Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations

Shenandoah National Park Employees and Visitors Get Help in Troubled Times

Park ranger and girl talking

A Charlottesville-based group is collecting packaged snack food and gifts for National Park Service employees who are working without pay during the partial government shutdown, and donating money to keep rest areas clean.

The Shenandoah National Park Trust is a non-profit partner created to support the park. The trust is working overtime to try to keep both employees and visitors safe and comfortable in hard times.

“We are concerned by immediate and long-term impacts brought on by the shutdown,” Susan Sherman the trust’s Executive Director says there is potential danger to visitors, to the landscape and to sensitive plants, and to animals. “If bears find easy meals at overflowing trash cans, they will keep returning to those areas.”

The trust is raising emergency money to cover the cost of keeping the rest areas at Old Rag Mountain and White Oak Canyon clean, and next week plans to visit employees to show their support.

“We are also putting together a gift basket of snacks to deliver to park headquarters to thank the park."