Human feces, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other damaging behavior in fragile areas were beginning to overwhelm some of the West’s iconic national parks in the United States, as a partial government shutdown left the areas open to visitors but with little staff on duty.

“It’s a free-for-all,” Dakota Snider, 24, who lives and works in Yosemite Valley, said last week, as Yosemite National Park officials announced closings of some minimally supervised campgrounds and public areas within the park that were overwhelmed.

“It’s so heartbreaking. There is more trash and human waste and disregard for the rules than I’ve seen in my four years living here,” Snider said.

The partial federal government shutdown has forced furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal government employees. This has left many parks without most of the rangers and others who staff campgrounds and otherwise keep parks running.

Unlike shutdowns in some previous administrations, the Trump administration was leaving parks open to visitors despite the staff furloughs, said John Garder, senior budget director of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association.

“We’re afraid that we’re going to start seeing significant damage to the natural resources in parks and potentially to historic and other cultural artifacts,” Garder said. “We’re concerned there’ll be impacts to visitors’ safety.”

Under the shutdown plan, authorities had to close any area where garbage or other problems became threats to health and safety or to wildlife, National Park Service spokesman Jeremy Barnum said in an email.

In the southern Sierra Nevada in Central California, some areas of the Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks were closed last Monday evening.

At Yosemite, Snider said crowds of visitors were driving into the park to take advantage of free admission, with only a few park rangers working and a limited number of restrooms open.

Visitors were allowing their dogs to run off-leash in an area rich with bears and other wildlife, and scattering bags of garbage along the roads.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【混乱】hùnluàn free-for-all a disorderly situation in which there is little regard for authority or rules

【放假】fàngjià furlough a temporary leave from work that is not paid and is often for a set period of time

美国西部一些标志性的国家公园正在遭随地大小便、乱扔垃圾、非法越野驾驶、和其他一些破坏生态环境脆弱地区行为的“吞噬”，这是由于美国联邦政府多个机构“关门”，这些国家公园仍然对游客开放，但管理员却严重不足。

24岁的达科他· 斯奈德上周说：“这里一片混乱”。他工作和生活在优胜美地谷。美国优胜美地国家公园当天宣布，关闭一些几乎无人看管的露营地和园区内不堪重负的公共区域。

斯奈德说：“太让人伤心了。这几天看到的垃圾、粪便以及无视规定的行为，比我过去4年在这里看到的都要多。”

美国联邦政府多个机构“关门”导致数十万名联邦员工被迫休假，多座国家公园在缺少营地服务人员和公园管理员的情况下运营。

非营利组织国家公园与维护协会高级预算主管约翰· 加德尔说，与前几届政府应对政府停摆的做法不同，特朗普政府允许公园在员工停工期间向游客开放。

加德尔说：“我们担心公园的自然资源、历史文物和其他文化艺术品遭到严重破坏，我们也担心游客安全受影响”。

美国国家公园管理局发言人杰雷米· 巴纳姆在一封电邮中说，按照公园关闭计划，任何区域如果因垃圾等问题威胁人员健康、安全或野生生物，管理者必须予以关闭。

上周一晚间，位于加州中部南内华达山脉的红杉国家公园和金斯河谷国家公园关闭部分区域。

斯奈德说，成群的游客驾车来到优胜美地公园免费观光，值班管理员屈指可数。正常开放的卫生间同样有限。

游客在熊和其他众多野生动物出没的环境中让狗乱跑、不拴绳，沿途丢弃一袋袋的垃圾。 (Chinadaily.com.cn)