Campgrounds, visitor centers at federal lakes are closing amid Trump's budget cuts [View all]
Source: ABC News/AP
April 27, 2025, 12:03 AM
TOPEKA, Kan. -- 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.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/campgrounds-visitor-centers-federal-lakes-closing-amid-trumps-121207745
From the OP excerpt -
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“”We have a lot of fishing and boating, but we also have a lot of just plain tourists coming through to see the dam,"
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“I think there are other places where they could cut that would make more sense," she added.
Pickstown, SD is in Charles Mix County. And what did they do come 2024 election time?
Kudos for the Harris/Walz voters in that apparently bloody red county (which is about 32% indigenous).
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