Alaska rangers monitoring Fat Bear Week face furlough in government shutdown

The Interior Department confirmed Thursday that the looming shutdown of the federal government would prompt the closure of national parks, including the furlough of rangers at the preserve that hosts the annual Fat Bear Week contest.

The department said that if federal funding lapses Sunday, the majority of National Park Service (NPS) sites “will be closed completely to public access.” The department added that staffing levels will vary from site to site according to their size, location and infrastructure.

In a Thursday briefing, an Interior official confirmed this included Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, noting that “the bears will continue to get fat” in the absence of federal monitoring. The contest was set to run this year from Oct. 4-10, which will also be the first full week of a shutdown if a deal is not struck by Sunday.

The Fat Bear Week single-elimination tournament has taken place in Katmai since 2014, with NPS staff monitoring the progress of the preserve’s brown bears as they prepare for winter hibernation, during which they typically gain hundreds of pounds. 

“Subject to the approval of the NPS Director, parks may enter into non-reimbursable arrangements with state, local or Tribal governments, cooperating associations, and/or other third parties for donations to fund the full operation of an individual park site or of specified services that clearly benefit the park and public by providing enhanced visitor health, protection and safety,” the Interior Department said, adding that the NPS cannot reimburse any third parties who pay for parks to remain open.

Midway through the 2018-2019 government shutdown, then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt directed parks to open with skeleton crews of staffers, drawing on revenues from user fees. In a September 2019 report, the Government Accountability Office determined that Bernhardt violated federal law with the move, writing that he “disregarded not only the laws themselves but also the congressional prerogatives that underlie them.”