UPDATE | National Park Superintendents Ordered To Cap Employee Evaluations
By Kurt Repanshek
December 12, 2025
Editor’s note: This is updates with additional details from NPS employees and Interior Department response.
Top National Park Service officials, in an apparent violation of federal law, have directed park superintendents to reduce evaluation scores for employees, including themselves.
Frank Lands, the agency’s deputy director for operations, issued that directive Thursday during a series of calls with superintendents around the country, the National Parks Traveler was told.
Interior Department officials disputed the details shared with the Traveler.
“There is no percentage cap on (employee) ratings. Consistent with (the Office of Personnel Management)’s government-wide performance management guidance, we are working to normalize ratings across the agency,” Interior’s press office told the Traveler. “The goal of this effort is to ensure fair, consistent performance evaluations across all of our parks and programs.”
Those familiar with the call said it was another strike against employee morale.
“It’s insulting to tell people who work their asses off, many of whom are doing multiple jobs to keep their parks operating, that they are not worth fair evaluations, and by implications, won’t even be considered for annual performance awards,” a retired superintendent familiar with Lands’ call said.
Under 5 CFR 430.208, “[A] rating of record shall be based only on the evaluation of actual job performance for the designated appraisal period.”
“The method for deriving and assigning a summary level may not limit or require the use of particular summary levels (i.e., establish a forced distribution of summary levels),” the law adds.
According to information provided by a Park Service employee, “[S]upervisors were instructed (not in writing of course) to limit the number of staff who are allowed to receive ratings higher than a 3. Once the (employee evaluations) are rated, they are sent to region for approval. If they don’t approve or there are too many 4/5, it gets kicked back to parks and changed to 3s.”
“It is also rumored that regional directors’ jobs are under threat if they don’t force compliance,” the employee added in an email.
According to the employee, no more than 5 percent of a park’s workforce could be rated as “outstanding,” while 25 percent could be rated as having exceeded expectations, with the rest receiving a level 3 rating, or “fully successful.”
Superintendents on the call with Lands were critical of his directive, the Traveler was told.
“Most supers are putting language in the evaluations they give out saying this is not a true reflection of performance, and they are giving the mandated level 3 under duress,” said the retired superintendent.
At the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, Executive Director Emily Thompson said that, “park superintendents are under an immense amount of pressure to meet arbitrary ratings as they appraise their employees’ performance. Superintendents are being directed to rate nearly all employees, regardless of their accomplishments, at no higher than a 3 — which has traditionally been viewed as a barely passing, “C” grade.”
“When superintendents have pushed back against these arbitrary target levels, they’ve been threatened with insubordination charges and job loss,” she added. “NPS employees — from superintendents down — have done incredible work in a difficult year and deserve better than an artificial rating that doesn’t reflect their accomplishments. Not only is this a further hit on employee morale, it has financial ramifications and could impact job security and future promotions.
“The guidance being handed down to superintendents is ethically and legally questionable, and completely unacceptable,” added Thompson.
Documents shared with the Traveler included internal NPS emails that stated Lands’ directive to cap “outstanding” ratings at no more than 1-5 percent of a park’s workforce. In addition, all evaluations completed prior to Thursday needed to be returned for review.
One park superintendent directed their staff to rate all employees no higher than level 3.
Many, if not most, Park Service employees have been under tremendous pressure since President Donald Trump began his second term in January. They’ve had to deal with a hold on seasonal employee hiring, been asked and encouraged to retire, and constantly been under fear of being fired.