National Parks cutting hours, limiting services as Trump layoffs reduce staffing
Category: News & Politics
Via: robert-in-ohio • 3 days ago • 36 commentsBy: Trevor Hughes USA TODAY
I am retired and enjoy traveling to national and state parks in the midwest mostly but around the country.
It seems more real when the craziness in Washington affects things that affect my life.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
National Parks across the country are cutting hours, cancelling cave tours, closing visitor centers and warning of other cutbacks following Trump administration cuts to the federal workforce.
Park advocates and fired employees have been predicting those impacts for weeks, but a string of social media posts from park managers made after the Feb. 14 cuts appear to be the first formal acknowledgements. A Facebook post from the tiny Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado announcing service cuts drew more than 10,000 comments.
"I think it's going to be a very rough spring," said Cassidy Jones, a former park service ranger who now works for the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association.
Among other parks, Saguaro National Park in Tucson announced that it was closing its two visitors centers on Mondays starting Feb. 24. At Yosemite National Park, officials announced they're halting reservations for 577 coveted camping spots this summer. Effigy Mounds in Iowa said it's closing its visitor center two days a week until the summer.
Online calendars for reservable tours in some parks show zero availability, a casualty of losing the rangers who led them. Carlsbad Caverns National Park has cancelled its guided tours, and announced that in March it will be ending self-guided tours.
Visitors to other parks are also noting staffing problems, including at Grand Canyon National Park, where terminations cut deeply into the employees who staff the entrance stations, leading to long lines last weekend.
Trump announced the cuts last Friday in what's been dubbed the Valentine's Day Massacre. In addition to the cuts by the Department of the Interior, led by Secretary Doug Burgum, similar cuts were made within the Department of Agriculture, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service and thousands of wildland firefighters and forest rangers.
Roughly 1,000 National Park Service employees were laid off in that round. And while park employees and advocates say parks were already understaffed, the Trump administration officials said the reductions make good on the president's promise to reduce the size of government and ensure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.
Advocates say the cuts will hurt the park's users: the American public.
"I don't know whether we’ll see overflowing latrines, polluted streams, or deadly wildfires first, but Doug Burgum is already leaving a path of destruction across America’s parks and public lands," said Aaron Weiss, the deputy director of the public lands advocacy group Center for Western Priorities. "These terminations are foolish, heartless, and do nothing to make the government more efficient.
Jones, the former park ranger, said the cuts have injected uncertainty at a time of year when parks are developing school field trip programs, conducting community outreach and preparing for the spring and summer travel season.
July is typically the busiest month for Park Service sites, and thousands of seasonal employees are typically hired to cope with the influx of visitors. She said park rangers are going to be pulled from interpretive duties to help manage traffic and keep other basic park services running.
The park service maintains and manages more than 400 natural, cultural, and recreational sites, along with about 26,000 historic structures. More than 325 million people visited National Park sites in 2023, the latest year for which statistics are available.
Ashley Korenblat, who runs Western Spirit Cycling in Moab, Utah, said she wonders how many of the people she works with regularly have been let go. Moab is home to Arches and Canyonlands national parks, and depends heavily on their reputations to attract tourists, especially internationally.
"Luckily it's not high season yet, so we have a minute," she said. "But there's the issue of the perception of the problem: If people think there's a problem, they may cancel their trip even if the problem isn't actually all that bad."
Korenblat said a group of Canadian riders just cancelled their upcoming trip over concerns about cuts and Trump's tariff war with Canada, costing her a $10,000 booking.
A 2023 National Park Service report said parks in southeast Utah that year drew 2.4 million visitors, directly supported 5,122 jobs and had a cumulative economic impact of more than $486 million.
"We've spent millions and millions and millions of dollars marketing America's National Parks to the world and now we're just throwing away that money," she said. "Are we making these cuts to low-paying jobs so we can give a bigger tax break to the rich? Is that the plan?"
Discuss the issue while remaining civil with each other
Keep the discussion focused on the national parks and what the cuts will do to the national parks
And follow the NT rules for sure
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The park service maintains and manages more than 400 natural, cultural, and recreational sites, along with about 26,000 historic structures. More than 325 million people visited National Park sites in 2023, the latest year for which statistics are available.
"Luckily it's not high season yet, so we have a minute," she said. "But there's the issue of the perception of the problem: If people think there's a problem, they may cancel their trip even if the problem isn't actually all that bad."
The above are excerpts from the article.
I feel bad for the folks losing their jobs, I feel sad that the memorials and national parks will not be taken care of as they should be, I am concerned about the loss of local revenue to mom and pop businesses adjacent to these national parks and memorials.
And I feel bad that I may not get to see as many of the parks and memorials as I had planned to in retirement.
This is the kicker
Spent wisely? Is the government aware of which jobs are being cut? I think that it is, instead of a careful pruning of excess, Elon's Magic Chainsaw and brush-hog used indiscriminately and without regard to what the ripple effects will be on local economies.
Stupidity in the service of a idiot.
I agree but I do not think it is stupidity on the part of Musk; more like indifference.
Thomas
I agree using a chainsaw when a scalpel is the tool needed
T G
The buck stops with TRUMP, he is solely responsible for the actions of the idiots that he has put in place in Washington
Sorry. I was referring to the actions, not the actor. But, I think that the actor is pretty much stupid, too, because all of these people who he is laying off will ripple out into the economy.
I do not think Musk cares about the ripple effect into the economy.
And that is why I think he is stupid. He may be a smart investor and entrepreneur, but as a normal human being he is just an idiot.
Okay, maybe 'asshole' fits the bill.
That too. He lacks basic decency and compassion.
The bottom line for me (from the article)
"I don't know whether we’ll see overflowing latrines, polluted streams, or deadly wildfires first, but Doug Burgum is already leaving a path of destruction across America’s parks and public lands," said Aaron Weiss, the deputy director of the public lands advocacy group Center for Western Priorities. "These terminations are foolish, heartless, and do nothing to make the government more efficient.
One if my family members is the USDA Agricultural Entomologist for about twenty rural counties in Oklahoma. Every year the problems faced by Farmers from insects are different. She has until tomorrow morning to submit five bullet points describing her accomplishments LAST WEEK that justify keeping her job. Thank You DOGE?
Not exactly National Parks and memorials but thanks for the input
This helps clear the way for more Trump branded hotels.
Can you explain the bridge between reducing the work force in national parks and Trump Hotels?
I couldn’t have predicted half the shit the comes out of the Trump brain. As they say, you can’t make this shit up. Generally speaking, if what he does is mysterious then it is most likely is connected to personal enrichment.
We are running 1.9 trillion dollar deficit because nothing can ever be cut and no one can ever be inconvenienced
These stories are so predictable.
It is near certainty that there is plenty of waste in the government. Taking away staff that causes reduction in services is not cutting waste, it is simply cutting costs. National park administration and maintenance is not waste.
T G
Excellent point.
Cutting the service in national parks and firing park rangers and maintenance personnel is smaller than a hair follicle on an elephant's ass - the elephant's ass in this case being the misguided DOGE efforts
And that's why we owe 37 trillion. All cuts are too small, and no one can stomach the thought of inconvenience to themselves and what they want. Just keep borrowing and put your head in the ground and make future generations pay for your convenience.
The point is that not every cut is good; that there is plenty of waste in government that should be addressed first before cutting services or service levels in areas such as national parks whose normal operations are not fraud or waste.
Surely you are aware of 'pork-barrel' spending. Maybe start there to identify wasteful, fraudulent, or improper spending.
How many millions will we cut out if we eliminate all secret service protection and transportation for Trump's weekend golf jaunts, trips to NASCAR races, security at the Super Bowl - and all the other meaningless public spec tacles that he creates to try and stay in the spotlight.
How many millions would we save if all that meaningless shit stopped?
I’ve argued for years that we spend too much money protecting governmnet officials.
Meaningless? There is nothing wrong with showing support for the electorate and their interests.
If he wants to go to a ball game let it be on his dime including air force one and all the trimmings and any expenses incurred by the local municipality to deal with chaos caused by his visit
no.
The answer I expected from you -
There is nothing wrong with showing support for the electorate and their interests
Yeah by firing thousands of them, limiting the functioning of national parks and hamstringing federal agencies from serving the public interest
You interests like those?
"Are we making these cuts to low-paying jobs so we can give a bigger tax break to the rich? Is that the plan?"
The go to bitch and whine that attempts to awfulize anything that the Republicans do to cut costs and eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse. It invalidates the whole article. I doubt that any essential staff will be let go.
And of course you can define 'essential' any way you want so your comment is meaningless.
For example, national parks are not essential other than select parks which provide services such as protecting resources which provide water to locals and mitigating wildfires. Thus we could shut down all tourism / usage services in every national park, fire all the associated staff, and no 'essential' staff will be let go.
That one hundred thousand employees work for the United States Department of Agriculture might sound excessive until you consider that US agriculture produced five hundred sixty nine billion dollars worth of raw agricultural commodities last year. Who needs and depends on Water Recourse Agents, Agronomists, Entomologists, Livestock Specialists, Soil Conservation and Farm Finance Agents working across rural America the most ?
The Private Sector...
Or "Everybody"
The National Parks and Memorials are a part of the Dept of the Interior rather than the Dept of Agriculture
I specifically said Department Of Agriculture. All federal are on notice and employees from all federal departments are being unceremoniously fired. It is not just Department of the Interior!
I understand, I was merely pointing out that this discussion was about the National Parks.
I agree that the same problems and injustices are happening in many agencies.