With the Trump administration continuing to steamroll through the federal government with cuts and department closures, the government agency overseeing the country’s 63 national parks is not immune to the chaos.
Since Jan. 20, over 400 offers for seasonal roles during the busy summer period have been rescinded, and the threat of cuts for all roles unrelated to emergency response or law enforcement also hangs heavy.
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Yosemite is one of the most visited national parks and like other locations it is facing some uncertainties with staffing for the upcoming busy season.Â
The reverberations of gutting all but ‘most critical staffing needs’ are already being felt
In a statement to the media, the National Park Service (NPS) said that it is “assessing our most critical staffing needs for park operations for the coming season and is working to hire key positions.”
Understaffing was a consistent problem even before the current administration, and visitors to Central California’s Yosemite have already reported seeing the effects of further job cuts. Many spoke about seeing mounds of garbage left behind at popular viewpoints, while tour operators said it is difficult to plan when certain parts of the NPS website for making summer reservations have been scrapped. (Yosemite earlier reported that it is waiting for further guidance on whether to bring back its vehicle reservation system for the coming year.)
Related: Some national park positions may be exempt from Trump hiring freeze: report
“This is honestly terrifying,” Elisabeth Barton, who runs the Echo Adventure Cooperative company offering Yosemite mountain hike tours, told local outlet SFGate. “We’re deeply concerned about the long-term health of Yosemite National Park under the current administration.”
A Democratic Senator from Hawaii, Mazie Hirono has also been raising awareness of the problem of understaffing at national parks in the state, such as Haleakala and Hawai’i Volcanoes.
‘Bathrooms may be filthy, campgrounds may close, guided tours will be cut back or altogether canceled’
While seeing lower visitor numbers, national parks in remote parts of the country see a higher risk of emergency situations where help cannot arrive in time.
“Without seasonal staff during this peak season, visitor centers may close, bathrooms will be filthy, campgrounds may close, guided tours will be cut back or altogether canceled, emergency response times will drop, and visitor services like safety advice, trail recommendations, and interpretation will be unavailable,” the letter that 17 Democratic and Independent lawmakers sent to newly confirmed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reads.
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Bill Wade, who heads the Association of National Park Rangers and has worked as a ranger at Virginia’s Shenandoah for over a decade, also said that even more drastic understaffing would lead to a slower response in the case of accidents in remote and dangerous terrain. While the hiring freeze expires in April, many positions that have been rescinded were already supposed to begin training for the summer period.
“I think what visitors would see, for example, would be delayed, or in some cases a lack of, effective response to things like automobile accidents to search and rescue incidents in parks,” Wade described to news outlet McClatchy. “I think certainly visitor services at visitor centers and the ranger-led programs would be reduced, or in some cases, even completely curtailed.”
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