MEMO
To: Interested Parties
Fr: Emily Thompson, Coalition To Protect America’s National Parks
Re: Even more dangerous summer season for our national parks
Dt: May 2026
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As the National Park Service enters the summer high season, hardworking national park staff are dealing with more shortages than ever before, putting our parks in danger, those who steward them under additional duress, and jeopardizing the visitor experience.
Last summer, national parks welcomed over 100 million visitors from June through August. Due to Order 3426 requiring that parks remain open and accessible, staff were forced to neglect crucial responsibilities like scientific monitoring and long-term repair work in order to maintain a facade of normalcy for visitors. This summer, they’ll have even fewer staff and resources, while also having to manage additional work for the Administration’s Freedom 250 plans.
Seasonal hiring lagging. This year, many parks across the system are delayed in hiring and onboarding the crucial seasonal workers needed to manage the busy summer season, including the collection of park entrance fees that are so critical to park operations. Last year, the Department of the Interior pledged to hire extra workers after permanent staff were cut, but only managed to bring on approximately 5,150 workers, compared to its goal of 7,700. According to some reporting, they’re already lagging behind 2025 and at least 14% behind this time in 2024. Delays are only expected to increase as Interior now has 18% fewer HR staff, with more than 100 lost just last month. This, on top of the fact that fewer qualified summer hires are available after lingering uncertainty and frustration with the situation.
Freedom 250 requires additional staff time and resources. While the Administration has committed to activating “over $435 million to preserve and restore America’s most historic places” over the next five years, it’s unclear that any of this will support the ongoing operations of national parks—and may in fact go to the opposite, erasing crucial historical information. What we do know is: Numerous events at different parks over the course of the year are a further drain on staff who are already stretched to the brink, with 30 parks already sending staff to support 250 events in Washington, D.C. Leave is being denied so employees can staff other locations for all of the celebrations while parks attempt to keep their own operations up and running Over the course of the three peak summer months, the National Park Service is responsible for more than 40 new events on the Freedom 250 website. Work like this Chef’s Table series planned with Netflix will make further demands on staff, pulling them away from their most important work.
Permanent staffing remains low. In 2025, the National Park Service lost at least 25% of its staff—after already being shorthanded amidst record-breaking visitorship. This year, the situation continues. Though the hiring freeze has been lifted, the Administration continues to make it difficult to hire any new positions. In fact, guidance requires that the Department of the Interior will hire, “no more than one employee for every four employees that depart.” To make matters worse, the Department of the Interior offered an additional deferred resignation program earlier this year, while still continuing to neglect hiring National Park Service staff that are crucial to the mission of preservation.
Back of house operations suffer the most. In line with Order 3426, staff must prioritize front-facing services at the expense of the ultimate mission of the National Park Service: to protect America’s most special places for generations to come. With cuts to resource management and other critical divisions, the agency is losing the ability to monitor endangered species, track the impacts of climate change, or coordinate public access permits for fragile ecosystems. Without this stewardship, our parks will not continue to be the natural havens they have been for so long. So too is work that ultimately serves visitors—like planners managing peak visitation times and repair work—put off. It will all soon reach a boiling point, at which time no amount of visitor prioritization will be able to hide the real damage done.
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About the Coalition
The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization made up of over 5,000 members, all of whom are current, former, and retired employees or volunteers of the National Park Service (NPS). Together, they have accumulated over 50,000 years of experience caring for America’s most valuable natural and cultural resources. Our members include former NPS directors, deputy and regional directors, superintendents, park rangers (both law enforcement and interpretive), maintenance and administrative professionals, and many other dedicated career professionals.
For more information, please contact Sam Nurick at sa*@***************es.com.