Amidst an indefinite government shutdown, Libertarian Party activists gathered today in Washington DC to voluntarily clean up National Parks.

“Well I think we all have a mutual responsibility to take care of our public spaces, and government doesn’t necessarily need to pay for that,” said Ethan Bishop-Henchman. “And it’s definitely not paying for it right now.”

“Libertarians are obviously about reducing the size of government,” explained Jess Mears, membership manager of the Libertarian Party. “Obviously, the federal government does maintain the parks. While it is shut down right now, we’re trying to exemplify other ways that we could have these services without federal dollars contributing to them.”

“It’s an example of us practicing what we preach. We want the private sector to step up when government can’t, so that’s what we’re doing here,” added Joe Bishop-Henchman, the Chair of DC’s Libertarian Party.

In total, the group accumulated dozens of garbage bags full of trash across the National Mall, which required two vehicles to cart away to a dump site.

“We got quite a haul here, it’s even a little bit more than I was expecting,” said Adam Theo, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Northern Virginia. Theo himself is a currently furloughed federal government worker.