A federal government shutdown began Wednesday morning, prompting furloughs and plans for scaling back operations at federal land management agencies until Congress can agree on a spending plan.

Employees at the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spent a half-day Wednesday performing an “orderly shutdown,” according to the agencies’ contingency plans for a lapse in federal appropriations.

Plans for the Forest Service indicate that the agency expected to furlough more than 12,000 of its roughly 32,000 employees. Contingency plans for the Department of the Interior indicate the National Park Service will furlough close to 9,300 employees. At the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, it’s about 4,600 employees, and there

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