National parks in Colorado will remain open during shutdown despite concerns about damage
Colorado Governor Jared Polis wants to keep national parks in the state open amid a federal government shutdown despite concerns from conservation groups about risks of damage.
The federal government shut down Wednesday after Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate failed to reach an agreement on a short-term government funding measure. That means many operations of the federal government are limited or stopped entirely.
The Interior Department, which includes the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service, posted updated contingency plans late Tuesday. The National Park Service plans to furlough 9,300 of its 14,500 workers.
The contingency plan says that “roads, lookouts, trails, and open-air memorials will generally remain accessible to visitors,” but it adds that if “access becomes a safety, health or resource protection issue … the area must be closed.”
Black Canyon of the Gunnison - Inner Canyon. NPS.
Tracy Coppola, Colorado senior program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said attractions like Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado that see “record-breaking visitation nearly every year” were left “extremely vulnerable” during prior government shutdowns. The damage the park saw following the 2018-2019 shutdown took months to recover from, and some of it was irreparable. She said the ecosystem in the park is already fragile and needs “constant protection” from park staff.
“If the federal government shuts down, unfortunately our parks should too — until a funding deal is reached and our parks can be staffed and protected,” Coppola said in a statement.
Polis, a Democrat, said keeping Rocky Mountain National Park open is his “top priority” in the event of a shutdown because it is a popular attraction for visitors and a major economic driver for rural communities. He issued an executive order in 2023 ahead of an anticipated shutdown directing state agencies to plan for continued operations at national parks and other federal lands in Colorado.
The federal government should keep national parks open and staffed or allow states to support keeping parks opened and protected, Polis said. He said the state would be “a willing partner if needed” and would “use limited State funds to keep our biggest park fully operational if necessary.”
USFWS - public domain
If the federal government shuts down, unfortunately our parks should too — until a funding deal is reached and our parks can be staffed and protected.
“I agree that keeping the parks open without any staffing is not as good as having staff, which is why the federal government needs to either find ways to staff the parks or give the state and local governments the options needed to support our parks responsibly so that people can continue to enjoy the great outdoors,” Polis said in a statement.
It’s understandable that Polis wants to keep parks open because of how important they are to the state’s economy and local communities, Coppola said, but funding them is the federal government’s responsibility.
“It’s also an impossible position to put states in, especially given the deficits they’re facing,” Coppola said. “Instead, states now have to scramble to use limited funds needed for other critical priorities.”
In a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat who is running for Colorado governor in 2026, said he is glad that national parks will stay open during the shutdown. He said Polis is aware of how parks were damaged during previous shutdowns and wants to mitigate any future risks of damage or disruptions.
“We cannot allow there to be the kind of harm there was last time,” Bennet said.
Public domain - Wikimedia
The Trump administration already drastically reduced staffing within the National Park Service by about 24 percent, according to Coppola. She said parks “barely held it together” this summer and that additional terminations would make it “nearly impossible for those who remain to protect our parks.”
A group of former National Park superintendents — none of whom led parks in Colorado — wrote to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum asking him to keep national parks and public lands closed during a government shutdown. They said the difficulties parks have already had with limited staffing and would only get worse if they are kept open.
“Past shutdowns in which gates remained open with limited staff have hurt our parks: Iconic symbols cut down and vandalized, trash piled up, habitats destroyed, and visitor safety jeopardized,” the letter says. “If you don’t act now, history is not just doomed to repeat itself, the damage could in fact be much worse.”
“To visitors, everything might look fine,” Coppola said. “But behind the scenes, the National Park Service has been gutted and the remaining staff are overwhelmed.”
Colorado is home to four national parks: Rocky Mountain National Park, Mesa Verde National Park, Great Sand Dune National Park and Preserve, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Rocky Mountain National Park is by far the most visited in the state.
