When the Parks Go Dirty: How Federal Funding Cuts and Shutdowns Are Jeopardizing Public Cleanliness

As leaves begin to fall and trails beckon with the crispness of autumn, many Americans are making their way to national parks, historic sites and public recreational areas. These natural and cultural treasures are supposed to be pristine sanctuaries that are clean, safe and welcoming for all. But increasingly, visitors are met with overflowing trash cans, unsanitary restrooms and neglected facilities. Why? Because the funding needed to keep them clean is being swept away.

At Nature Kleen: The Green Cleaning Company, we’re passionate about sustainability—not just in the products we use, but in the health and upkeep of the spaces we all share. And right now, a quiet crisis is unfolding in our public parks and landmarks: the federal government is slashing budgets and experiencing shutdowns, and janitorial services are one of the first things on the chopping block.

Most national parks, monuments, historic sites, and many public lands depend on annual appropriations from Congress to fund everything from law enforcement to janitorial services.  When Congress fails to pass a budget (or passes a continuing resolution that trims line items), parks must operate under “contingency plans.” Those plans often designate only essential services to continue. And “essential” rarely includes robust restroom cleaning or trash collection.

In recent contingency plans, the National Park Service (NPS) defines “exempt” or “excepted” functions during a shutdown that may include restroom and sanitation services. But parks are often left with just the bare minimum staff or budgets to carry out those tasks and in practice, those services often collapse. 

Shutdowns Expose the Weak Links

When a partial or full government shutdown occurs, the effects are immediate:

• Furloughs: Many park employees are sent home without pay, reducing staff drastically. In past shutdowns, up to two-thirds of NPS staff were furloughed. 

• Service cuts: Visitor centers, interpretive programs, permit offices, and even some roads or trails may close because there’s nobody to staff or maintain them. 

• Sanitation failure: When restrooms are closed or neglected, waste accumulates. Trash cans overflow, portable toilets fill up, and visitors may resort to open defecation. 

• Resource damage: With fewer rangers or custodial staff, illegal activities such as off-roading, vandalism, unauthorized camping can increase. 

• Deferred maintenance: Tasks like trail repair, pavement cleanup, landscape trimming, and facility upkeep get postponed, causing compounding deterioration. 

In effect, the parks that remain “open” during shutdowns typically collapse into a self-service model in which visitors arrive, but the services underpinning a safe, clean, and well-maintained visit vanish.

Real-World Examples of the Cleanup Collapse

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

During the 2025 shutdown, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park remained partly open, but only through local support. The park’s roads, campgrounds, and some restrooms stayed accessible because the Friends of the Smokies nonprofit, along with local governments and tribes, provided emergency funding so staff could continue servicing restrooms and performing essential visitor support. 

Without that, many of those services would have vanished. Local media noted that the park is one of the most visited, and revenue declines during shutdowns strike hard at the park’s ability to maintain even minimal services. 

Grand Teton National Park

In early days of the shutdown, visitors queued outside restrooms because the building-operated bathrooms were closed and others lacked supplies (e.g., toilet paper).  This highlights how the most basic services, long taken for granted, can quickly unravel.

Glacier & Yosemite

Despite deep staffing cuts, parks like Glacier and Yosemite remain open in name, but with many services shuttered.  At Glacier, for example, concession services continue (lodging, food) but public amenities like restrooms, trash collection and interpretive programs are drastically reduced. 

In 2025, parks in California (Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Lassen) have stayed open, but visitor centers and other park‑staffed buildings are often closed, and updates to safety or trail conditions may not be posted. 

Smaller Historic Sites & Urban Parks

Not just wilderness areas are affected. In New Orleans, the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park and Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve were shut down due to the funding lapse.  In San Francisco, Muir Woods National Monument had to negotiate continued operations with concessionaires, and restrooms managed by nonprofits remained open even when park‑staffed ones closed. 

Past Shutdowns — Lessons from 2018–2019

The last extended shutdown raised many red flags:

• In Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, overflow human waste led to serious sanitation problems and forced partial closures. 

• In Joshua Tree, park damage was recorded, including trampling of ecosystem areas and vandalism, in the absence of supervision. 

• At Death Valley, restrooms were closed while campgrounds remained open, leading to public health concerns. 

• On the National Mall in D.C., trash had piled up, and some restrooms were locked, requiring visitors to carry out waste. 

These historical precedents are a warning: when basic cleaning and waste management are deferred, the consequences escalate rapidly for health, environment and reputation.

The Hidden Impact of Budget Cuts

Federal budget cuts and shutdowns may seem like abstract political maneuvering, but their effects are strikingly visible. Park bathrooms are locked or unusable. Trash builds up along trails. Visitors leave behind waste that isn’t collected for weeks. Maintenance crews, often already understaffed, are either furloughed or working without pay.

Janitorial services are not a luxury, they’re essential. Without them, public spaces degrade quickly. Trash attracts pests. Unsanitary conditions pose public health risks. And the environmental footprint of waste left unchecked grows larger by the day.

Shutdowns = Shutdown of Sanitation

During government shutdowns, which have become frustratingly frequent in recent years, many cleaning contracts are suspended or canceled outright. This puts green cleaning companies like ours in limbo and worse, it leaves the environment and the public to bear the consequences. Nature doesn’t pause for politics, and neither does garbage.

For parks and facilities that are left open during shutdowns, the lack of janitorial support leads to rapid deterioration. Think of the Grand Canyon or Yosemite visited by thousands daily, operating without a regular cleaning schedule. It’s not just unpleasant. It’s dangerous and disrespectful to the land.

Why This Should Matter to Everyone

When parks and public spaces become dirty or unusable, communities lose access to recreation, education, and even a source of peace. For many families, especially those without the means to travel far, public parks are their vacation, their gym, their connection to nature. When these areas fall into disrepair, it’s not just an inconvenience, it’s a deep inequity.

Moreover, cleanliness and environmental stewardship go hand in hand. Overflowing trash leads to pollution, wildlife harm, and long-term ecological damage. For a nation that prides itself on its natural wonders, allowing them to become dumping grounds due to budget gridlock is simply unacceptable.

Public Health & Safety

Overflowing trash and malfunctioning restrooms are more than an eyesore, they’re a public health hazard. Without proper sanitation:

• Pathogens spread more easily (e.g. from human waste, pests attracted to garbage)

• Water sources may become contaminated

• Visitors may be driven to risky behaviors (open defecation, littering in streams)

• Wildlife can be endangered by ingesting waste or becoming aggressive over food sources

What’s more, when cleaning staff are stripped away, even critical infrastructure like potable water, septic systems, and hand-washing stations may fail, putting visitors and staff at risk.

Visitor Experience & Reputation

The moment people arrive and see locked restrooms, overflowing trash, or shuttered visitor centers, the “brand” of the park suffers. Word-of-mouth, press coverage, and social media images of neglect will deter future visitation. Parks and public spaces are often gateways to local economies. However, when people are turned off, they don’t return.

Environmental and Cultural Loss

Neglect invites vandalism, graffiti, theft, off-trail damage, and even illegal camping. Historic artifacts and fragile ecosystems, which require monitoring and maintenance, become vulnerable in the absence of staff. Over time, damage accrues faster than can be repaired. 

Deferred maintenance is deceptively expensive: leaving small issues unresolved (eroded trails, leaking plumbing, root damage) often leads to expensive rescuing or reconstructions later.

Economic Ripples

Parks are economic engines. The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) estimates that in past shutdowns, parks lost hundreds of millions in visitor spending across gateway communities.  Local hotels, restaurants, tour operators, and small businesses feel the shock quickly.

When parks must rely on local governments or nonprofits to plug gaps, that transfers financial burden to communities that may already be stretched, essentially privatizing what should be a federal responsibility.

Trust in Government & Stewardship

If the public perceives that the government can’t maintain even the basic cleanliness of public lands, confidence erodes. It becomes harder to argue for funding, prioritization of conservation, or public support for broader environmental programs. When shutdowns become normalized, the expectation of neglect sets in.

A Call for Cleaner Priorities

At Nature Kleen, we believe in doing our part with eco-friendly cleaning solutions that protect both people and the planet. But we can’t do it alone. Federal and state governments must recognize janitorial services as essential, not expendable.

We need long-term investments in clean, safe and sustainable maintenance of our public spaces - regardless of the political climate. And we need policies that treat shutdowns not as negotiation tactics, but as emergencies with real consequences.

Let’s push for cleaner policies, not just cleaner parks.