“Arizona lawmakers joined local and tribal officials Tuesday calling on the Interior Department to reverse its “reckless” decision to keep Grand Canyon National Park open during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said his organization is hearing complaints from park staff about “leaderless direction” from the National Park Service. Park staff have also said they have been instructed not to talk about COVID-19 publicly, he said.
“There seems to be no leadership in the National Park Service about the issue of COVID-19,” Whitehouse said. “There seems to be no understanding that the national parks need to be shut down.””
