The National Park Service may close the Tidal Basin and surrounding streets during the peak cherry blossom bloom period this year, in compliance with public health guidelines to prevent COVID-19 spread.

“We will keep everything open as long as we can until crowds get to the point where they can’t properly social distance and we have to put in restrictions and closures,” NPS spokesperson Mike Litterst tells DCist/WAMU. 

According to a statement issued by NPS on Tuesday, the agency is projecting that if crowds get too large, the closures will occur between March 26 and April 12, but will be dependent on the “bloom cycles” of the trees. The NPS will update specific closure times on its website and social media accounts.

U.S. Park Police and NPS will be monitoring the Tidal Basin for crowds, Litterst says. “It’s an eyeball test to see when there are simply too many people down there.”

Should crowds become too large, the Tidal Basin walking trail, the Jefferson Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, and several of the surrounding roads and parking lots will be closed to cars and pedestrians.

Litterst says based on the crowds the Tidal Basin saw last year, he expects NPS will end up closing the site. “What we don’t want to do is create the illusion for people that [the Tidal Basin] is likely to stay open,” he says. 

Last year, amid rising COVID-19 cases, officials closed roads around the Tidal Basin and discouraged visitation during one of the city’s biggest annual events.

“I think what we learned from last year is that, at some point, it really gets hard to mitigate the crowds,” John Falcicchio, D.C.’s deputy mayor for planning and economic development, told DCist/WAMU earlier this month. “If a crowd gathering cannot be thinned out, then the potential is there for the area to be closed off [again].”

While D.C.’s current average daily COVID-19 infection rates have declined by 27% over the last week, Maryland and Virginia have seen their average rate of daily new cases spike by 10% and 9%, respectively, over the same period. Meanwhile, jurisdictions across the region are loosening restrictions on businesses, and vaccination efforts continue nationwide.

Peak bloom is currently projected for April 2-5. NPS announced Monday that the blossoms had reached the halfway point to peak bloom. The Park Service is directing visitors to see the blooms at other sites around town, or check out the Cherry Blossom Festival’s various online offerings.

The following sites are included in the projected closures, per an NPS release:

• Ohio Drive SW, from Buckeye Drive SW (Washington Channel side) to Independence Avenue SW 
• East Basin Drive SW east of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial to Ohio Drive SW 
• West Basin Drive SW from Ohio Drive SW to Independence Avenue SW 
• Tidal Basin walking trail 
• Northbound I-395 ramp to Potomac Park (Exit 2) 
• Southbound I-395 ramp to Potomac Park (Exit 2) 
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial 
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial 
• Thomas Jefferson Memorial 
• Tidal Basin paddle boats 
• All curbside parking and parking lots within the closure