Visitors to Texas National Parks like Big Bend National Park and The Padre Island National Seashore are likely to encounter a lack of services and other issues due to the government shutdown.
According to the National Park Services, both will remain mostly open, but there will be limited or no staffing. Previous shutdowns led to a lack of maintenance and a buildup of trash and waste at the sites, and in one instance, vandalism at Big Bend.
Websites to all National Parks have a message at the top which links directly to the government shutdown contingency site from the Department of the Interior.
The information doesn't shed any light on what services are available at individual parks but does say open-air areas such as roads, trails, and overlooks will stay accessible, but staffed facilities like visitor centers will close.
Locally, the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park is still partially operating, and the Alamo remains fully staffed.
One group said that the government should either completely close them or fully staff them during the government shutdown.
Cary Dupuy is Texas Regional Director for the National Parks Conservation Association. She said parks like Big Bend, Padre Island National Seashore and others are open, but visitors should be prepared.
"The parks may be open from the perspective of roads are open and trails are open, but the parks are operating on minimal staff that are available," she told TPR.
She said her organization is pushing for parks to be closed completely if no staff is available. Previous government shutdowns caused many problems at the parks.
"Having those parks open with limited staff resulted in examples of vandalism, impacts to visitor safety and so many other things that caused irreparable damage to our parks."
During a previous government shutdown, vandals damaged ancient rock art at Big Bend National Park.
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