Campgrounds and visitor centers at federal lakes are closing amid Trump’s budget cuts

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Campgrounds, boat ramps and other facilities in at least 30 locations at federal lakes and reservoirs in six states will be closed or have their hours curtailed as of mid-May as the Trump administration tries to rapidly shrink the U.S. government.

Officials at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the lakes and reservoirs and their amenities for boating, camping, hiking and sightseeing, said they are dealing with staffing shortages and other budgetary restrictions.

Corps spokesman Douglas Garman said concentrating staff at fewer recreational sites will allow those sites to keep the “full range of services” that visitors expect.

The Corps’ district office in Omaha, Nebraska, which oversees facilities across a large swath of the Great Plains from western Iowa and Nebraska to Montana’s border with Canada, said the changes also will protect hydropower and dam operations.

“Decisions to make operational changes at recreation areas are not made lightly, and we understand those decisions can be disruptive to the public’s travel plans,” Garman said in an email to The Associated Press.

President Donald Trump imposed a federal hiring freeze after beginning his second term in January, and his Department of Government Efficiency is trying to eliminate tens of thousands of government jobs.

In Pickstown, South Dakota, residents were “appalled” to learn the Corps plans to close its visitor center at the Fort Randall Dam and suspend tours of the dam’s powerhouse on May 1, said Cindy Broyhill, the president of the town’s Board of Trustees.

“”We have a lot of fishing and boating, but we also have a lot of just plain tourists coming through to see the dam,” Broyhill said of Pickstown, located a little more than a half-mile (0.8 kilometers) east of the dam on the Missouri River, about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) north of the Nebraska state line.

“I think there are other places where they could cut that would make more sense,” she added.

In western Kansas, Sue Graham, manager of Knothead’s bait shop and camping supply store on the east side of Wilson Lake, was skeptical of a plan to limit a campsite there to daytime use as of May 15. The lake is about 230 miles (370 kilometers) west of Kansas City, home to the Corps district office for parts of Kansas, Missouri and southern Nebraska.

Graham doesn’t think the move will save much money because the campsite is used only by residents who own boat ramps nearby, but Corps officials would “shoot themselves in the foot” if they went further because of lost fee revenues, she said, adding that she does not expect her shop to be affected.

“People are still going to come out,” Graham said.

The Kansas City district plans to close visitor information centers at two Kansas lakes including Hillsdale, outside the Kansas City area, and Kanopolis, in central Kansas. The Corps will not allow overnight camping in 25 “primitive,” no-amenities spots in two areas at Harlan County Lake in western Nebraska near the Kansas state line. The sites and water nearby still will be accessible during the day.

Emily Coffin, the district’s natural resource section chief, said the district has pursued efficiency initiatives for five or six years that will lead to fewer visitor-staff interactions. They include self-service campsite registrations, cashless parking and payments through codes scanned with smartphones.

“It just may be a little bit more noticeable because we have more of that built on than maybe we did two years ago,” she said.

In March, the Corps’ Baltimore district closed three campgrounds at Raystown Lake in central Pennsylvania and a campground, swimming beach and boat ramp at Cowanesque Lake in northern Pennsylvania.

The Omaha district announced earlier this month that it would close six campgrounds in the Dakotas on May 1, as well as three visitor centers in South Dakota and Montana. It also plans to suspend or limit tours of four South Dakota dam powerhouses and decrease tours at Fort Peck Dam in northeast Montana.

The Corps district for southeastern Washington state announced last week it was closing two visitor centers and eight camping and recreation areas there.

“By concentrating our resources, we can better maintain essential missions,” Lt. Col. Katie Werbeck, the district’s commander, said in a statement.

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