BLM shutdown

Advice
#1

I do a yearly trip to Yuma, Az first weekend in February and camp at Squaw Lake over the weekend.

Anyone have experience with federal lands, BLM etc, during the shutdown?

Any chance they will be open?
Camping permitted?

#2

Here Everglades is basically unmanned and sort of a free for all.

#3

I had to look it up. I thought you were implying that the shutdown had something to do with Black Lives Matter. Doh! Bureau of Land Management.

A bird club I belong to had scheduled a coastal birding trip here in NC. It got cancelled due to the shutdown. Federal land, I reckon.

"By the Way: We had to cancel our OBX trip tomorrow because the National Wildlife Refuges at Pea Island and Lake Mattamuskeet are closed because of the government shutdown."

#4

Maybe they should shut down the gov’t more often.
Last week in the Everglades National Park with no one taking admission at the gate, there were more people enjoying the place then I have ever seen.
We saw four school busses from Miami and I can just imagine that many of those kids would never get to see the park if their parents had to pay.

I was quite surprised to see the rest rooms open and clean even though we read that they would be closed

#5

I did see a Ranger in the Tonto Ntl Forest last weekend so someone is out there.

Last time this happened, people still used the lakes until the sheriff locked them all and threatened to arrest anyone who entered.

#6

@JackL said:
Maybe they should shut down the gov’t more often.
Last week in the Everglades National Park with no one taking admission at the gate, there were more people enjoying the place then I have ever seen.
We saw four school busses from Miami and I can just imagine that many of those kids would never get to see the park if their parents had to pay.

I was quite surprised to see the rest rooms open and clean even though we read that they would be closed

If that was a school trip, their parents would not pay anyway.

Some parks have had so much trash and human poop left that feds closed roads that had previously been open. Cannot trust people to police themselves, unfortunately.

#7

Links for @RikJohnson
https://www.rvtravel.com/camping-on-federal-lands-during-the-shutdown-latest-information/
https://www.rei.com/blog/news/how-the-government-shutdown-is-affecting-federal-public-lands

Sleeping Bear National Park up here reopened, using the entrance fees collected this past summer to cover operating expenses. https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/sleeping-bear-dunes-reopens-despite-continued-government-shutdown

Not sure how many will access it given the major lake effect snows and subzero temps we’re currently “enjoying.”

#8

The lands we have here near SF are generally open and a free for all, but many formal parking lots and restroom facilities/offices are closed.

#9

@JackL said:

I was quite surprised to see the rest rooms open and clean even though we read that they would be closed

You shouldn’t have been surprised…………it is the “park partners” . See link……….
https://www.southfloridaparks.org/news/parks-stay-open-shutdown-little-help-friends/

While you’re there check out the South Florida National Park Trust

#10

Sounds like the Government will now be open during your planned trip.

#11

I have yet to understand how/why the US government is set up to allow the situation in the first place. I don’t know of an equivalent here in Canada.