The Shutdown Is Exposing the Slow Death of America’s Public Lands

The government shutdown was all it took to expose how far America’s public lands have already fallen.

Somewhere in Yellowstone, a trail sign leans at an angle, half-swallowed by the grass. The wood is splintering where sun and snow have taken turns sanding it down. The last time it was replaced, Barack Obama was president. The last time the trail was cleared, no one can say for sure. The ranger who used to know every bend of that trail took early retirement two years ago. Her position was never filled.

That’s how a shutdown begins. Not with the flick of a switch, but with slow disappearance. One vacancy left open, one maintenance order deferred, one budget quietly cut until there’s nothing left to cut but the work itself. When the government finally ran out of money this October, the Park Service had already been operating on borrowed time.

Trump’s new budget proposal had gutted the agency long before the lights went out. Nearly a quarter of permanent staff were gone. Field offices stood empty. Entire parks were being run by skeleton crews of three or four employees, some juggling multi…