What government layoffs in US national parks mean on your next trip
National Parks Service reported 331.9 million visits in 2024. However, the White House could cut jobs and impact travelers.
A new budget proposal from President Donald Trump will cut the country’s national parks, monuments, historic sites, coasts and road budgets by almost 25%, handing over many of them to the state.
The proposal suggests it will cut more than $1.2 billion from its $4.8 billion park services budget. It quickly sparked anger from leaders of organizations dedicated to national parks and recreational lands. He had already expressed concern about the reduction in staff orders by the government’s efficiency department and other plans raised by Home Secretary Doug Burgham.
“It’s nothing more than a full attack on American national parks,” said Teresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Park Conservation Association, a nonprofit advocacy group. “This is the most extreme, unrealistic and destructive national park services budget the president has ever proposed in the agency’s 109-year history.”
In total, Park Services Reductions are one of more than $33 billion in proposed cuts in budget proposals related to parks and public lands, environmental management, conservation and science-related programs and grants.
The Western Priority Center called the budget a “dark vision for American parks and public lands.”
Park Services lost 2,400 to 2,500 employees and more than 10% of its staff, including fired probation employees and other employees who accepted voluntary acquisitions or early retirements. Park conservation Association. The cuts forced the park to cut time, close visitor centres, halt tours and limit camp reservations.
“The administration is trying to dismantle the Park Services from the inside,” Pierno said, removing staff and trying to hand out hundreds of sites within the system.
Distribute park sites
The budget proposal statement cited concerns about the loss of the park’s site.
Many of the 433 sites within the Park Service are not “national parks” in the traditionally understood sense, but are categorized and managed as Tate-level parks, accepting most local visitors, and are classified and managed,” the proposal states. “To ensure long-term health and maintenance of the national park system, staffing needs to be streamlined and certain properties will be transferred to state-level management,” he added.
In the case of the White House proposal teeth Authorized Americans will “lose access to millions of acres of public land,” said Lokara, a Western Priority Center.
“Turning over the national park site to the state is a non-star,” Lokara said. “The inevitable outcome is closure and the privatization of the most important public land, as states cannot afford to manage them.”
Certainly, only 63 properties are officially designated as “national parks,” but it is true that all units have park service designations. Dozens are labeled, and the list includes several vast monuments located to the southwest that protect thousands of ancient archaeological sites.
The list includes scenic coastlines such as the Michigan Photography Iwa National Lakeshore and the Canaveral National Coast. It preserves 24 miles of untouched sand dunes and beaches in Canaveral.
In total, 433 units are the country’s “large legacy,” Pierno said. “Efforts to hand over many of these sites to America are betrayal, and the American people don’t support it.”
Proposed budget cuts
The budget suggests cutting:
- $900 million from Park Service Operation
- $158 million from historic preservation
- $77 million for reservations and preservation funds
- $73 million from the construction of the national park, according to the Parks organization.
The proposal suggests that Park Services’ Historic Preservation Funds are overlapping and often fund projects of “local importance, not national.”
The budget accused the Biden administration of “waste of federal funds” on construction projects at sites that are better managed at the local level. He also said the cuts would “complete the administration’s agenda of federalism and the transfer of small, visited parks to state and tribal governments.
The budget said many projects that receive national recreation and conservation grants “have not been directly linked to the maintenance of national parks or public lands. This has a large backlog of maintenance and is more important to address than community recreation initiatives.”
Park Services does not have a confirmed director yet after the departure of Chuck Sams, who served during the Biden administration. Park Services went without confirmed oversight throughout Trump’s first term.
How many national park sites are there?
Of the 433 units in the system, the largest is 13.2 million acres of Wrangelcent. Elias National Park and Reserve in eastern Alaska. The smallest is the National Memorial of the Tadeus Kosciusko in Philadelphia. This is the original 0.02 acre home of Polish freedom warriors and engineers who designed the fortress during the American Revolution.
This is the breakdown of sites across the country.
| National Monument | 87 |
| National Historic Site | 76 |
| National Historical Park | 63 |
| National Parks | 63 |
| National Memorial | 31 |
| Civil Reserve | 19 |
| Recreation Areas nationwide | 18 |
| National Battlefield | 11 |
| Other designations (including the White House and National Mall) | 11 |
| National Wild and Scenic Rivers | 10 |
| National Coast | 10 |
| National Military Park | 9 |
| National Scenic Trail | 6 |
| National Battlefield Park | 4 |
| National Parks | 4 |
| National River | 4 |
| National Lake Shores | 3 |
| National Reserve | 2 |
| Historical Site of the National Battlefield | 1 |
| International historical site | 1 |
USA Today’s national correspondent, Dinah Voyles Pulver, covers climate change, weather, the environment and other news. Contact her at dpulver @usatoday.com or @dinahvp.
