VOA慢速英语--国家公园处理政府关闭后的破坏

National Parks Deal with Damage After Government Shutdown

Many of America’s national parks remained open during the country’s longest-ever government shutdown. But few had enough National Park Service employees working to protect the areas and keep watch of visitors.

Those visitors did a lot of damage in 35 days. They walked over sensitive lands. They opened gates while no one was watching. One person even struck one of California’s famous Joshua Trees with a vehicle.

When park service employees returned to work last week, they began cleaning up and repairing what they could.

But environmental experts warn that the damage in some places could take years to recover. Even before the shutdown, national parks faced $12 billion in much-needed repair work. That number has only grown.

Many parks had no employees working during the shutdown. Others had skeleton¹ crews.. Local governments and nonprofit organizations offered money and volunteers during the shutdown, which began on December 21 and ended on January 25.

National Park Service spokesman² Mike Litterst told reporters that the damage was not widespread. He said most visitors took good care of the land.

But interviews with park officials and nonprofit groups that help keep parks running tell a different story.

Angie Richman is a spokeswoman at Arches³ National Park in Utah. She said visitors left human waste outside a bathroom, walked on trails within an area that was off-limits to visitors and damaged an entrance gate.

At Joshua Tree National Park, an off-road vehicle ran over one of the park’s special trees. Several other Joshua trees were damaged, including one that was spray-painted.

A former Joshua Tree National Park ranger⁴ told Smithsonian.com that it could take 200 to 300 years for the park to fully⁵ recover from the shutdown damage.

At Great Smoky Mountains National Park, visitors cut locks on some gates to closed roads and stole about $5,000 in repair tools, spokeswoman Dana Soehn said.

Employees at Death Valley National Park in California found human waste and toilet paper all across the desert. Park officials also found evidence of people kicking in locked bathroom doors. And a high-speed video on Death Valley’s Facebook page showed how it took staffers two hours to clean a bathroom overflowing⁶ with trash and covered with waste.

Workers at Death Valley National Park must replant in areas damaged by off-road vehicles. All of this delays much-needed repairs in other areas of the 1.3 million-hectare park.

David Blacker is chief of the Death Valley Natural History Association⁷. He told the Associated Press, “It became pretty depressing⁸ the kinds of things people will do when they are unsupervised.”

At some parks, the lack of people meant animals moved in. A colony⁹ of elephant seals took over a Northern California beach in Point Reyes National Seashore. There were no workers there to prevent the animals from gathering¹⁰ in the popular tourist area. Park rangers¹¹ and volunteers are now leading small groups of visitors to safely see the seals and their young.

The possibility of another shutdown remains¹². President Donald Trump¹³ and Congressional leaders agreed to a temporary spending bill that re-opened the government for three weeks. Trump has said another shutdown could start February 15 if he and Democratic¹⁴ leaders cannot agree on money for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.

I’m Ashley Thompson.

Words in This Story

interview - n. a meeting between a reporter and another person in order to get information for a news story

gate - n. a place in a wall or a fence that has a movable part which can be opened or closed like a door

tourist - n. a person who travels to a place for pleasure

1 skeleton   

n.骨骼，框架，骨干，梗概，提要

参考例句：

• A long illness made a skeleton out of him.长期的卧病使他骨瘦如柴。
• Her notes gave us just the bare skeleton of her theory.她的笔记只给我们提供了她的理论的梗概。

2 spokesman   

n.发言人，代言人

参考例句：

• The government spokesman gave a quick briefing to the reporters.政府发言人向记者们作了情况简介。
• They drew lots to decide who should be their spokesman.他们抽签决定谁是他们的发言人。

3 Arches   

n.拱( arch的名词复数 )；拱门；拱形物；足弓v.（使）弯成拱形( arch的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Arches are built of wood, stone, brick or any other building material. 拱门是用木料、石块、砖头或其他建筑材料建成的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cat arches its back when It'sees the dog. 猫看到狗，便把背拱起。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 ranger   

n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员

参考例句：

• He was the head ranger of the national park.他曾是国家公园的首席看守员。
• He loved working as a ranger.他喜欢做护林人。

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 overflowing   

n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The stands were overflowing with farm and sideline products. 集市上农副产品非常丰富。
• The milk is overflowing. 牛奶溢出来了。

7 association   

n.联盟，协会，社团；交往，联合；联想

参考例句：

• Our long association with your company has brought great benefits.我方和贵公司的长期合作带来了巨大的利益。
• I broke away from the association ten years ago.我10年前就脱离了那个团体。

8 depressing   

a.令人沮丧的；令人忧愁的

参考例句：

• Laundromat is really depressing. 自助洗衣店真闷。
• The retrospect was depressing. 回想起来令人沮丧。

9 colony   

n.殖民地；(同类人的)聚居地

参考例句：

• There lived a colony of bees on the tree.树上生活着一群蜜蜂。
• They live in an artists'colony.他们住在艺术家聚居区。

10 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

11 rangers   

护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员

参考例句：

• Do you know where the Rangers Stadium is? 你知道Rangers体育场在哪吗？ 来自超越目标英语 第3册
• Now I'm a Rangers' fan, so I like to be near the stadium. 现在我是Rangers的爱好者，所以我想离体育场近一点。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

12 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

13 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

14 democratic   

adj.民主的；民主主义的，有民主精神的

参考例句：

• Their country has democratic government.他们国家实行民主政体。
• He has a democratic work-style.他作风民主。