The National Park Service is facing an uncertain future with the potential to lose hundreds of millions in funding as Congress debates the budget reconciliation bill to fund President Trump’s agenda.
Park rangers and members of the National Parks Conservation Association warn that staff shortages and cuts are already putting fragile ecosystems at risk, and hurting local economies.
“The administration is working in overdrive to essentially deceive the public into thinking that things are OK at our parks,” said Neal Desai, Pacific region director with the National Parks Conservation Association.
The impact of understaffing ripples well beyond park boundaries. The national park system supports more than 400,000 jobs in surrounding communities, largely in the hospitality and restaurant industries. In southern California, there’s a growing concern.
Susan Burnett, who owns the Mojave Sands Motel in Joshua Tree, California, said the uncertainty and lack of clear communication are already hurting her business.
“At any given time of the year, between 25 and 40% of my business is international travelers,” said Burnett, “I have had less than 10 international travelers this spring season, which is incredibly low. And I believe it’s a direct result of Trump in this administration and the things they’re saying to people from other countries.”
Polls consistently show Americans across the political spectrum rate the National Park Service as the most trusted federal agency. Despite accounting for less than 1% of the federal budget, the Park Service delivers significant economic returns. In 2023, visitor spending contributed more than $55 billion to the U.S. economy, according to a Department of Interior report.
“It’s tough to tell how anyone can see this as smart politics to mess around with our national parks,” said Desai, “they should actually be promoted as a model of efficiency. How much economic return they bring into our local communities and support jobs and economy.”
On the ground, those economic and ecological pressures are translating into threats to clean water and wildlife.
A park ranger in Joshua Tree, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation and the possibility of losing his job, said staff are being actively silenced.
“Under normal circumstances, it would be totally easy and allowed for me to talk to a journalist about how much I love this national park and how important it is to preserve it. Nowadays, we’re stifled, and we’re afraid to speak,” he said.
The ranger said many colleagues have been fired or accepted the government’s deferred resignation offer. The result, he said, is less morale for productivity.
“Try telling a park ranger who works and sweats all day that their job is low productivity. People that have worked for this park for 20, 25 years, they’re looking around and saying, ‘I’m going to go find another job.’ It’s because they’re so beaten down by this onslaught of attacks on the mission of the Park Service.”
NPR reached out to the National Park Service for an interview. In a written statement, the Office of Public Affairs said, “It’s not unusual or unique to this year for questions to come up about staffing or for the staffing needs to fluctuate. As in other years, we are working hard to make it another great year for visitors.”
But park staff warn that having fewer rangers on duty is more than a staffing issue, it’s a safety issue.
“This is the time of year when people die in the desert because people’s bodies aren’t adjusted and adjusted for that heat,” the ranger who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “we’re at risk of having those kinds of tragedies occur because there are fewer people out protecting you.” The statement from the Park Service urged visitors to plan ahead and directed people to an NPS link about how to prevent heat-related illnesses.
In addition to visitor safety, the ranger says that the protection of the park’s ecosystems is also being neglected — including the conservation efforts of biologists and archaeologists — potentially threatening ecosystems already vulnerable to climate change.
“You might visit a place that you visited 20 years ago and you might say, ‘Hey, this doesn’t look like what I remembered.’ And that might be because a wildfire burned through and we didn’t have staff on hand to stop that wildfire,” the ranger said.
The ranger added the government’s efforts to reshape the Park Service appear to ignore why people visit these places in the first place.
He said, “they don’t see the economic value, the cultural value, the biodiversity of these places are all the same thing. It’s all wrapped up in this one thing we call a national park that is such a huge part of what makes America beautiful.”
Transcript:
A MARTÍNEZ, BYLINE: The proposed reconciliation bill before the Senate includes deep cuts to the National Park Service. More than $260 million allocated for park staffing would be stripped from an agency already burdened by shortages. The bill also requires the sale of public lands and expanded oil and gas drilling leases. Now, as the Park Service enters its busiest season, staff shortages are putting fragile ecosystems at risk and hurting local economies. I recently visited Joshua Tree National Park and met some of the people most affected.
(SOUNDBITE OF VEHICLE PASSING)
MARTÍNEZ: Susan Burnett is the owner of the Mojave Sands Motel in the town of Joshua Tree, California, just minutes away from the entrance of the national park.
SUSAN BURNETT: Well, I’ll just show you the room. I like to use and reuse stuff, and that kind of is a part of desert living, right?
MARTÍNEZ: The motel’s five rooms look out onto a courtyard with desert landscaping and a fish pond that attracts dozens of bird species. She says all the local businesses rely on the park.
BURNETT: Everybody that comes to my motel goes to the park, even if they came here for something else, you know? So the park is everything to us.
MARTÍNEZ: Across the country, the park system supports more than 400,000 jobs in nearby communities, mostly in the hospitality and restaurant industry. Burnett worries that some local businesses will not make it through the summer. She says this year has been different.
BURNETT: I would say, at any given time of the year, between 25 and 40% of my business is international travelers. I have had less than 10 international travelers this spring season, which is incredibly low.
MARTÍNEZ: The Park Service was already understaffed when President Trump froze hiring across all federal agencies on his first day in office. The NPS then faced layoffs in February in a purge that also included other government departments. Following public outcry, the administration announced that it would lift the hiring freeze for thousands of seasonal workers, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order that all parks and services must remain open.
NEAL DESAI: The administration is working in overdrive to essentially deceive the public into thinking that things are OK at our parks.
MARTÍNEZ: Neal Desai is with the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates on behalf of the national parks.
DESAI: It’s just bizarre. It’s tough to tell how anyone can see this as smart politics to mess around with our national parks.
MARTÍNEZ: Polls show that Americans across the political spectrum rate the National Park Service as the government’s most trusted agency. It accounts for less than 1% of the federal budget, and in 2023, visitor spending contributed more than $55 billion to the U.S. economy, according to a report from the Department of the Interior. Desai says to downsize an agency that actually brings in revenue doesn’t make any sense.
DESAI: It should actually be promoted as a model of efficiency, how much economic return they bring into our local communities and support jobs and – right? – economy, right?
MARTÍNEZ: Park rangers are on the frontlines of this downsizing, and they’re under a lot of pressure.
(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)
MARTÍNEZ: About a mile up a dirt road on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park, I met a ranger who wanted to remain anonymous.
UNIDENTIFIED PARK RANGER: There’s a lot of fear and retribution of people losing their jobs without due process. Under normal circumstances, it would be totally easy and allowed for me to talk to a journalist about how much I love this national park and how important it is to preserve it. That is part of my job, and nowadays, we’re stifled and we’re afraid to speak.
MARTÍNEZ: We ducked under a barbed wire fence and walked toward huge piles of sandy colored boulders as he told us about the park.
UNIDENTIFIED PARK RANGER: And we are just walking up to the edge of the habitat where Joshua trees grow in the park. You might see jackrabbits or white-tailed or cottontail rabbits. You might see a desert tortoise. So really resourceful, special organisms out here that tend to find unusual ways to survive in the desert.
MARTÍNEZ: He says park staff is struggling to fill in for colleagues who have been fired or accepted the government’s deferred resignation offer.
UNIDENTIFIED PARK RANGER: Try telling a park ranger who works and sweats all day that their job is low productivity. But that being said, people that were resilient, that have worked for this park for 20, 25 years, they’re looking around and saying, I’m going to go find another job, because they are so beaten down by this onslaught of attacks on the mission of the Park Service.
MARTÍNEZ: The Park Service declined to be interviewed for this piece and wrote in a statement to NPR, quote, “it’s not unusual or unique to this year for questions to come up about staffing or for the staffing needs to fluctuate. As in other years, we are working hard to make it another great year for visitors.” Joshua Tree gets hundreds of thousands of visitors each summer. In a park the size of Rhode Island, being understaffed means a much longer response time if someone gets hurt or lost and fewer rangers to keep visitors safe in triple-digit heat.
UNIDENTIFIED PARK RANGER: This is the time of year when people die in the desert because people’s bodies aren’t adjusted for that heat, they’re not ready for it. And so we’re at risk of having those kinds of tragedies occur because there’s fewer people out protecting you.
MARTÍNEZ: A statement to NPR, the National Park Service wrote, travelers visiting national parks this summer should do their due diligence by planning for their trip and referred us to NPS resources for health, safety and emergency planning. The park ranger we spoke to says the work that visitors do not see is now being neglected, such as the conservation work of biologists and archaeologists who study and preserve what makes parks extraordinary. If this work isn’t prioritized, the damage to ecosystems could be irreversible.
UNIDENTIFIED PARK RANGER: You might visit a place that you visited 20 years ago, and you might say, hey, this doesn’t look like what I remembered.
MARTÍNEZ: He says the government is shortsighted in its efforts to remake the Park Service.
UNIDENTIFIED PARK RANGER: They don’t understand that the reason people come to Joshua Tree National Park is to see Joshua trees. They don’t understand that the reason people come to Sequoia National Park is to see sequoias and Glacier National Park to see the glaciers. They don’t see the economic value, the cultural value, the biodiversity of these places is all the same thing. It’s all wrapped up in this one thing we call a national park that is such a huge part of what makes America beautiful.
MARTÍNEZ: He says he still sees a possibility to make a better world and a better Park Service, and that he is speaking out and risking his job for that future.
(SOUNDBITE OF U2 SONG, “WHERE THE STREETS HAVE NO NAME”)
