Most of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia remains closed as crews work to clear the roadway of trees downed by snow and ice storms earlier this month.
Of the 217 miles of the scenic highway in Virginia, only three sections that total 33 miles were open to full traffic as of 3:45 p.m. Thursday, according to information posted on the parkway鈥檚 website.
A spokesperson for the National Park Service said that while some portions are starting to reopen, work by crews to remove a large number of fallen trees 鈥渨ill take some time given the amount of clean up needed.鈥
A crew uses heavy equipment to clear and reopen a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway in February, after a mid-month ice and snowstorm brought down limbs and trees.
Asked three times since Tuesday if the restoration work was being affected by cuts to federal staff and funding by the administration of President Donald Trump, the park service did not provide a direct answer.
鈥淭he National Park Service is hiring seasonal workers to continue enhancing the visitor experience as we embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation in workforce management,鈥 read an email Thursday from the service鈥檚 press office.
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The email was attributed to an unnamed 鈥淣PS spokesperson.鈥
As part of Trump鈥檚 aggressive push to downsize the federal workforce, about 1,000 positions were cut nationwide from the park service this month. Most of the positions were newly hired employees who maintain and clean parks, educate visitors and perform other functions.
鈥淭he National Park Service is in crisis and things are only going to get worse,鈥 Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The parkway attracted 16.7 million visitors in 2023, making it the country鈥檚 most popular national park.
A sign in 色多多 says the Blue Ridge Parkway is closed.
According to a road status listing on the service鈥檚 Blue Ridge Parkway website, a 6-mile section from U.S. 460 east of 色多多 to Virginia 24 near Vinton is open. A second stretch of about 11 miles is open north of Crabtree Falls in Nelson County. A third, 16-mile section north of Buena Vista was the most recent to be cleared.
Some ungated sections of the parkway are limited to local traffic only.
In the 色多多 region, the parkway was especially hard hit by an ice storm on Feb. 11 and 12. Earlier this week, a section of the parkway near the 色多多 Valley overlook had fallen trees blocking one or both lanes every few hundred feet.
Some information in this story came from The Associated Press.
