U.S. senators issue dire warning for national parks
By Ashley Harrell,
National Parks Bureau Chief
Feb 7, 2025
Twenty-two democratic and independent U.S. senators sent a letter Friday morning to newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum imploring him to reconsider drastic measures taken by the Trump administration to reduce the workforce of the National Park Service, warning that the deep staffing cuts could force some national parks to close.
The letter comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 federal hiring freeze, which saw more than 2,000 job offers to seasonal Park Service employees rescinded. The administration has also offered early retirement and resignation options to millions of federal employees, including all of those who work for the park service.
“If a significant number of National Park Service employees take one of the offers – or further terminations are made – park staffing will be in chaos,” the senators wrote in the letter. “Not only does this threaten the full suite of visitor services, but could close entire parks altogether.”
The letter was provided to SFGATE by Don Neubacher, a former Yosemite superintendent and member of the executive council of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.
The senators urged Burgum to “immediately reissue seasonal employment offers” and rescind the “damaging and short-sighted” early retirement offers. The rescinded job offers have included thousands of interpretative rangers, law enforcement rangers, visitor center employees and maintenance workers.
Around 1,900 Park Service employees have already resigned, according to Neubacher. “That’s a little less than 10% of the park’s workforce,” Neubacher told SFGATE. “That’s a lot of people.”
To prepare for the rush of summertime visitors, the park service regularly hires more than 6,000 seasonal employees, the senators wrote in their letter. “Without seasonal staff during this peak season, visitor centers may close, bathrooms will be filthy, campgrounds may close, guided tours will be cut back or altogether cancelled, emergency response times will drop, and visitor services like safety advice, trail recommendations, and interpretation will be unavailable,” they wrote.
Critics have already accused the Trump administration of breaking the law by making the deep cuts, including arguing that Trump does not have the authority to offer buyouts to all federal employees. A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Trump from implementing the buyouts, which are part of Elon Musk’s takeover of government spending.
The hiring freeze may also have been incorrectly applied to Park Service seasonal staff, as the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources agency, said Jan. 20 that the “seasonal employees and short-term temporary employees necessary to meet traditionally recurring seasonal workloads” were exempt from the hiring freeze.
Even before the hiring freeze and resignations, the Park Service has been operating at low staffing levels despite increases in visitation. Since 2010, staffing is down 20% while visitation has increased by 16%, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.
“Listen, there are places to improve in government, there are places to improve in business. No system is immune from that. But our national parks, which are as underfunded as they are, are you kidding me?” said Beth Pratt, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation. “The American people love our national parks and they love park rangers. Why are we treating them this way?” Should parks close, the gateway communities that surround them would suffer grave economic losses.
“In 2023, an estimated 325 million park visitors spent an estimated $26.4 billion in local gateway regions, supporting an estimated 415,000 jobs and $55.6 billion in total economic output in the national economy,” the senators’ letter stated.
“Americans showing up to national parks this summer and for years to come don’t deserve to have their vacations ruined by a completely preventable – and completely irresponsible – staffing shortage. And local economies don’t deserve to have their livelihoods destroyed for political gain.”
The U.S. senators who signed the letter are Sens. Jeff Merkley, Angus King, Patty Murray, Martin Heinrich, Jon Ossof, John Fetterman, Mark Warner, Jack Reed, Ron Wyden, Jeanne Shaheen, Bernie Sanders, Richard Durbin, Richard Blumenthal, Kirsten Gillibrand, Edward Markey, Chris Van Hollen, Mazie Hirono, Cory Booker, Tim Kaine, Alex Padilla, Maria Cantwell and John Hickenlooper.