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| Above, Signal Mountain Lodge at Grand Teton National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer. |
Things are shifting toward the time that life will begin to return to some semblance of normalcy.
That include reopening the national parks.
From the National Park Traveler:
While more than 52,000 Americans have died from coronavirus, and the global death toll has passed 200,000, political and economic pressures are mounting for a return to pre-coronavirus economic activity. While the National Park Service is beginning the planning to reopen parks that have been closed by the pandemic, there's no firm timeline yet for when those openings will occur.
For park managers, they'll have to weigh the risk of spreading the virus against economic pressures from their gateway towns.
"Whereas four weeks ago there was near unanimity on the temporary park closure, that is starting to shift substantially, and I expect it will continue to shift even more in the upcoming weeks," Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly told the Traveler on Friday in an email. "Over $1 billion spent by visitors in local economies within 60 miles of Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Many of our partners in gateways are stressed; they want to be safe and cautious, but also are feeling major economic strains. This will get worse as time progresses."
Businesses in those gateway towns typically are starting to ramp up operations for the summer, but right now "you’ve got people without paychecks, furloughed, their livelihoods are dependent on these parks being open," said Sholly. "That doesn’t mean we open unsafely, but people are having very real challenges and those need to be considered."
In an email Saturday to regional directors and park superintendents, acting National Park Service Director David Vela said he and his deputies were working with Interior Department officials "on the framework for a gradual resumption of operations."
To read more, go here.
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