AUSTIN, Texas —Texas state parks and historic sites are now closed as part of the larger effort to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The directive from Gov. Greg Abbott Tuesday comes more than two weeks after he first ordered Texans to avoid social groups of 10 people or more. Parks officials had implemented mitigation strategies before this statewide closure, but some state parks employees tell Spectrum News they believe the new rules came a little too late.

• Park closure announcement came Tuesday
• Some employees say they’d been asking for the closures for weeks
• In March, state parks had approximately 740,000 visitors

Officials with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said despite the “increasingly restrictive visitor use measures,” they have reached a point where public safety considerations must take precedence over continued operations. Some state parks employees said the orders should have come sooner. One employee who spoke to Spectrum News wanted to stay anonymous for fear of getting fired and losing health insurance. 

“All of us could see very early on that this could mean a lot of people being infected in parks, and we started expressing that to our supervisors,” the state parks worker said. 

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Throughout the month of March, the park system hosted nearly 740,000 visitors. As factors in the decision to close the parks, TPWD officials cited difficulty in making sure visitors were physical distancing, maintaining supplies, and keeping facilities sufficiently sanitized. 

“People that were coming in to our park offices to check in for their camping spots were already showing the signs of respiratory illness. They were coughing, they were sneezing a few feet away from us,” one state parks worker said. 

That employee went on to describe how many surfaces people touch and said: “It’s not just bathroom handles and light switches in bathrooms. It’s grills and barbecue pits. It’s RV boxes, when you’re hooking up your camper. It’s picnic tables, it’s handles. There’s so many different surfaces in a park that many, many people touch. It’s not humanly possible to clean all of that.”

In an email to Spectrum News another employee expressed similar concerns, especially since some parks centers can be small, writing: “Guests during this time had been coming into the visitor centers visibly sick, coughing on fellow guests, leaning on counters, coughing on clerks. Sure, guests are able to walk, hike, or fish while practicing social distancing, but there are still public facilities that require maintenance and cleaning that park staff can't keep up with.” 

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The state parks employees were also concerned about the volunteer park hosts who supplement staff and support their operational needs and maintenance. They said park hosts tend to be retirees. Public health experts have repeatedly emphasized throughout the pandemic how older adults are at a significant risk of COVID-19 illness. 

On March 19, state parks staff closed those public facing offices, headquarters, visitor centers, and stores. They also suspended cash and check transactions, as well as equipment rentals and interpretive programs. One employee, however, aired doubts about the effectiveness of those measures. 

“I understand the desire and need of people to get outside, to clear their heads, get exercise, to maintain their physical and mental health, but it's not worth the risk to maintain fully staffed parks trying to disinfect everything,” the employee wrote in an email. 

State parks officials acknowledge how important outdoor recreational activities are to Texans and they said they will continue to promote those activities in safe ways that are closing to home during the closure. 

“People need to take it seriously and they need to stay home. Parks are not safe,” one state parks employee said. 

According to TPWD, state parks will remain closed until public health and safety conditions improve. 

Spectrum News reached out to the TPWD News Team for a statement specifically on the concerns some employees raised, and they declined to comment.