The abrupt dismissal of at least 1,000 permanent National Park Service employees on Feb. 14 has brought a torrent of “I was fired from the N.P.S.” posts cascading down social media feeds like the luminous Yosemite firefall.
At least 3,000 additional people were fired from the U.S. Forest Service, which often works in concert with the parks. And thousands more seasonal workers were questioning if they would have jobs, despite a memo from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees national parks, approving 7,700 temporary positions, slightly more than usual. The park service usually operates with about 20,000 total employees, including approximately 7,000 seasonal workers.
The turmoil comes just as visitors are planning their spring break and summer travel to national parks. With more than 325 million annual visitors, the parks have been struggling to meet the demand: The total number of full-time National Park Service employees dropped 15 percent from 2011 to 2022, according to figures the agency provided to Congress in 2023. Many worry that the new cuts will harm the visitor experience across some 85 million acres at 433 sites.
“If you’ve planned your bucket list trip to a national park, you may have to take into consideration that you won’t have the full experience and reschedule for next year in the hopes it gets better,” said Kristen Brengel, senior vice president for government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan organization.
Parks around the country were already feeling the effects. When Spencer Glenn, 39, from Seattle, called the Carlsbad Caverns visitor center this week to inquire why the park’s ranger-led cave tours had been canceled, he said, the ranger told him “that because of the current federal guidelines, the national park had to fire half of its staff.”
At the Grand Canyon, a depleted staff of fee collectors resulted in lost revenue for the park over the weekend, and because of a lack of staffing at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado, the park announced it would be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Companies that operate within the parks are also trying to understand the impact. Xanterra Travel Collection operates concessions in numerous parks, including properties like the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone, El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon and Lake McDonald Lodge at Glacier. Andrew Heltzel, the company’s chief commercial officer, said in a telephone interview that its operations are continuing to run as planned. “We remain in close contact with the National Park Service and will provide updates promptly,” Mr. Heltzel added.
It was not clear how the cuts might affect Recreation.gov, a website that allows visitors to reserve campsites and timed-entry ticket for popular parks. A spokesman from the U.S.D.A., which administers the platform, said only that the department’s new head, Brooke Rollins, supported the effort to cut costs.
Alyssa Ravasio, the founder of the campsite booking platform Hipcamp, which allows users to find sites on private land as well as check availability at national parks through Recreation.gov, said the company was still trying to figure out what the cuts might mean for users. She recommended that visitors stay informed by signing up for email and social media updates from the parks and regional public land offices.
The impact on Yellowstone
At 2.2 million acres, Yellowstone is about the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Seasonal park workers help manage and service its five park entrances, nearly 1,000 miles of backcountry trails, seven park-operated campgrounds with 450 campsites, 52 picnic areas, and 11 visitor centers, museums and contact stations.
Yellowstone has approximately 300 permanent employees, but typically hires 200 or more seasonal workers. Yellowstone managers usually aim to fill those seasonal spots by mid-March so they are ready when the park opens to auto traffic starting in mid-April. The federal hiring process includes lengthy background checks, and some workers require specialized training on everything from grizzly bear safety to first aid to backcountry horse packing.
Even a seasonal job like emptying trash cans is critical at Yellowstone, where garbage must be collected daily from scores of receptacles across the park, lest they become a food source for grizzlies and other wildlife.
Arianna Knight, 29, of Bozeman, Mont., the wilderness trails supervisor for the Yellowstone District of the Custer Gallatin National Forest, was let go on Feb. 14 along with more than 30 other Custer Gallatin employees. Ms. Knight said she and two workers under her supervision typically cleared 4,000 downed trees and logs from hundreds of miles of trails each year, often hiking and using hand tools for a week at a time in wilderness areas, where federal law prohibits motorized vehicles and mechanized tools like chain saws.
Now those trails won’t be cleared, Ms. Knight said, adding, “People are going to suffer.”
Will there be search-and-rescue staffing?
Others worry about safety in the parks. According to a 2023 National Park Service study, the rate of heat-related illnesses and deaths in the parks may double in the coming years as temperatures rise because of climate change. In the summer of 2023, N.P.S. reported its highest number of heat-related illnesses, citing deaths at Big Bend National Park in Texas and at Death Valley National Park, where temperatures reached 129 degrees Fahrenheit. Last summer, triple-digit heat led to deaths in the Grand Canyon and at Canyonlands National Park in Utah.
“We don’t know exactly how many search-and-rescue personnel were laid off,” said Ms. Brengel, of the parks conservation association, “so maybe this isn’t the year to do a treacherous hike through a national park.”
When asked about how the Trump administration’s cuts will affect safety, an N.P.S. spokeswoman said, “The National Park Service is working closely with the Office of Personnel Management to ensure we are prioritizing fiscal responsibility for the American people. As always, N.P.S. will continue to provide critical services and deliver excellent customer service.”
While it may seem as if the cuts will mean fewer people trampling through the parks, allowing ecosystems to regenerate, some fear the opposite: that less oversight and control over huge crowds may damage the parks for seasons to come.
Adam Auerbach, 32, a former park ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park, said visitor numbers at the park has been climbing consistently for decades, to more than four million in 2023 from 2.6 million in 1990. The park has had to institute a timed-entry permit system to control the numbers.
With the new cuts, he said, “There will be fewer rangers on the ground to enforce regulations and fewer public educators to help the public even understand the regulations and the reasons for them in the first place.”
Evelynn Escobar, the founder and executive director of Hike Clerb, which aims to increase diversity among hikers, said in an Instagram post to her 38,000 followers that they should pitch in to prevent any possible harm.
“I need us to think, ‘what would a ranger do?’” she wrote. “If you see trash on the ground, pick it up and put it in the trash. You see wildlife on the trail, keep a safe distance and don’t interact with them. You see restoration areas marked ‘in progress,’ you’re going to stay off those lands.”
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