PORTLAND, Maine — Zack Frank is a visual information specialist for the National Parks Service. He works at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York. Right now, he's furloughed without pay as a result of the government shutdown.
"It’s kind of ridiculous that my job is to educate people about the parks and I’m not allowed to do it," Frank says.
After being furloughed for nearly a month Frank says he's eager to get back to work.
"So I took it upon myself to take all of these things that I have researched over the years, visited over the years, photographed, and combine them into a series on YouTube," Frank said.
He’s making a video on a national park for every day of the shutdown.That includes one on Acadia National Park. He visited Acadia for the first time in 2007. It quickly became one of his favorite places.
"When I got to go there, it was a transcendent experience. And I have since been back many times, and I keep taking people there because there really isn't any other place like it. There’s no other place on the east coast of the United States where you can stand 1,500 feet above the ocean and look at a sunrise," Frank says.
The National Parks are open, however, they remain largely unregulated or looked after by a skeleton staff. Frank says while many people are respecting the parks, some are not: and now, they’re in dire need of care.
"Human waste is piling up, people are breaking things, people are sawing down Joshua trees in California to make room for ATV routes. These things that we’ve been slated to protect as a society and as a job, personally, they’re being destroyed," Frank says.
If the government doesn’t re-open soon, Frank says it’s bad for the parks and the personnel.
"Visitation spikes in spring and summer, if this continues for months it’s going to be purely devastation," Frank says.
The government shutdown puts Frank at risk of losing his apartment and quitting his beloved park job.
If you'd like to financially support Frank's work, you can do so through his Patreon account.
Find more of Frank's videos on his YouTube channel.