Members of the Libertarian Party in West Tennessee thought it would be nice to help clean up Shiloh National Military Park since most of the park's staff has been put on leave because of the partial government shutdown.

But after less than 30 minutes of groundskeeping, they were told to leave.

"Every other effort to clean up the national parks, from Washington, D.C., to Yosemite, has been fine," Tennessee Delta Region Libertarian Party Co-Leader Victoria Lee said. "But when we went to Shiloh, we were told we were not allowed to clean up the park."

Lee, along with 25 other Libertarian Party members, and their families, went to Shiloh on Sunday to help clear off walking paths and rake leaves.

The clean up at Shiloh is part of a nationwide initiative by the Libertarian Party to help clean up national parks around the country.

"This is all in order to prove that volunteerism works," Tennessee Delta Region Libertarian Party Co-Leader Marcus Baker said. "Government isn't needed for everything; there are volunteers out there who can handle certain things. We all like keeping our national parks clean, simple as that."

A Shiloh National Military Park ranger can be heard saying in the video that he understands that the volunteers are trying to help but that volunteers can't clean up without a signed volunteer liability waiver.

The Jackson Sun reached out to Shiloh National Park but has not received a response.

"The reason we didn't put more of a force behind it and didn't stand a little bit more to our ground was we had children as young as 2-years-old that were there," Lee said.

Baker said that he thinks someone reported the group to the park ranger.

After posting the clean up event on the Gibson County Libertarian Party Facebook Page the group received a few negative comments discouraging them from cleaning up.

The Tennessee Delta Region Libertarian Party doesn't have another scheduled event to help clean up Shiloh.

"We are not going to stop our effort," Lee said. "We are going to continue and try to clean up these parks because this is something that is very important to us."

Reach Adam Friedman by email at afriedman@jacksonsun.com or by phone at 731-431-8517.