Day 27 of the government shutdown. On the surface, most parks are open. Visitors are posting that everything looks fine. But behind the scenes, rangers are working without pay guarantees, evidence from criminal investigations can’t reach crime labs because government credit cards are shut off, snow tires can’t get changed in Yellowstone because the mechanics are furloughed, and nonprofit friends groups are spending down reserves just to keep the lights on. Retired NPS law enforcement ranger Tara Ross — co-host of Crime Off the Grid podcast — joins The Parks Podcast for a reality check.
A note from Missy: As the shutdown continues, we get another perspective and an update on what’s going on with our parks.
Episode Guest
Tara Ross – National Park Service Law Enforcement Ranger & Co-Host of “Crime off the Grid Podcast”
What’s Actually Happening (Day 27)
- Parks ordered to stay open — unlike 2013 shutdown when closures caused public backlash
- Essential employees (law enforcement, EMTs, firefighters) working — but without guaranteed pay
- Furloughed: maintenance, interpretation, resource management, IT, HR
- Result: rangers doing multiple jobs; morale deteriorating
- Crime evidence can’t be mailed (credit cards shut down, FedEx not accessible)
- Snow tires can’t be changed (mechanics furloughed); Yellowstone had to call someone back for 2 days
- Oil spills and resource damage going unassessed — no resource management staff
- Some parks (Yellowstone) accessing nonprofit foundation funds to keep visitor centers open
- FLREA funds (visitor fees) being used to maintain critical services — but parks aren’t collecting new fees
- State of Utah funding some parks with state money (established precedent in 2013)
- Nonprofit friends groups spending reserves that would otherwise fund park projects
Episode Transcript
Our Parks and the Government Shutdown — An Insider’s Update from Day 27
The Parks Podcast, Episode 44 | Tara Ross, Retired NPS Law Enforcement Ranger & Co-Host, Crime Off the Grid Podcast
Note: This episode aired on Monday, October 27th, 2025, and was recorded on Friday, October 24th — day 25 of the federal government shutdown. Information reflects conditions at that moment in time. Please refer to current sources for updated status of parks and public lands.
What’s Actually Happening Inside the Parks — Day 27
Missy Rentz: I’m very grateful to Tara Ross for being with me today. Tara is a retired National Park Service law enforcement ranger, and she’s the co-host of the Crime Off the Grid podcast. Tara, welcome to The Parks Podcast.
Tara Ross: Thank you for having me.
Missy: I want to do an update on the government shutdown and its impact on our national parks and public lands. We had John Goodwin on just days after the government shutdown started and we talked about what it means and what guests should be prepared for. And a little bit of that conversation was educated guessing. And so now we are — we’re recording this on Friday, October 24th, so we’re like 25 days into the shutdown, and reality has struck, and in some situations quite hard. What is the status of the parks during the shutdown?
Tara: As it pertains to individual parks, I think the answer to what’s the status is: it depends. I hate that — that’s a horrible answer. But mandating that the parks stay open has left some parks to scramble with, how do they protect the resource? How do they protect the public? One thing I’ve seen, as far as comments on social media: people say, we just went to fill-in-the-blank park and it was just fine. Or some people say, see, the parks are overstaffed anyway, so this is just cutting the waste. But what they aren’t seeing is how much harder the rangers are having to work to do their own job, because now they have to do the jobs of many support positions. Like maintenance duties — not all maintenance people are considered essential. They have to do payroll duties, resource management if they can squeeze that in, other administrative jobs.
Tara: Here’s an example. In Yellowstone, rangers have to get their snow tires on to do their work safely, and the mechanics that do that are on furlough — so they can’t get their tires switched. In Yellowstone, they had to call someone back for one or two days to put snow tires on so that the rangers can respond to emergencies safely. And that just creates havoc. And those people are not going to receive a paycheck until all this is over — those support people who are furloughed, hopefully they do get back pay. Could I give you another example?
Missy: Yes, please. This is helpful to all of us just to hear what’s happening.
Tara: Yeah, some behind-the-scenes stuff that people don’t know. Rangers are still out there getting drunk drivers off the road. They are still having to respond to and investigate crimes against people — sexual assaults, domestic violence cases, homicides and those kinds of things. And in many of those cases, they collect evidence. But they’re running into issues trying to get evidence to crime labs — they don’t have an avenue to mail. Their credit cards are shut down. They can’t use FedEx to mail blood evidence, for example, and some of that stuff is timely and they can’t get that stuff done. There are still resource crimes being committed — poaching, motor vehicle accidents that tear up a wetlands area — and there aren’t any people in the resource management field because they’re not essential. They can’t make assessments on how to mitigate whatever that resource damage is, and some of that is timely. If there’s oil spillage or hazardous spillage, you’ve got to have somebody out. So regardless of what a typical visitor might see, things really are chaotic.
Why Some Parks Appear Open While Others Are Closed
Missy: Yeah. I was reading that at Great Falls outside of Washington DC, they had cones and barricades up for people not to go in, and people were just moving them or parking on the street and continuing into the parks. It’s interesting because you do see a little bit of diversity. The message is the parks are open, but only essential personnel are there — yet some parks are fully open, some parks are not open at all. I was just at Minuteman and they had barricades and it was not accessible and it was closed. So there is this difference — why is it that some might be partially open or appear partially open, some may appear closed?
Tara: I think it boils down to a couple of things — one being jurisdiction, one being just funding. Yellowstone, for example — they have a nonprofit called the Yellowstone Foundation who has donated funds to pay interpretive rangers and keep visitor centers open. And also Yellowstone figured out how they can use fee money — the technical term for that is the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, FLREA, which we call FLREA. So they’re able to use some FLREA money to pay law enforcement rangers and first responders. But since they aren’t collecting any fees — which doesn’t make sense to me, we can come on in but we can’t collect any fees to restore the pot — nobody’s collecting those fees. So that pot’s getting depleted. And a lot of people might not realize this, but more than half of all of the sites that the National Park Service manages don’t collect any recreation fees under FLREA. They’re just free to enter. And a lot of the bigger parks that do collect those fees share a percentage with other parks — but I have a feeling that those other parks may not have the access to emergency services funding that the bigger parks do.
Missy: I also read that some of them are getting state subsidies to be able to have some of their services open.
Tara: Yeah. I remember the shutdown of 2013 — that was a couple of weeks long, and at that time all the parks were closed. Utah stepped in — they call it the Big Five, the southern Utah parks, Zion, Bryce Canyon, all those beautiful southern Utah parks that generate a ton of money to the communities. The state funded everything to keep them open. I don’t know if they got reimbursed after the opening. But that was the precedent for Utah. Then fast forward to 2018-2019, the biggest, longest shutdown — they were still doing that, but in that shutdown we were forced to stay open, and that was very difficult. And that’s what is going on today. How it was phrased to me as a district ranger at the time was — they didn’t want the perception of things not working. They didn’t want the public to feel it.
Missy: We’re feeling it. We are.
Tara: Yes. Exactly.
Should You Visit Right Now?
Missy: So I think about this a lot. What do you recommend to people who want to visit a park right now? Do they go or do they not go?
Tara: I think that’s a personal decision. I do think there’s value in going to your national parks right now because Congress needs to hear that we care. I just also think that if you go, you need to be prepared that things are different. You need to be prepared for overflowing trash cans and dirty restrooms and no visitor center or interpretive programs. So if you go, practice Leave No Trace even harder than you normally would. Pack out what you pack in — everything. And know that there will be limited, if any, ranger presence for your safety or for interpretive purposes. But the economic impact on local communities that border national parks is also real, and staying home impacts those businesses too.
Missy: And I think too — when I went to the state parks instead, which you can still do, you can still access most of those — I love that John Goodwin mentioned on episode 41 that there are options like state parks that are butt up against national parks. Sometimes the scenery is similar and the experience is beautiful, but you have a park that is fully funded and staffed.
Tara: Yes. That’s a really smart alternative. And local parks and county parks as well. There are a lot of options beyond just the national parks.
Missy: And be aware that if you decide to go — by all means go, but be prepared that there are no concessions, restrooms may not be in very good shape, there’s not trash pickup. And just really, this is a time to do your part to care for our public land.
Tara: Yeah. I’d also add — emergency services, depending on the park, could be very delayed. If you’re going to a big park that does its own EMTs and firefighters, just know that somebody getting to you could be very delayed. So don’t do dumb things. Avoid risky behavior. Maybe you shouldn’t go into the backcountry right now. Just know that somebody might not get to you, or it’s going to be delayed. Just don’t do dumb stuff if you go.
Crime Off the Grid — What’s Coming Up
Missy: Which is actually a great segue to my next question — you are co-host of Crime Off the Grid podcast, and it’s a fabulous podcast that talks about the crimes that happen within parks. And oftentimes it’s not the salacious crimes, it’s the stupid crimes that happen in parks.
Tara: You can’t make it up. Stuff you just can’t make up.
Missy: The stories are fascinating. What’s coming up on Crime Off the Grid?
Tara: Right now since it’s October, we are doing a live show in Yellowstone — we were invited to go to the Mammoth Hotel there. They are still open. Their concessions and hotels are still open normally as they would be, with some closing because of the season. But they’re having a really great family thing where trick or treaters and these spooky cabins are decorating and all this stuff. And so Nancy and I are going to be telling true crimey creepy stories from way back in the day that happened in Yellowstone. Other than that, we do have some more ranger tales planned, which people tell us is their favorite — when a ranger comes on and tells their story. They could be anything from those dumb crimes to a huge investigation. So yeah, we’re still going to continue doing that.
Missy: We will definitely get you on the books for The Parks Podcast because I would love to talk to both of you and hear the stories that you share. Thank you for coming on and just giving us an update. The longer this goes on, the more I think there’s a need for getting insider information, and you are certainly an insider. I really appreciate you joining.
Tara: Thanks, and thank you for being such a voice for the information during this time and the other times. I love what you do and how you get people interested in going to national parks or any park and getting outdoors. It’s so important and we really appreciate you too.
Missy: Thank you. That’s it for today’s episode. Tara, thank you so much for joining us, and until next time — we’ll see you in the parks.
Music for The Parks Podcast is performed and produced by Porter Hardy. Follow us @TheParksPodcast or visit TheParksPodcast.com.