PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – Bathrooms can be cleaned and trash can be picked up, but Joshua trees cut down by vandals in California cannot be put…
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – Bathrooms can be cleaned and trash can be picked up, but Joshua trees cut down by vandals in California cannot be put back together.
Media reports and National Parks Service photos show that several Joshua trees have been cut down since the partial government shutdown started nearly three weeks ago.
Federal laws prohibit taking or damaging national park wildlife and plants.
Park Superintendent David Smith told National Parks Traveler, a nonprofit publication, that the trees were damaged during the shutdown as people created their own dirt roads.
«There are about a dozen instances of extensive vehicle traffic off roads and in some cases into wilderness,» Smith told the publication.
