MEMO
To: Interested Parties
Fr: Emily Thompson, Coalition To Protect America’s National Parks
Re: One year after the Valentine’s Day firings, what we’re seeing at National Parks
Dt: February 2026
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One year after the Valentine’s Day firings that gutted the National Park Service, our national parks remain on a perilous path and in a state of crisis. While some of the dangers to our parks are visible to the public, much of it is happening behind the scenes.
And while the latest government funding bill fended off an attempt by the Administration to make the largest budget cut ever to the National Parks Service and their plan to shutter at least 350 national parks sites across the country, our parks, and the tens of millions of people who visit them every year, are not in the clear.
Some of the threats facing parks:
The National Park Service workforce had been gutted. Since January 2025, the NPS has lost nearly 25% of its staff. While the November spending deal passed by Congress paused planned RIFs, the current spending deal provides no such protections for the workforce and the Administration is continuing to threaten upcoming RIFs within the NPS.
Staffing and budgeting shortages are harming parks and endangering visitors. Our national parks have been pushed to the brink by draconian budget cuts and staff reductions, leaving parks and the people who steward them on an unsustainable and dangerous path. Last summer, a New York Times report found that at least 90 parks were facing serious strain in an effort to comply with the Secretarial Order that parks remain open and accessible to the public, despite huge cuts to NPS staff.
Leaving parks open with minimal or no staffing, as the administration chose to do during the fall government shutdown, exacerbated those existing issues from neglected maintenance to limited safety services. During the shutdown, we saw illegal BASE jumpers at Yosemite, a wildfire that began near an unstaffed campground at Joshua Tree, a stone wall damaged at Gettysburg, and vandalism at Arches.
Erasing history and science from national parks. Recently, the Administration removed a slavery exhibit at Independence Park in Philadelphia and signage acknowledging climate change at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. They also removed signage acknowledging climate change at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. And have removed a reference to historical events like slavery, Japanese camps and conflicts with Native Americans at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York City. In addition, interpretive signs addressing climate change were removed at Acadia National Park in Maine and the word ‘transgender’ on Stonewall’s website. National parks have a sacred mandate: to preserve and interpret the full breadth of the American experience, the good and the bad. Erasing history doesn’t make it go away, it just makes it more likely to repeat itself. And harkens back to some very dark and dangerous times in world history.
The potential of misuse of funds and politicization of America250. Congress authorized and funded America250 as the official, bipartisan vehicle for commemorating the nation’s 250th anniversary. That authorization established specific structures, safeguards, and lines of accountability intended to ensure lawful use of public funds and meaningful congressional oversight. But the Administration has set up a parallel entity Freedom250 with a far more partisan agenda and diverted over $100 million in taxpayer money from the Department of Interior to the private entity with little or no oversight from Congress.
Attempts to open more public lands and parks to mining and other commercial purposes. In January the House passed legislation that would open the Boundary Waters and Voyageur National Park in Minnesota, one of the most visited wilderness in the country, to Copper mining. A move that poses an unacceptable risk to clean water, treaty rights, surrounding communities, and future generations. And are threatening to do the same at Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In addition, some Senate Republicans continue to push legislation to sell off massive swaths of public lands to the highest bidder.
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About the Coalition
The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization made up of over 4,900 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.