An estimated 7 million people have been shut out at 12 of the busiest and biggest U.S. national parks, costing parks and nearby communities about $76 million in lost visitor spending for each day the partial government shutdown drags on.
That's according to a report just out from the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, which derived its estimates from actual National Park Service visitation numbers from last October and an independent analysis of park economic impacts conducted by the nonpartisan group Headwaters Economics.
The report also concludes that more than 40,000 non-Park Service jobs are at risk in and outside these 12 national parks alone.
"These figures are mind-boggling, and they only begin to capture the full economic shock of locking up the crown jewels of America," says Maureen Finnerty, the Coalition's chair and a former superintendent at Everglades and Olympic National Parks.
Here are the calculations park-by-park for the first 10 days of the shutdown. (Figures apply to areas inside and outside the parks):
Acadia National Park, Maine
Lost visitors: 68,493
Lost visitor dollars: $5,263,013
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 3,147
Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Lost visitors: 27,767
Lost visitor dollars: $656,986
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 375
Boston National Historic Park, Massachusetts
Lost visitors: 54,794
Lost visitor dollars: $2,032,876
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 904
Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio
Lost visitors: 68,219
Lost visitor dollars: $1,545,205
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 599
Everglades National Park, Florida
Lost visitors: 25,083
Lost visitor dollars: $3,857,534
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 1,951
Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania
Lost visitors: 27,397
Lost visitor dollars: $1,796,712
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 1,051
Glacier National Park, Montana
Lost visitors: 60,273
Lost visitor dollars: $3,076,712
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 1,632
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Lost visitors: 120,000
Lost visitor dollars: $11,750,684
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 6,167
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee
Lost visitors: 257,534
Lost visitor dollars: $23,123,387
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 11,367
Olympic National Park, Washington
Lost visitors: 77,808
Lost visitor dollars: $2,912,328
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 1,395
Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
Lost visitors: 80,821
Lost visitor dollars: $4,821,917
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 2,641
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana
Lost Visitors: 98,630
Lost visitor dollars: $9,452,054
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 4,481
Yosemite National Park, California
Lost visitors: 106,849
Lost visitor dollars: $10,021,917
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 4,602
Zion National Park, Utah
Lost visitors: 72,876
Lost visitor dollars: $3,495,890
Non-NPS jobs at risk: 2,136
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