National Parks on ‘Chopping Block’ Amid Federal Job Cuts
The following is a report from the Los Angeles Times.
As the Trump administration rushes to cut spending and eliminate federal jobs, even the people who work at the national parks — among the country’s most beloved and least politicized institutions — find themselves directly in the crosshairs.
Last week, the seasonal workers who staff 433 national parks and historical sites, including Yosemite, Death Valley and Joshua Tree, began receiving emails saying their job offers for the 2025 season had been “rescinded,” with little further explanation.
The move set off panic in the ranks of park employees, and threw into limbo the vacation plans of hundreds of millions of people who visit the parks each year. On the chopping block are hundreds — and potentially thousands — of park rangers who respond to medical emergencies, as well as visitor center employees and the crews that clean bathrooms and empty garbage cans.
In many of the larger and most popular parks, seasonal workers outnumber year-round permanent employees, making it hard to imagine how the parks will function without them, according to one supervising ranger who asked that her name not be used for fear of retaliation.
“To me, it’s unfathomable that we would be able to run a large park without the seasonals,” she said. “They’re essential; they run the parks on an operational level.”
In 2021, Yosemite National Park had 741 employees working the summer season, compared with 451 in the winter off-season, according to the National Park Service website.
Scott Gediman, a spokesman for Yosemite, did not respond to emails and phone calls requesting comment. Media contacts at the agency’s Washington, D.C., office also did not respond.
In addition to 63 named parks — nine of which are in California, more than any other state — the National Park Service administers 370 other sites, including national monuments, national historic sites and national battlefields. The total land mass under its supervision is more than 85 million acres.
And they are among the most revered and beautiful acres in the United States, drawing more than 325 million visitors in 2023.