Parks Under Assault: Trump’s Shutdown Threatens California’s Treasured National Parks, Over $5 Billion for Gateway Communities

Republicans’ Shutdown Will Only Turbocharge Trump and Burgum’s Park Fail-By-Design Plan With More Park Workforce Reductions And Budget Cuts

HELENA, MT –  As Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans’ government shutdown enters its fourth week, the danger for California’s treasured national parks, and the gateway communities that depend on tourism dollars to survive, is abundantly clear and already occurring. California is home to some of the nation’s most popular and visited national parks and historic sites. 

Yosemite National Park, running on a skeleton crew, has already been inundated by illegal basejumping, unpermitted hiking, and dispersed camping outside of designated campgrounds. Similarly, the mismanagement of our parks by Secretary Burgum—who chose to keep parks open without proper staffing levels—at Joshua Tree National Park resulted in the late detection of a wildfire, forcing campgrounds to be evacuated. There has been only one update since the fire began with no clear indication it has been contained or if the campground is operational. Gateway communities are losing millions of dollars per day under Trump’s shutdown. 

Analysis of court documents detailing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s plans show at least 2,050 more critical Interior employees would be fired, with 29% of the Pacific West and 20% of the regional support park staff to be eliminated, which is on top of the nearly 25% of park staffing cuts already carried out through Trump’s DOGE. California’s Bureau of Land Management staff will also be reduced by an additional 9% and upwards of 40% of the workforce in the U.S. Geological Survey would evaporate. 

“Trump and Interior Secretary Burgum are gut punching America’s cherished national parks and the dedicated employees that care for them. Between the shutdown and draconian DOGE cuts, with even more crippling staffing reductions and funding cuts on the horizon, our nation’s parks face an intentional and manufactured fail-by-design disaster under Interior Secretary Burgum,” said Jayson O’Neill, Save Our Parks spokesperson. “Park operations were hanging on by a thread even before the shutdown under Burgum’s mismanagement, and now they’re being pushed to their breaking point on purpose. Every day that Trump and Doug Burgum don’t reverse course it puts every visitor, gateway community, and park in grave danger, especially popular destinations like Joshua Tree and Yosemite national parks.”

Visitors to California parks and public lands contributed more than $5 billion to the surrounding gateway communities in 2023. Now, not only are those communities’ livelihoods at risk, but California’s parks and public lands are part of a nationwide, systematic fail-by-design scheme by Trump and Burgum.

Save Our Parks’ “Parks Under Assault Map” uses government data from the National Park Service to expose the cross-country devastation: cuts to education, visitor services, and safety response mean that places like Yosemite National Park in California are no longer able to operate at full capacity. Even before the government shutdown began, at least 10 parks across the country were operating with compromised emergency response systems, putting park employees, visitors, wildlife, and gateway communities in immediate danger.

Source: National Park Service, Internal Report, July 2025.

California National Park Impacts Prior to Trump’s Shutdown:

• Yosemite National Park - The High Sierra Campgrounds are closed due to persistent problems in providing potable water and functioning toilet systems.

• Joshua Tree National Park - The park relies on fuel treatments in the Covington Flats area to prevent wildfires, but this work is not happening because of a vacant position. The position in the park responsible for organizing preventative search and rescue services is vacant, and the employees that have been managing in the meantime have been reassigned to backfill existing vacancies.

• Death Valley National Park - Reopening Scotty's Castle has been indefinitely postponed due to delays in projects required for reopening, as well as a lack of sufficient staff. Maintenance projects have been cancelled, delayed, or reorganized throughout the park, which will only increase deferred maintenance costs.

• Redwood National and State Parks - Law enforcement staffing shortages are putting pressure on the park's ability to protect park resources, staff, and visitors.

• Lassen Volcanic National Park - Due to the hiring freeze and reduction in workforce, the park is juggling the entire maintenance workload, handling all of the custodial, trash, water, electrical, plumbing, carpentry needs of the park in a very inefficient way.

While conflicted billionaire Interior Secretary Burgum tells Americans to just ignore his failures, Save Our Parks is asking the public to report issues at our parks and on our public lands at our tip line. 

Additional background:

It’s no secret the Trump administration wanted this shutdown to nefariously fire more critical civil servants at a time when our parks are already run by skeleton crews. Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” chainsawed about 7,500 jobs at Interior, making up more than ten percent of its workforce and nearly 24% of the park services. 

If Trump and Burgum get their wish, more crippling staffing reductions will be coming soon. Trump’s budget calls for an additional 30% funding cuts, and Burgum’s Interior Department reduction in force (RIF) plan could mean additional workforce reductions of up to 50% at some divisions and nearly 30% additional reductions at the National Park Service. 

During Trump’s last government shutdown, his administration forced most parks to stay open by illegally redirecting funds, while furloughing National Park Service employees. The results? Overflowing toilets, trash spilling out of unserviced containers, vandalism, illegal off-roading and joyriding, and massive damage to our treasured resources that may never be repaired. In a letter, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) urged Burgum to classify Interior Department employees essential during this shutdown for these very reasons: to protect our public lands and to keep Americans safe.

As Trump and Burgum repeat the same mistakes from Trump’s last GOP shutdown, they haven’t let the pain they’re inflicting on the country distract them from their campaign of mass censorship across America’s parks. Park visitors this summer were subjected to requests asking that they flag any “negative content” deemed “inappropriately disparaging to Americans past or living.” Recent investigations reveal the administration has systematically ordered the removal of signs, exhibits, and educational materials addressing slavery, Indigenous persecution, civil rights struggles, climate change, and other aspects of American history they don’t like.

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