New “Save Our Parks” Campaign Launches To Combat Trump’s Unprecedented Assault on America’s National Parks and Public Lands
Record visitation meets record cuts as parks and public lands face staffing crisis, safety concerns, and sell-off privatization schemes under Trump
HELENA, MT – A new conservation accountability campaign, Save Our Parks, launched in response to Donald Trump, Doug Burgam, and their cronies’ unprecedented assault on our parks and public lands today. Save Our Parks is an accountability effort aimed at informing, exposing, and combating Trump, billionaire Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and their cronies’ systematic dismantling of America’s national parks and public lands system through devastating budget cuts, mass firings, and sell-off privatization schemes.
The campaign comes as America’s most iconic parks experience record-breaking visitation while simultaneously facing the most severe staffing and funding crisis in modern history. The National Park Service has lost nearly a quarter of its permanent workforce since Trump took office, with some parks now operating without superintendents and at half-staff during peak visitation. Between Trump, DOGE, and Republicans’ draconian budget cuts, hiring freezes, and workforce reductions, the staffing shortages are forcing scientists, park rangers, and other safety personnel to clean toilets and pick up garbage instead of conducting critical work like ongoing maintenance and maintaining visitor safety.
“America’s parks and public lands are under an unprecedented assault by Donald Trump, dangerous billionaire Doug Burgum, and their cronies. While families are flocking to our national treasures in record numbers, Trump and Burgum are systematically crippling these beloved American birthrights through reckless budget cuts and mass firings that put visitor safety at risk and threaten our nation’s natural heritage,” said Jayson O’Neill, spokesperson for Save Our Parks. “Trump and Burgum’s mismanagement will result in long lines, limited services, safety concerns, environmental degradation, higher costs, limited access, overall poor experiences, emergency response delays, and, God forbid, the loss of life.”
The crisis is already manifesting in dangerous real-world consequences across the 640-million-acre public lands system and is poised to get worse after Trump’s spending package passed by Congressional Republicans slashed some $267 million of previously committed funding for national parks.
From Assateague Island’s zero lifeguards to Yosemite’s closed historic centers, parks across America are struggling with skeleton crews. America’s most iconic National Parks and visitors are experiencing the consequences of Trump’s assault on our parks and public lands across three critical areas:
Safety and Preparedness
Grand Canyon National Park: Raging wildfires along the North Rim torched the historic Grand Canyon Lodge and other buildings, prompting a call for investigation by Arizona’s governor and U.S. Senators.
Yellowstone National Park: Despite being on track for a record year with nearly 1.7 million visitors, Yellowstone faces significant staffing shortages across critical positions that threaten staff, gateway communities, and visitor safety.
Acadia National Park: Lost eight full-time staff members, cutting year-round workforce by 10%, including fee collectors and trail maintenance staff responsible for managing more than 150 miles of trails.
Assateague Island National Seashore: A teen drowned at the Maryland beach just days after Maryland Senators warned the Trump administration about public safety risks from lifeguard shortages caused by National Park Service budget cuts, with no lifeguards working at Assateague this summer despite the beach receiving more than two million visitors each year.
Community Impacts
Pullman National Historic Park: Educational field trips for students learning about labor history have been canceled after the park ranger who guided school groups was fired, directly impacting classroom learning opportunities that connect students to America’s industrial and labor organizing heritage.
Yosemite National Park: Announced delays in its reservation system for summer reservations amid widespread staffing cuts, forcing visitors to face uncertainty and limited access during peak season.
Fee Increases: Trump signed an executive order to raise entrance fees for international tourists visiting national parks, directly impacting gateway cities and communities that depend on international tourism for their local economies without any known impact analysis.
Privatization and Sell-Offs
Privatization: The National Park Service is currently without a Senate-confirmed director, leaving unqualified and unconfirmed MAGA cronies anointed by dangerous billionaire Interior Secretary Burgum serving as assistant secretaries overseeing the entire park system, public lands, and wildlife, creating conditions that are laying the groundwork for Trump’s broader park and public lands privatization and sell-off agenda. While similar efforts to privatize parks and public lands largely failed during his first term, dangerous billionaire Interior Secretary Burgum is lining up the pins to attempt to pull it off under Trump 2.0.
Public Lands Sell-Off: Despite the outrage over a public lands sell-off proposal by Utah Senator Mike Lee, the Trump administration is still trying to sell off some 400,000 acres of federal public land.
Private Access: Costs and fees when visiting our nation’s parks and public lands are skyrocketing under Trump and pricing American families out of their ability to visit. Private corporations, like Booze Allen Hamilton, Delaware North, and others, are monetizing park and public land visitation to maximize profits at Americans expense.
Save Our Parks plans to document and expose conditions across America’s federal park and public lands system through monitoring reports, visitor and personal testimonial exposés, political donor and cronies research, and targeted outreach and engagement initiatives. The campaign will create sustained pressure on Trump administration officials and key congressional allies through targeted accountability communications. Save Our Parks will maintain comprehensive documentation of the crisis through its website at SaveOurParks.us and social media channels @SaveOurParksUSA.
“The real-world impacts of Trump’s reckless mismanagement across America’s entire park and public lands system with dangerous billionaire Burgum at the helm will have severe consequences for people, small businesses, and communities,” Save Our Parks’ Jayson O’Neill concluded. “Make no mistake, this is about protecting America’s shared history, natural heritage, and birthright for future generations from Trump’s assault. We will not stand by while Trump, Burgum, and their unqualified cronies systematically destroy the parks and public lands that define us as a nation and bring joy to hundreds of millions of Americans every year.”
Additional Background:
The economic implications of Trump’s mismanagement and assault extend far beyond park and public land boundaries. Trump’s proposed cuts target the $1 trillion recreation economy, which generates more revenue than traditional extractive industries like mining and oil and gas combined. The Bureau of Land Management’s recreation budget faces a 62% cut, while the National Park Service’s recreation funding could be slashed by 85%. These cuts directly harm the billions in economic activity that parks bring to surrounding communities, supporting jobs and businesses that depend on tourism.
Former park officials warn that Trump’s strategy represents a deliberate sabotage campaign designed to create failure and justify privatization. The administration’s budget calls for transferring parks to cash-strapped states that lack the resources to maintain them, potentially leading to closures or sales to private interests.
Trump could effectively end federal funding for national parks and public lands, threatening America’s natural, cultural, and historical treasures forever. America’s park and public land institutions are among the most popular and cost-effective federal government services, with 83% of Americans supporting increased or maintained funding for parks.
The Save Our Parks campaign is spearheaded by Jayson O’Neill, Senior Director at Focal Point Strategy Group, who is based in Montana. Jayson served as the Executive Director of Western Values Project and Accountable.US’s Energy and Environment Program during Trump’s first term. His previous investigative work on park and public land issues has been cited in major publications, led to numerous official investigations, and directly contributed to the early departure of Trump’s first Secretary of the Interior, scandal-plagued Ryan Zinke, after an ill-fated attempt to gut national monument park protections for fossil fuels and privatize national parks, among other things.
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