In our last story, we shared how the government shutdown has paused vital work along the Appalachian Trail. But the story doesn’t start with this shutdown. The Trail’s unique partnership model, built over nearly a century, relies on steady federal support and collaboration between agencies, nonprofits, and volunteers.

To understand how a lapse in funding in Washington can ripple across the Trail, it helps to look at how the Trail’s management works.

The Cooperative Management System

The A.T. is one of America’s greatest conservation success stories. A nearly 2,200-mile footpath protected and maintained through an extraordinary partnership between the federal government, states, local communities, and thousands of volunteers. The A.T. existed mostly on private land and unprotected for forty years before the landmark National Trails System Act brought it into the federal lands system, which is what has enabled it to become what it is today — a world-renowned long trail.

The National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and state land managers work together with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) and the 30 local A.T. Maintaining Clubs to steward the Trail. Volunteers carry out much of the on-the-ground work, help plan Trail projects, and identify most of the maintenance and improvement needs. But ultimately, the A.T., like other National Park System units, is a federal entity. Without consistent federal engagement and funding, the system that protects and manages the Trail breaks down.

When Congress fails to pass a budget and the government shuts down (or experiences a “lapse in appropriations”), or when it relies on short-term fixes called “Continuing Resolutions,” federal staff cannot plan or approve long-term projects. Trail maintenance, land protection, and critical infrastructure repairs are delayed. Decision-making slows, morale drops, and both volunteers and agencies are left in limbo.

How We Got Here

Under the U.S. Constitution, federal funds can only be spent after Congress passes a law authorizing it (an “appropriation”). Each year, the process begins when the President submits a budget proposal in February. Congress then has until September 30 to debate, amend, and pass appropriations that fund federal programs, including those that support the A.T.

Unfortunately, this process has broken down in recent years. Since the Ford Administration (1973-1976), there have been 11 shutdowns, six of them in the past 30 years. Of the more than 122 days the government has been shut down during that period, three-quarters—have occurred in just the past 12 years. What was once viewed as disastrous, now seems more commonplace, in part because the President is keeping more of the government open without staff. In the last five years, Congress hasn’t passed a single annual budget on time, relying instead on short-term funding extensions and large “omnibus” bills passed months late. We are now in the longest “shutdown” or lapse in appropriations the United States has ever experienced.

As of today, the federal government is still operating under a Fiscal Year 2024 budget that began in October 2023. It has been extended multiple times, with only limited updates, such as disaster recovery funding following Hurricane Helene. That means the Appalachian Trail, and the people and partners who protect it, are still operating under guidance written two years ago, in a very different environment.

Budgets are more than numbers. They reflect national priorities and values, and the federal budget represents hard work and compromise. Without an updated federal budget, agencies cannot adapt to new challenges, whether that’s responding to storm damage, managing the impacts of increasing visitors, or planning for the future of public lands like the Appalachian Trail.

What’s Next

This shutdown is now the longest in history, and Congress remains gridlocked. The U.S. House of Representatives has not convened in six weeks, while the Senate has proposed the same short-term funding bill more than a dozen times without success. Rather than having spent this time negotiating a full-year budget, lawmakers have been pointing the finger and each other and are only considering another temporary extension of an outdated spending plan. Our elected representatives must be present and work together to compromise and adopt a budget. That absence is rippling across the Trail.

Every delay adds strain to the management and care of the Trail, making it harder for this remarkable partnership to function. The A.T. deserves stability, and so do the people who care for it.

Contact your federal elected officials and urge them to work together to pass a full-year budget. Stable funding is essential for the people and places that make the Appalachian Trail so special.

Take Action

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Brendan Mysliwiec is the ATC’s Director of Federal Policy.