The government shutdown is over, meaning federal employees who’d been furloughed will be back to work — and those who were forced to work without pay will finally get a paycheck.
But even still, it’s been a tough year for the Grand Canyon. In addition to the shutdown, this summer’s Dragon Bravo Fire burned a North Rim landmark to the ground and smoke was often visible from the more tourist-heavy South Rim.
Annette McGivney, a freelance writer based in Colorado who writes often about the Grand Canyon, joined The Show.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: So what are you hearing from folks who work at the Grand Canyon about how it's gone for the last several weeks there?
ANNETTE MCGIVNEY: Well, it's been very stressful for the last several weeks, which you can pile on to it being extremely stressful since the spring or since January when [President Donald] Trump came into office. So the last several weeks, the employees I've talked to, some have been working without pay, others were furloughed and at home and feeling an existential crisis in terms of wondering if they would lose their job with threats of layoffs, with threats of not getting back pay.
And so the people I've talked to that work at the park are very grateful that the shutdown is over, and they've been told to report back to work on Monday, the ones that have been furloughed. So they're grateful that the shutdown has ended.
BRODIE: I would imagine, though, there are also some number of employees who had to report to work even though they maybe weren't getting paid at the park.
MCGIVNEY: That's right, yes. There were employees that were working without pay. There were even some public safety positions that initially were not getting paid, but then they started to get paid. So it was kind of chaotic at the beginning of the shutdown. But it's been like with all federal employees, it was very hard to work without pay, but it was also hard to not work and to not be paid because they all wondered — you know, at Grand Canyon, they live there, so not only would they lose their jobs, but they would lose their housing.
So, you know, it's, it's a big deal when they feel threats of losing their jobs there.
BRODIE: Is there a sense that there might be damage done to the park in terms of not so much the science not being done — although I suspect that was happening — but in terms of fewer rangers to make sure that people weren't doing things to or at the Canyon that they shouldn't be doing that could damage the ecology or the ecosystem there?
MCGIVNEY: Well, as far as I know, the law enforcement rangers, which those are the backcountry rangers that are patrolling to make sure that visitors have a permit and are not starting fires and all that type of thing, they were working the whole time.
BRODIE: OK.
MCGIVNEY: But they have been chronically understaffed for years. And so backcountry ranger positions where people retired, those positions have not been filled. So long before the shutdown started, the rangers were really stretched and not able to cover the park the way they had like maybe 10 or 15 years ago.
BRODIE: This, of course, as I mentioned, also comes not that long after the Dragon Bravo Fire, which seems like it kind of took both a physical and emotional toll on a lot of folks who care about the Grand Canyon. Can you talk a little bit about the sort of the impact of the fire and then the shutdown happening just a few months after that was extinguished?
MCGIVNEY: Yes, obviously there are impacts to the Grand Canyon environment and to the tourist business with the rim-to-rim hiking and all the outfitters that rely on that. But what happened on the North Rim with that fire was very traumatic for park employees. It was the acute trauma of when the fire happened and seeing the lodge burn, but also the homes of park employees.
And that really wasn't talked about, staff members that their houses burned to the ground. Some people feared for their lives trying to get out of that situation. So there was a lot of trauma around that.
And then just the issues of the whole country kind of looking at Grand Canyon and saying, how was this allowed to happen? Who let this, who's in charge here? And so it was very stressful for the park, and they continue to worry about that.
BRODIE: Did any of the folks with whom you spoke suggest that things will get less stressful now? I mean, you mentioned that it had sort of been stressful since the beginning of the year with questions about would they get fired or laid off. Is there a reason to think that things are going to get less stressful now even though they're back to work?
MCGIVNEY: Well, I think one thing that could help is one employee I talked to said — and this was two days ago — he said they were 10 signatures away from unionizing at Grand Canyon National Park. The. And that would be following what has happened in other national parks across the country. So like at Yosemite, they've unionized, Sequoia, Kings Canyon has unionized.
And if Grand Canyon is able to finalize that and unionize as well, they would have collective bargaining power in a way that I think would reduce the stress, maybe not for upper management, for middle- and lower-level positions. And they would not feel as vulnerable, perhaps, to the threats of staff cuts and during a shutdown, the threats of not getting back pay.
And so I think that could be a little less stressful. But, but overall, the budget cuts — the budget issues are not over for national parks. The Trump administration has proposed huge record cuts to the national parks. And that threat is still very much alive.
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