Even America’s most cherished natural wonders have not escaped the sweeping budget cuts that have defined the early months of the Trump administration.
In February, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, fired over 1,000 National Parks Service (NPS) workers and slashed thousands of seasonal positions in the latest attempt to reduce bureaucratic waste and downsize the federal government. The firings impacted essential personnel in every corner of the nation, including campground managers, search and rescue teams, facilities staff, and environmental scientists. It also terminated leases for over 34 buildings, including nine visitor centers spanning from Alaska to Louisiana.
The firings come at the heels of a record 332 million visits to NPS sites in 2024. Yellowstone National Park had its second busiest year with 4.7 million visits, and Yosemite National Park its fifth busiest with 4.1 million visits. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Gateway Arch National Recreation area all filed record visitation numbers in 2024, with 17.1 million, 8.4 million, and 8.4 million visits respectively.
Curiously, the NPS kept this data quiet, which is typically widely publicized as a hallmark of the agency’s success. Former NPS director Jonathan Jarvis claimed that “the suppression of this data would not be coming from anyone in the NPS, which proudly displays the numbers every year,” but rather “would be forced on NPS by the [Department of Interior] politicals or DOGE, worried about the high visitation numbers, the economic value, and the bad press coming from firing so many NPS employees.”
The uptick in park visitation, coupled with widespread firings, threatens the NPS’s ability to adequately staff and manage its facilities. Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Park Conservation Association (NPCA), warns that “park visitors will have to contend with closed visitor centers and campgrounds, canceled ranger programs, and less search and rescue staff,” if the firings hold and high level of visitation continue. As the spring and summer seasons approach and visitation increases exponentially, more parks might have to implement timed entry reservations or restrict hours for visitor centers and resource buildings due to staffing shortages. Yosemite National Park was already forced to delay campground reservations earlier this year due to uncertainty and staffing shortages, making the highly sought-after spots even more difficult to secure.
Understaffed National Parks jeopardize far more than just summer vacation plans — they represent a real threat to visitor safety on and off the trail. Firings of search and rescue employees have spread volunteer resources thin, meaning it could take search and rescue much longer to find and help stranded hikers and climbers. Brett Bishop, vice president of Seattle Mountain Rescue, cautions that hikers, backpackers, and climbers in less-trafficked areas may be left without assistance as resources are redirected to more popular sites like Mount Rainier, which sees over 10,000 summit attempts annually but has claimed the lives of 425 people since recording began. Without adequate search and rescue personnel within the National Parks themselves, millions of visitors from around the country will be relying on small, likely underfunded volunteer teams to keep them safe.
NPS employees and advocates have pushed back against the firings, calling them both unjust and dangerous. Resistance Rangers, an organization of over 1,000 off-duty park service employees, has supported protests at over 170 NPS sites, including Yosemite, Joshua Tree, and Channel Islands. Fired workers at Yosemite hung an upside-down American flag — often viewed as a distress symbol — atop the iconic El Capitan as millions gathered to witness the famed “firefall.” Gavin Carpenter, a maintenance worker at Yosemite National Park who supplied the flag, said that he felt it his duty to bring attention to how the firings undermine the prosperity and protection of America’s public lands. “It’s super important we take care of them, and we’re losing people here,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’s not sustainable if we want to keep the parks open.”
Opposition to the firings is also widespread in Washington, D.C., where policymakers and legal experts have voiced strong objections. In a recent ruling, District Judge William Alsup ordered the immediate reinstatement of NPS workers, a decision that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denounced as “absurd” and “unconstitutional.” Reinstated workers are thrilled to see advocacy efforts making an impact, but remain uncertain as to whether their jobs are truly secure. “With plans for wide-scale reductions in force throughout federal government, there is still the possibility that my position could be cut again,” Badlands National Park employee Lydia Jones wrote on Instagram. “However, one thing is certain: I will continue to do my job to the absolute best of my ability, as long as I am able, in service to the American people.”
For many employees, working with the NPS is more than just a job — it’s a lifelong dream and an incredibly fulfilling career. “I was able to work down south after Hurricane Irma in 2017, and saw amazing places. I even got to see the city of Charleston from the top of the Historic Charleston Lighthouse” wrote an anonymous NPS employee to The Gate. “That’s when I learned how we really get paid in sunsets. I fell face first in love with the mission in those moments, and I didn’t look back.”
The overwhelming sentiment among employees and the American public alike is that the NPS is one of the nation’s greatest treasures — the organization holds the highest public approval among federal agencies, with an approval rating of 76% according to a Pew Research Center poll. The chance to experience the country’s breathtaking natural beauty, from the sprawling Appalachian Mountains of Shenandoah to the lush rainforests of Olympic and everything in between, holds a value far beyond what can be measured on a budget sheet.
“[The NPS] is one of the biggest successes of the American experiment, and I’m proud to serve in this capacity. It’s truly a privilege,” the anonymous employee wrote. “We know we don’t always get things right. But we truly care. There’s so many background functions that aren’t publicly visible, and without those people, there won’t be parks and public lands.
“It’s bigger than me. It means something to people all over the world…I think the best way I can say it is through song: ‘this land is my land, this land is your land.’”
Image from U.S. National Park Service, licensed under Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal (PDM 1.0)
The Gate 
Leave a comment