Mount Rushmore climbers to monitor and seal cracks annually. Due to budget constraints, the memorial is not regularly cleaned to remove lichens. However, on July 8, 2005, Alfred Kärcher GmbH, a German manufacturer of pressure washing and steam cleaning machines, conducted a free cleanup operation which lasted several weeks, using pressurized water at over . The flora and fauna of Mount Rushmore are similar to those of the rest of the Black Hills region of South Dakota. Birds including the turkey vulture, bald eagle, hawk, and meadowlark fly around Mount Rushmore, occasionally making nesting spots in the ledges of the mountain. Smaller
Howard Rushmore Rushmore would dine with "his wife (Frances), Roy Cohn and his girl-friend." On November 27, 1949, Rushmore published in the "Journal-American" allegations of communist infiltration of US naval vessels. Though the facts of the article were invented by Rushmore, by coincidence the FBI was conducting its own investigation on the same matter. Initially, J. Edgar Hoover thought that Rushmore had access to genuine intelligence. Hoover then had Rushmore's telephone tapped. Later in Olympia, Washington, Rushmore testified before the Canwell Committee, a state committee to investigate subversive activities at the University of Washington. Rushmore switched the subject to Washington, D.C. He