the park’s gift store for a similar group supporting the Grand Canyon National Park. Grand Canyon Conservancy spokesman Mindy Risenberg said that income would be used to support the park to support the park.
National parks were damaged during the last shutdown
A national group that works to protect national parks urged the Trump administration to close all the sites during shutdown, citing losses in the previous shutdown, which included a slow -growing Joshua peas in Joshua Tre National Park in prehistoric petroglyphs and California at the Big Bend National Park in Texas.
“The guidance should not be directed to open the gates and go away,” Theresa Pierno said in a statement, the President of the National Parks Conservation Association, Theresa Pierno said.
States where National Park major tourism advocates to keep them open during the previous shutdown.
Uta In 2013, he agreed to donate $ 1.7 million to keep his national parks open. Arizona, Colorado, New York, South Dakota and Tennessy have also donated money to keep the parks during the previous shutdown. ,
Associated Press journalist Sophie Bates at Wicksburg, Mississippi; Jennifer Sinco Kelehar in Honolulu; Albuquerque, Susan Montya Bryan in New Mexico; And John Rabi contributed to this report in Charleston, West Virginia.