It’s Saturday and a hundred thousand National Park Service employees are not going to work. The government is in partial shutdown and those employees have been told they cannot work. It’s Saturday and a million lovers of the great outdoors; rest and recreation and beauty seekers; people who find solace in Nature’s beauty– a large number of them international visitors; will not be able to visit the very wonders of the outdoor world they seek.

The roads may be open, but the educational facilities will not. Scientific and historic research is at a standstill. The scenic drives may be taken, but there are no comfort stations at the end of the long and winding road. Restroom facilities are locked. Maintenance workers are non-essential. Educators and guides remain unvalued and unemployed. The National Parks of the American people – our public lands – have become an enter at your own risk wasteland, a place where budding anarchists take their pleasure with no respect or thought for preservation for future generations. As they say, “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”

I don’t work for the National Park Service, in part because I do not want to be a government employee. But I do love beautiful places and I am shut out of my beloved National Parks. Over half the staff at my organization are out of work right now. Out of work, shut out of our bookstores and offices of employment. We are not government employees. Yet our lives and livelihoods are deeply affected by government shutdowns. Some will not recover. Some will find other jobs and not return. And the coffers that support educational programs will be wrung dry.

While I have said that I do not want to work for the government, I do want to work in favor of beautiful places. I want to live and work and die in a beautiful place.

Over the past seven years, I have had the soul-nourishing privilege to work as an educator in multiple national parks and monuments. I educate through retail. Every piece of merchandise I buy and sell has a story to tell. Think books and educational toys and collectibles. Dream of the creative ways cultural history, geology, biology, astronomy, botany, archeology, and paleontology can be taught and caught though a piece of merchandise!   Rather than work for commercial entities and concessionaires, I work for non-profit natural history associations, 501 ( c ) (3) organizations. In seven years, this is the third government shutdown I have weathered. Each shutdown has unique parameters and ramifications.

In a nutshell, here are the challenges of the 2018/2019 government shutdown from my perspective:

• Roads are open but facilities are not
• Commercial concessionaire stores are allowed to remain open but non-profit educational stores housed in agency buildings are not
• Unemployment: non-profit employees are without work as well as government employees
• Educational programs; tours, field institutes, walks and talks and lectures on public lands are considered nonessential and are cancelled

The non-profit I work for is fortunate to have recently purchased warehouse and office space with storefront capabilities. Opening the storefront seven days a week with extended hours has produced 10% of the revenues garnered during this same period a year ago when three stores were open for the season.

This loss of 90 % of our retail income severely, severely impacts future ability to fund educational programs and maintain a healthy sized interpretive staff.

The only solace for me is to take a hike and enjoy outdoor beauty. We must keep putting one foot in front of the other. But, please, while you do, take good care of these wonderful places. Some public lands trails are still accessible. Leave no trace – no evidence that you have been there.