This summer may not be the best time for a family trip to our favorite national parks. There will likely be much longer lines, limited hours, and say goodbye to tour guides.
These issues will show their ugly heads due to an unfortunate circumstance of America’s national parks cutting 1,000 employees as part of an attempt to drastically cut the number of Federal Employees.
These cuts will be a thorn in the side of popular family trips for the nearly 350 million visitors to our national parks every summer. Summer just happens to be the busiest season for parks, no doubt taking from the fact that summer vacation happens to be a thing, clearing up prime bonding time with the kids.
National parks were previously already known to be short-handed, most parks having 20-25% fewer employees than recorded in 2010. Kristen Brengel, Senior VP of Government Affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association comments on the matter.
“There was no fat to trim. All the staff who were there were needed.”
Problems Shared
The issue spreads across all national parks, as Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument out of Teller County, Colorado posted on Facebook they would be closed Mondays and Tuesdays until further notice due to “a lack of staffing.”
Utah’s Zion National Park reportedly had some visitors waiting hours due to only one or two entry booth workers completing admissions. The problem doesn’t seem to be going away.
The Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, reportedly cut over 2,000 positions.
With the loss of these valued employees, the consequences start to pile up- visitor centers will be closed more, bathrooms will not be properly maintained, campgrounds will likely be closed, guided tours will be a thing of the past, even emergency response times will be in crisis. These issues say nothing of basic services such as safety advice, trail recommendations, or interpretations.
Upkeep, Cleanup, and Restoration
These firings reportedly will affect further facets of visitors’ experience at the over 400 US national parks.
The Corona-virus pandemic fever dream some of us are still waking up from might be more of a continuing nightmare example of the conditions these cut backs will show us.
Cutting staff could force parks to face “maintenance issues going into their busy season” states Brengel. “It might mean that the vehicles in the park don’t get fixed quickly enough. This could mean that a trail doesn’t get repaired fast enough. It could mean roads that have potholes or problems after a winter snow don’t get repaired as quickly”
Beth Pratt, the California Director for the National Wildlife Federation comments on what may come to pass, and it seems eerily familiar.
“Many parks were closed during the pandemic, and didn’t have the staff to manage people who were still visiting. People were cutting down Joshua trees, they were driving in sensitive meadows, trash, graffiti was everywhere.”
Parks require a lot of people to make sure people don’t use them inappropriately, she says. With the parks having such short staff, managers might again have to make changes such as closing specific campground or trails to the public, comments Pratt.
In a Facebook post released Valentine’s Day, Yosemite National Park has ceased the sale of reservations for five of its campgrounds from June 15th until July 14th.
Another Facebook post by Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeast Iowa announces they are cutting back on their visitor center’s public hours of operation, and will no longer be open at all Tuesdays or Wednesdays.
Carlsbad Caverns National Park in southern New Mexico has announced that it has cancelled all guided tours, and starting March 23rd, self-guided tours will be held starting an hour later than previously.
Fill-Ins Won’t Help
The National Park Service says it will hire upwards of 7,700 seasonal positions this year. That’s significantly more than the 6,000 or so usually hired each summer.
The problem is, the extra help is a poor substitute for those that have been cast aside.
Mostly all of the seasonal positions are entry-level. However, many of the fired employees were managers or other trained, experienced positions with more responsibility.
“You can’t really have the seasonals without the other full-time staff people who are helping to manage them and make sure they have the right instructions on what to do.” Said Brengel.
“We’re actually losing Park Service staff with institutional knowledge,” She continues, that the firings are “Indiscriminate.”
Bill Wade, Executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers, has a far more alarming predicament.
In southern Alaska, Wrangell St. Elias National Park & Preserve, the only pilot on staff has been fired. For a park which contains an astounding 14 million acres.
“Now how do they protect the wildlife and detect poaching activities? Or find somebody that’s overdue in the part or climbers in distress and so forth?” he asks.
Some Cry Over The Loss of a ‘Dream Job’
Wade comments that he has heard “Anger, disappointment, and rage” from fired employees. For a large number of them, working at NPS had been a “dream job” says Wade. Rangers usually come chasing a passion, rather than a paycheck.
“We used to say in the Park Service, you get paid in sunsets.” Wade added.
A former maintenance worker, Olek Chmura, remarks on his firing. “There were a lot of tears.” after being fired via email.
Some may not find his job the most appealing: He cleaned public toilets, picked up trash and cleaned trails. But to Olek, it was his passion, saying that he chose the work for his love of preserving America’s “Natural beauty.”
Hiding Behind Lies
Many of the fired employees received emails claiming they were let go due to “low performance”. Which strangely conflicted with their past high performance reviews.
Andria Townsend, a specialist on carnivore species with Yosemite National Park was fired while working overtime. She said she didn’t even have time to clean out her office or say good bye to colleagues.
“It made me really angry. I work really hard at my job, I have two degrees….and to be told that I’m not meeting the standards of my job – it’s a complete lie.” Townsend says.
The disrespectful and abrupt firings have caused a number of protests. One such protest occurred on February 22nd. Staffers hung an American Flag upside down on the side of El Capitan. That’s the famous rock climbing area in Yosemite National Park.
“The purpose of this exercise of free speech is to disrupt without violence and draw attention to the fact that public lands in the United States are under attack,” according to a public statement from demonstrators.
Dozens of protestors gathered the same day in Zion National Park protesting the cuts.
Wade hopes that the government will reverse the cuts and restore the fired employees. He also urges concerned citizens to speak up.
“It’s clear that the people of this country really love their national parks, and now it’s time for them to do something about it”
