\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe forget that these parks, these natural areas, they don\u2019t manage themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes, intervention is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the Channel Islands, that means 40 years of data monitoring the health of the kelp forest or local populations of pinnipeds will now have a shutdown-sized hole \u2014 along with monitoring of fish populations to help inform fishing policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll those programs get shut down, and so we no longer have that canary in the coal mine that\u2019s giving us an indicator of the health of not just the park, not just the ecosystem, but the place we live,\u201d Galipeau said.<\/p>\n
Galipeau said he was especially worried about smaller or less-visited parks like Manzanar National Historic Site \u2014 concerns echoed by that park\u2019s former superintendent, Bernadette Johnson. Manzanar\u2019s remote location in the Eastern Sierra doesn\u2019t have onsite worker housing, and the park was already only open four days a week due to lack of staffing and budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmall parks like Manzanar really can\u2019t afford to lose any other bodies at all,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIt\u2019s already been bare bones.\u201d<\/p>\n
She noted that it\u2019s not just the parks that will lose income, including entrance fees, during the shutdown: Bookstores, coffee shops, and even nearby towns will all lose out on dollars while parks are closed. But Galipeau said that the current shutdown plan, which prioritizes keeping parks that can <\/em>collect entrance fees open, is a dangerous game, too. \u201cNow all of a sudden, we\u2019re letting money drive everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Under President Donald Trump\u2019s second administration, Galipeau said, it\u2019s been especially hard to find out what the plans for national parks are \u2014 and what the future might hold. \u201cIn the past, you could talk to people more openly,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could understand what their shutdown plans were.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to get anybody to talk to us,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause they don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen to them if they\u2019ll be perceived as non-loyalists.\u201d<\/p>\n This story contains reporting by KQED\u2019s <\/em>Keith Mizuguchi<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Carly Severn<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n