This winter has taught me to ask two very important
questions when interviewing for future jobs with federal parks. First, I will be asking for a picture of
our site. Some places in the past have emailed me a link of a Google Earth
picture. I will insist on it from now on. We would never have agreed to the job
in Plains had we seen a picture of the campground and the pad if you want to
call it that. Second, I will be asking for specifics about what will happen with
volunteers if a government shutdown occurs and how our job descriptions may
change and what will be expected of us.
Volunteering for government operated parks poses a unique circumstance when a government shutdown occurs. Last spring when we arrived at Saylorville, an Army Corps of Engineers Park, the threat of a shutdown was looming. The Rangers told us that the park would close to the public, but we would be allowed to remain in Volunteer Village and would resume our duties when the park reopened. The shutdown didn’t happen last spring. It was the first time either one of us had thought about it.
So many things went wrong with our short experience with the National Parks Service in Plains GA. Any lingering guilt I was holding about leaving that situation vanished yesterday when I read several articles about the conditions of National Parks and what is being expected of volunteers in these conditions.
For reasons I can’t make sense of the current administration with its laughable judgement, has not closed access to the parks even though they are being run on a skeleton staff at best and no contractors are doing basic things like pumping out pit toilets and hauling trash away. The articles told of unsanitary conditions at the park. Public running over the places with no supervision or boundaries. I hate to say it by human beings in groups with no restrictions tend to ruin a place. The lack of respect is appalling. With bathrooms locked down at Joshua Tree National Forest people are simply using the outdoors and not discretely. The park officials talked about how their volunteers were doing the nasty duty of picking up human feces from the edge of trails and around the locked bathroom buildings. Hauling trash in their personal vehicles since the park vehicles were inaccessible during the shut down all while their own accommodations becoming less sanitary with no trash pickup. Just this morning I read an article on NPR that 3 people have died of injuries sustained while enjoy areas that are still open. Two fell and staff simply wasn’t available to respond. A child who fell into a canyon laid there for a day before someone responded. That’s absolutely unacceptable. I imagine in Plains there would be little to do accept go out to the farm and take care of the goats, chickens and mules. Or stand around outside the locked building and tell people who enter, that the buildings are locked and there is nothing to see. I have no idea what we would be doing if anything if we were still in Plains accept sitting around in a clay mud hole, chasing away stray cats and watching the white trash conduct their ‘business’ at the convenience store directly in front of the trailer park we called home for 2 ½ weeks.
We have friends working in various federal parks around the
south this winter. I wonder what their experience is like during this shut
down.
As for the volunteers in some of the National Parks doing some really nasty duties right now, I have this to say to them. You are volunteers. If they ask you to do something outside of the job description you agreed to, you are completely within your rights to “Just say No” in the words on Nancy Reagan. If you are working in a federal park this winter, I hope they are treating you well. It’s a bad situation for all.
Right now, I’m very thankful to be here in Ocala, working in town knowing we have escaped a situation in Plains, GA that would have undoubtedly gone from terrible to intolerable. In the mean time I hope the powers that be, in our Nation’s Capital, will get over their childish power struggle and start governing before it is time to head back to Iowa in April.
Until Next time...
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