There’s more to the story though: In addition to the firings, 5,000 seasonal park positions, which had initially been subject to the federal hiring freeze initiated on January 20, have reportedly been reinstated. Unfortunately, the hiring process is now far behind schedule with a lack in staff supervisors to train them, experts say.
No official statement on the staffing cuts has been released by the NPS, which is managed by the US Department of the Interior. The agency did not return requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the US Forest Service, justified their terminations in an email to Condé Nast Traveler, outlining budgetary constraints and stating that the department’s head “fully supports the President’s directive to improve government, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA’s many services to the American people.”
Phil Francis, a former National Park Service official and current chair of the nonprofit Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, warns that the decision was “shortsighted,” and questioned the validity of any economic gains to be made from job cuts, particularly given the parks’ importance as “economic generators for those communities that surround the parks.” National parks added some $56 billion to the US economy in 2023, inclusive of output like spending at lodging and restaurants near national parks.
Instead, park experts like Francis say the move is demoralizing an already understaffed and underfunded parks workforce. According to the NPCA, national park staffing is down 20% since 2010, while visitation for the same period is up about 16%.
“It’s pretty depressing” for park workers today, Francis says. He recounted that in the heyday of his own national parks career, “we looked forward to coming to work. We didn’t want to go home necessarily at the end of the day,” and cited the rewarding natural setting, camaraderie, and public service appeal. But, he says, “that’s been pretty much destroyed because of scaring the employees . . . they never know if they might be fired.”
The expertise that’s being lost is not easy to replace. “This was a real brain drain for the park service,” Brengel adds.
“It’s just a very stressful time for everybody there,” Dhue says of her colleagues at Palo Alto, who can’t help but wonder if they’re next. For now, Dhue is left grappling with her next moves.“I would love my job back,” she says. “I believe in public lands for so many different reasons. We have to be caretakers of our land.”
Francis advises that park-goers should be mindful when visiting this year. The workers who remain “really care about serving the American public and protecting the parks.” He adds, “You might say ‘thank you’ to those folks.”
