Iowans camping plans for up north are shut down

Iowans with camping plans in Minnesota this weekend should start making other arrangements. If that state’s lawmakers can’t agree on a budget, the Minnesota government will be partly shut down and its state parks will close on Friday. Minnesota parks director Courtland Nelson says if you want to take a hike in one of the parks, no one will be there to stop you.Nelson says “We are not going to be doing anything in terms of enforcement along that line. The only thing we will enforce is “no camping” because camping is a permitted activity and we are not allowing the camping.” He says it’s unfortunate the situation has played out this way, since this is ordinarily one of Minnesota’s busiest camping weekends of summer.Nelson says “Tomorrow we will be, at 4:00, then notifying individual campers and asking them at 4:00 to remove their tent or motorhome or whatever and we’ll be closing down the parks.” He says they’ll be giving refunds to the over six-thousand people who’ve made camping reservations at Minnesota state parks for the first six days of July.