Joshua Tree National Park may need centuries to recover from damage caused by visitors during the 35-day government shutdown, a former ranger said.

With just a skeleton crew of workers and most park rangers furloughed, vandals ran amok in the Southern California park during the shutdown, toppling gates and posts, carving new roads through the desert and ripping some of the park’s namesake contorted trees to the ground.

“What’s happened to our park in the last 34 days is irreparable for the next 200 to 300 years,” former Joshua Tree National Park superintendent Curt Sauer said at a Saturday rally, organized to highlight the environmental toll of the shutdown, according to the Desert Sun.

Photos shared on social media showed towering Dr. Seuss-esque Joshua Trees in tatters, after being chopped down and apparently run over by cars. Other images showed overflowing piles of trash, filthy public bathrooms and graffiti drawn on rocks.

Rangers announced they would temporarily close Jan. 8 to deal with some of the damage, but then reopened.

A volunteer cleanup crew of about 100 people cleaned bathrooms and repaired fences in the Delaware-size park — but replanting and growing Joshua Trees takes a long time.

Workers were back Monday and surveyed the catastrophic damage.

“Those trees will be damaged forever, but luckily our plant community is a renewable resource,” park superintendent David Smith told SF Gate.

Still, he added: “Here in the desert, things grow very, very slowly,”