The US government shut down at 12:01am on October 1, 2025 - the start of the new fiscal year. This is the first government shutdown since the end of 2018, when the lack of congressional agreement on a federal budget led to a shutdown that lasted 35 days.
While news headlines are dominated by conversations about Social Security, healthcare, and even when National Parks will reopen to the public, the impacts of the shutdown can reach far beyond Washington, D.C., before Congress manages to agree on a new budget.
However, some services are deemed “essential,” meaning they will continue work even as other departments are shuttered and employees are furloughed without pay. Below, we’ve summarized some of the key ways America’s Arctic could be impacted during the shutdown, including what’s been deemed “essential.”
FEDERALLY MANAGED PUBLIC ACCESS - HALTED
All across the country, access to our federal public lands is impeded by the government shutdown. From the staff that greets visitors with maps, insights, and safety information, to the offices that grant backcountry guiding permits for our wildest public lands, federal employees who manage public lands for the people who want to visit them are not at work until the government reopens. If you were in Coldfoot, Alaska, and trying to visit the Arctic Interagency Visitor Center, you’d find the doors locked.
INVASIVE SPECIES CONTROL PROGRAMS - HALTED
In many parts of the country, specially trained employees of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies protect native plants and wildlife by working to remove invasive species. The American Arctic is no exception - all along the Dalton Highway, as it makes its way to the oil fields along the Arctic Ocean, invasive white and yellow sweetclover crowds out native plant life and even changes the chemical composition of the tundra soil. Without an approved federal budget, efforts to control invasive species in the Arctic and beyond will, in most cases, be halted.
COMMERCIAL FISHING ADMINISTRATION - HALTED
Alaska makes up 60% of the USA’s commercial fishing production, with the nutrient-rich waters of the Arctic and the Pacific fueling abundant but delicate fisheries that need careful management to continue to be productive and profitable. Oversight of commercial fishing is complex, including both federal and state experts. Fisheries scientists and permitters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and beyond are currently furloughed, meaning they are unable to help regulate healthy fisheries to ensure they will thrive for generations to come.
VITAL SERVICES TO INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES - HALTED
Government shutdowns disproportionately impact Native communities, resulting in underfunded and understaffed health clinics, education programs, child nutrition programs, law enforcement, and more. In many communities across the country, this breaks the government’s treaty agreements with Indigenous Peoples.
CLIMATE AND WEATHER MONITORING - HALTED
Climate science and monitoring have already been devastated by federal funding cuts and widespread layoffs since January 2025 in an attempt to eliminate federal efforts addressing the climate crisis. America’s Arctic is uniquely important - serving as the “air conditioner” for the rest of the planet and stabilizing the jet stream, which in turn impacts the predictability of seasonal weather events all across the globe. With the Arctic already warming four times faster than the rest of the planet, we can’t afford to undermine the work of scientists studying climate and weather in America’s Arctic. However, most of them are currently at home, unable to carry out their work until the government reopens.
OIL AND GAS PERMITTING - DEEMED ESSENTIAL
As the Trump Administration races to greenlight new oil and gas development across the American Arctic - including environmentally catastrophic seismic testing as soon as this winter - it’s no surprise that the employees working on permits for oil and gas companies were deemed “essential” as the shutdown loomed in the last weeks of September. As public lands, wildlife, and Indigenous communities face a lack of funds and services, corporations are still on track to exploit short-term profit off of our irreplaceable public lands, revealing where the Administration’s priorities really lie.
To learn more about how to help protect America’s Arctic - during and beyond the government shutdown - visit our Take Action page for the most recent guidance on how you can help. Help spread the word on social media by sharing this blog post OR our Shutdown Swipe-Story on Instagram.
