Every month, more than 100,000 visitors flock to Yosemite National Park. From May through August, anywhere from 224,000 to 600,000 people visit the per month.
That’s just one of the nation’s more than 400 national parks, visited by upwards of 325 million people last year. As we head into the busy season for many parks, including Yosemite and Yellowstone, the National Park Service is facing heavy cuts.
These cuts are part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to cut government spending, particularly with the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed by multibillionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. According to a Sunday report from NBC News, the Trump administration fired around 2,000 recently hired employees at the U.S. Forest Service and slashed an additional 1,000 jobs at the National Park Service. CBS News estimated the U.S. Forest Service firings at 3,000.
By Feb. 21, the Associated Press reported that the Trump administration was restoring jobs for dozens of National Park Service employees, “following an uproar over an aggressive plan to downsize the agency.”
Last week, a judge ruled that the termination of probationary employees was illegal, and the Office of Special Counsel/Merit Systems Protection Board found the same. However, the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks explained in a Tuesday press release that “these decisions did not include a requirement to reinstate those fired and the decision to do that is apparently [left] up to the agencies.”
Over the weekend, 433 protests organized by the Resistance Rangers group were held at parks from coast to coast to oppose the recent firings. According to CBS News, hundreds of people showed up to one of the protests gathered at Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday. Outsider published a rundown of the most eye-catching signs seen at the demonstrations.
In a letter to Acting National Park Services Director Jessica Bowron, the coalition said: “We appeal to you, in the strongest terms, to initiate actions to reinstate all of those employees who were the victims of the illegal firing. Not only would this be the fair thing to do for the employees themselves, but it would eliminate the impacts to park visitors and NPS programs that would result from these firings. It would also help restore public confidence in the NPS’s responsibilities to properly manage and care for the national park system.”
“Without our park rangers, our national parks – and the ability of Americans to safely visit them – are at risk,” said Phil Francis, chair of the Executive Council of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, in a statement last week.
Axios reported Tuesday that the parks that seem to have been most impacted by the cuts include Florida’s Everglades National Park (15 workers fired), Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park (15) and New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park (14). It cited a list compiled by a park ranger of more than 750 U.S. national park workers who have been fired.
Outside reported last Friday that a non-profit group called the Association of National Park Rangers (ANPR) shared crowdsourced information about how many layoffs have occurred at each park, compiled by a seasonal ranger who asked to remain anonymous. At the time of the report, the list covered 759 firings and Outside published this list:
Acadia National Park: 8
Arches National Park: 3
Badlands National Park: 1
Big Bend National Park: 5
Biscayne National Park: 3
Blue Ridge Parkway: 1
Bryce Canyon National Park: 2
Capitol Reef National Park: 1
Carlsbad Caverns National Park: 14
Channel Islands National Park: 6
Congaree National Park: 1
Crater Lake National Park: 1
Cuyahoga Valley National Park: 4
Death Valley National Park: 6
Denali National Park and Reserve: 4
Dry Tortugas National Park: 1
Everglades National Park: 15
Glacier National Park: 2
Grand Canyon National Park: 10
Grand Teton National Park: 4
Great Basin National Park: 5
Great Sand Dunes: 2
Great Smoky Mountains National Park: 12
Haleakala National Park: 7
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park: 7
Isle Royale National Park: 1
Joshua Tree National Park: 6
Kenai Fjords National Park: 1
Lassen Volcanic National Park: 1
Mammoth Cave National Park: 15
Mesa Verde National Park: 2
Mount Rainier National Park: 10
National Capital Parks-East: 6
American Samoa: 5
North Cascades National Park: 6
Olympic National Park: 5
Petrified Forest National Park: 5
Pinnacles National Park: 2
Redwood National Park: 6
Rocky Mountain National Park: 12
Saguaro National Park: 2
Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park: 10
Shenandoah National Park: 15
Theodore Roosevelt National Park: 2
Virgin Islands National Park: 2
Wrangell-St Elias: 1
Yellowstone National Park: 7
Yosemite National Park: 9
Zion National Park: 11
“Affected national park and forest employees told NBC News that fewer workers will lead to longer lines, filthy bathrooms and unsafe hiking and camping conditions,” at the parks this summer, said the outlet.