National parks facing ‘nightmare’ under Trump, warns ex-director of service

Jonathan Jarvis, who led the agency from 2009 to 2017, laid out the dire consequences of not closing parks in shutdown

Americans should raise hell" to protect US national parks through the nightmare" of Donald Trump's presidency, according to a former National Park Service director, amid alarm over the impact of the federal government shutdown.

Jonathan Jarvis claimed the agency was now in the hands of a bunch of ideologues" who would have no issue watching it go down in flames" - and see parks from Yellowstone to Yosemite as potential cash cows", ripe for privatization.