Gale Norton, who served six years under President George W. Bush as secretary of the Department of the Interior, which oversees NPS, tells National Review Online she thinks at least some of the recent closings are politically motivated.

“The National Parks Service has a long history of dramatizing budget issues by inconveniencing the public,” she says. ”They often choose the most dramatic type of action in order to get their message across. It’s something I had to guard against when I was secretary — not letting them play budget games.“

NPS has engaged in such behavior for decades, Nortons says, recalling at least one occassion during the Reagan administraiton, in which she worked as an attorney for the parks service, when NPS decided to close Skyline Drive, a scenic highway running through Shenandoah National Park, in order to make a statement during an appropriations fight on Capitol Hill.

“This is basically just a road that people can drive along, where they don’t need supervision,” she says of Skyline Drive, which is currently closed because of the government shutdown.