Joshua Tree NP in the news during and after the 2019 government shutdown.

There are reports of trees being cut, new roads being made, trash everywhere, cut chains, people camping without permits, etc. These are the type of people who need the Nanny State and likely who could not survive one week in nature.

The average life span of the Joshua Tree is reportedly 150 years. But the longest living Joshua Tree is reportedly about 1,000 years old. So I do not know how the damage could not be repaired for another 300 years… Certainly, it will take much money and volunteer effort to clean up the park.

In hindsight, they should have done a lockdown. Some people take the trouble of driving out there but don’t care about preservation. They do not love nature but abuse it. For these people, a Chinese style surveillance state and a social credit system may be a good idea.

The Guardian reports, Joshua Tree national park ‘may take 300 years to recover’ from shutdown:

“What’s happened to our park in the last 34 days is irreparable for the next 200 to 300 years,” Curt Sauer said at a rally over the weekend, according to a report from the Desert Sun. Sauer retired in 2010 after running the park for seven years.

The park reopened Monday after the record 35-day shutdown, and park workers returned to a state of chaos, including damaged trees, graffiti and ruined trails. The reduced ranger supervision during the shutdown saw increased vandalism at the park

And all for what? All for just political brinkmanship between the Congress and the President over a measly $6 billion out of a $5 trillion national budget to build a “wall.” For that, over 300 million citizens were inconvenienced and many national treasures were defaced.

Photo: December 2016.