The government shutdown is less than ideal, with thousands of employees going without pay and no solid plan to reach a compromise.
Another issue is the upkeep of the national parks, with the shutdown preventing park employees from working and cleaning the facilities. However, various groups noticed the issue and quickly worked together to fix the problem.
Watch:
In Washington D.C. there are multiple groups that have taken over the task of cleaning the park. The groups included Muslim Group USA, Anacostia Business Improvement District, and local members of the Libertarian party.
Here are pictures of the clean-up crews:
It’s Sunday and the @AnacostiaBID Clean Team is back on the National Mall providing cleanup services during the #GovernmentShutdown. We are happy to partner w/ @MayorBowser, @SmallBizDC & BIDs around the city to keep #DC clean and inviting for residents and visitors! #DCisOpen pic.twitter.com/bD7dNPK8FY
— Anacostia BID (@AnacostiaBID) January 6, 2019
Just finished up at the National Mall & the George Mason memorial.
Joined a wonderful team of about 30 people from an interfaith background to clean up our nation’s capitol.
Thank you to @MuslimYouthUSA for coordinating!
Now let’s end this #GovShutDown pic.twitter.com/O0QL5VighX
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@MuslimIQ) January 6, 2019
In Yellowstone National Park, there are also multiple private businesses that are working together to make the park accessible to visitors. According to NPR, local businesses are paying to clean one of the main roads so that people can still visit.
“If you don’t groom,” said business-owner Jerry Johnson to NPR, “the trails will get very rough, and you get bumps, moguls, in them, and it’ll be — it’s just miserable.”
The maintenance of the park adds up to around $300 per day when distributed between the 13 park services that are participating. However, they have only agreed to fund it until February, and the companies will then have to reevaluate and consider other options.
These are inspiring examples of people working hard to protect the nation’s most well-known and historic lands.
“community spirit” and “volunteerism” are so completely opposite of “the government will take care of it”. This is a positive thing.
It’s great to see people take action to solve a problem rather than just complain about it online.
It’s more difficult to deal with the overflowing amounts of human waste and unrestricted use of 4-wheelers, though, so be careful out there.