States pay up to reopen national parks

The National Park Service (NPS) entered into agreements late Friday to reopen certain national parks in Colorado, Arizona, and South Dakota.

After closing all 401 national parks and furloughing over 20,000 park service employees, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced Thursday that she would consider agreements with governors from states with the ability to fund park operations.

Colorado will reopen Rocky Mountain National Park and the Grand Canyon will reopen in Arizona. South Dakota plans to reopen Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

Rocky Mountain Park will cost Colorado $362,700 to operate over the span of 10 days, and Arizona will dish out $651,000 to keep the Grand Canyon open till Oct. 18 for a period of seven days. Mount Rushmore will cost $152,000 to run for 10 days ending on Oct. 23.

The Park Service is still negotiating with other states.

Utah signed an agreement with Jewell to reopen five national parks and eight national sites in total Thursday that expected to be fully operational Saturday.

Closure of the national parks became a hot topic this week during the gridlock in Congress. Republicans placed blame on the Obama administration and called the Park Service’s actions politically motivated.

Republicans in Congress are taking aim at the Interior’s actions and the House is holding a hearing next week to scrutinize closures of the national parks and Washington D.C.’s monuments.

The Natural Resources Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a joint hearing titled: “As Difficult As Possible: The National Park Service’s Implementation of the Government Shutdown.”

“Why now, after more than a week of refusing to allow States to pay to keep National Parks open, is the Obama Administration suddenly reversing course? It appears they are truly just making this up as they go along, as they have put out one inconsistent policy after another,” said House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) in a statement Thursday.

Earlier in the week, Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) took to Twitter to air his grievances with the GOP.

“We shouldn’t be turning school kids away from visiting Gettysburg, but #GOPShutdown is keeping them out. #KeepParksOpen,” Tonko tweeted.

And acting president of the National Parks Conservation Association, Theresa Pierno, defended the actions of NPS, stating that without the proper staff national parks would be at risk.