“There is nothing so American as our national parks….The fundamental idea behind the parks…is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in the process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us.”
This quote from Teddy Roosevelt perfectly captures the purpose of our national parks and monuments. Sadly, there will be thousands fewer rangers to support the record-setting number of people expected at America’s 433 national parks this year.
On Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, with no additional notice, about 1,000 park rangers were informed of their immediate termination. They were only given a few minutes to vacate their place of work, according to several employees.
Hundreds more park rangers have since taken the buy-out option.
The Trump administration had also planned to eliminate thousands of seasonal park employees, but public pressure and warnings that many national parks might be too short-staffed to safely operate prompted the Trump administration to back off this plan.
Even with this small win for our parks, they are far from a secure future, especially knowing Trump’s intentions.
While the Trump administration has advertised their mass firings and department prunings as enhancing “government efficiency,” their haphazard, erratic actions have caused the structure of our park service to crumble, with losses in money, ecosystems and livelihoods.
The economic footprint of the National Parks Service (NPS) is massive, generating about $55.6 billion in total economic output. This is almost double the economic footprint of American football ($27.94 billion). Many restaurants, resorts, hotels, grocery stores and hospitality services are all dependent on people visiting national parks. Losing this in the name of saving a mere $250 million in NPS wages doesn’t add up.
Kevin Koch, AP Environmental Science teacher, said the increased shortage of work staff is going to increase the amount of park closures.
“We’ve already seen reports that Rocky Mountain National Park will be closed during the summer,” Koch said. “Hot Springs National Park has to close down their visitor center two days out of the week.”
Koch said visitor centers and even campgrounds will continue to close due to limited staff. There’s fears that entrance fees will be increasing to as much as $75 at some parks to deter large numbers of visitors.
Parks also have seen more trash, pollutants and vandalism due to the increase in visitors since COVID, which is a huge concern with the reduction of staff and funding to the parks.
“It’s not just the park rangers and the seasonal employees, it’s also your firefighters that battle the wildfires,” Koch said.
The elimination of funding, including that for research, has only added to the disarray, Koch said.
“There are several scientists that I know personally in several of the parks that have lost funding,” Koch said. “Now they lack the funding as well as manpower to continue their studies.”
“Move fast and break things” has been the policy of President Trump and unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) director Elon Musk during the mass layoffs occurring throughout the federal government, and I completely agree with their assessment.
The cuts are haphazard and have given park service management no time to prepare. For example, the only locksmith working in Yosemite was let go, leaving bathrooms inaccessible and visitors in disarray, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Nearly 75% of Americans approve of the park service, so let’s continue to show our government what we believe before our national treasures, millions of years in the making, are gone forever.
As American author Edward Abbey once said, “The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs defenders.”
