Death Valley playas damaged by offroaders during shutdown

There are tire marks etched into delicate playas and plains that can take centuries to recover

Delicate desert ecosystems in Death Valley have been damaged by off-roaders, another dismaying impact of the US government shutdown on national parks.

"People come here to this pristine desert landscape," said Laura Cunningham, who heads Western Watersheds Project, a not-for-profit conservation organization. She and her husband, a retired Death Valley park ranger, live close to the park and headed out to the desert last week to assess new damage. "There are so few places where we have a beautiful natural vista. And now people are off-roading on it."