Joshua Tree National Park will be closed following visitor damage during government shutdown: NPR

Joshua Tree National Park will be temporarily closed from Thursday morning due to visitor damage during the partial closure of the government. Park officials said that few rangers were present to prevent off-road driving, resulting in the destruction of trees bearing the same name.

"Although the vast majority of those visiting Joshua Tree National Park do so responsibly, incidents of new roads created by motorists and destruction of Joshua's trees in recent days that have precipitated closure" said the park in a statement.

"The security guards will continue to patrol the park and will enforce the closure until the park staff complete the necessary cleaning and protection of the park."

In a tweet park officials said the closure "will allow staff to resolve sanitation, security and resource protection issues that occurred during the park". the credits have been lost. "

In recent days, volunteers have been mobilizing to help clean up the park, which covers nearly 800,000 acres in the Mohave and Colorado deserts, east of Los Angeles. visitors per year.

This announcement is only the last closure of the park caused by the closure of the government, which resulted in the overflowing of toilets and garbage cans.

Parts of Yosemite National Park are closed , as well as a large part of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

On Sunday, park officials announced that they would use the entrance fees to pay for operations and l & # 39; Basic interview