Weekly Watch: National Parks Understaffed and Unprotected
Trump and Burgum Leave National Parks Understaffed and Unprotected During Government Shutdown
HELENA, MT – Save Our Parks is tracking the massive assault against America’s national parks and public lands system by Donald Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and their cronies, documenting the ongoing consequences of Trump’s unprecedented attack on our nation’s natural heritage.
This week, Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans shut the government down, again, and decided to keep America’s cherished national parks open despite warnings from former park officials and the president’s failed past track-record. But this shutdown has a clear nefarious purpose: his administration and Interior Secretary Burgum are planning to use their shutdown as an excuse to fire more critical civil servants. America’s parks and public lands are already suffering from revolving-door cronyism, drastic cuts, understaffing, mismanagement, and exploitation. (See Save Our Parks’ map detailing the assault on America’s national parks prior to Trump’s disastrous shutdown.)
Remember Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” chainsawed about 7,500 jobs at Interior, making up more than ten percent of its workforce. 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 leaked Interior Department reduction in force (RIF) plan could mean additional workforce reductions of up to 50% at some divisions and nearly a 30% reduction at the National Park Service.
These devastating staffing cuts have left America’s natural heritage dangerously understaffed and puts visitors at risk. Trump’s shutdown could mean these already crippled parks are facing a manufactured disaster under Trump and Burgum’s fail-by-design plan so they can privatize. All the while Burgum sets up his Big Oil pals to profit from the chaos as they kneecap affordable clean energy development.
With basic park operations already collapsing across the system and Burgum more focused on photo-ops and censorship, Trump’s government shutdown could push land and wildlife managing agencies to a breaking point, causing permanent damages to America’s beloved parks and public lands and creating deadly conditions for the 331 million Americans who visit these treasured landscapes each year.
During the last government shutdown, also under Trump, 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. Trump and Burgum are making the same mistakes again.
Each week, Save Our Parks compiles and distributes a roundup documenting threats to America’s national parks and public lands. Our weekly watch report tracks budget cuts, staffing shortages, privatization efforts, and policy changes affecting our treasured natural and historical sites. Compiled news coverage, eyewitness accounts, and official reports from across the country provide essential information in order to hold the Trump administration, Secretary Burgum, and lawmakers accountable and defend our shared natural heritage.
Parks and Public Lands in the News:
Safety and Preparedness
Wes Siler’s Newsletter: National Parks Will Remain Open During Shutdown
“This is very close to being a worst case scenario. Parks will remain open with only a skeleton crew of only “excepted” staff. Those include: law enforcement, border surveillance, fire suppression, and emergency response. No maintenance or operational staff will stay working for the duration of the shutdown.”
NBC News: National parks to remain partially open during government shutdown
“Open-air sites will remain open to the public, but buildings that require staffing, such as visitor centers or sites like the Washington Monument, will be closed.”
Public Domain: Interior Shutdown: National Parks Open With Limited Staff. Oil And Gas Permitting To Continue Apace
“As it gambles with park resources and visitor safety, Interior will maintain staff to process oil, gas and mining permits during the shutdown, while halting the agency’s work on renewable energy projects.”
Newsweek: National Parks Warning Issued to Trump Over Government Shutdown
“Nonpartisan group the National Parks Conservation Association (NCPA) said in a statement that if the shutdown goes ahead, parks will be left unattended, leaving them vulnerable to damage. The parks, therefore, should shut down too, they said. Meanwhile, a group of former national park superintendents wrote a letter to the Department of the Interior calling for the same action.”
Bozeman Daily Chronicle: What happens to Yellowstone National Park if the federal government shuts down?
“‘It’s unconscionable for the administration, after overseeing a 24% loss of the Park Service, to threaten another cudgeling that could mean thousands of additional Park Service personnel are fired,’ said John Garder of the National Park Conservation Association. ‘The Park Service is already struggling to take care of the resource and falling behind as they try to prioritize visitor services.’”
Privatization and Sell-Offs
“While the Trump administration wages war against clean energy, it is now vowing to lease millions of acres of public lands at a discount and spend hundreds of millions of dollars to prop up the most polluting source of electricity: coal. This comes as the administration has restricted new solar and wind farms on federal lands, and decried subsidies provided to these two renewable energy sources.”
E&E News: Burgum launches AI initiative at Interior Department
“The order mandates the creation of a chief artificial intelligence officer to work under the Interior secretary and coordinate with the department’s various bureaus and offices.”
High Country News: Will the public-lands coalition hold?
“In June, a long-standing effort to sell off massive chunks of federal land grew closer to fruition than ever before when a provision mandating such sales was slipped into President Donald Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill.’ The bill passed, and selling public lands easily could have followed. But it didn’t, largely due to a fierce public outcry led not just by pro-public land progressives but by a surprisingly broad coalition.”
Nevada Current: The greatest threats to Nevada’s public lands aren’t dead — they’re rushing through Congress
“We should be expanding access to parks and trails, supporting Tribal stewardship of ancestral lands, and protecting biodiversity in the face of climate change. We should not be doubling down on extractive and short-sighted policies. The choice before us is clear. We can allow corporations and their lobbyists to dictate the future of Nevada’s open spaces, or we can stand up for the values that make our state unique.”
Public Domain: A Top Trump Interior Official Once Pushed To Privatize Wildlife
“‘She does not believe that wild elk belong to the American people,’ Dave Chadwick, a former executive director of the Montana Wildlife Federation, told Public Domain. ‘Does Budd-Falen really believe such a radically un-American idea, or was she just trying to make a buck by weaponizing the legal system against public hunters? Either way, this person should be nowhere near the management of America’s public wildlife or public lands.’”
Community Impacts
The Guardian: US national park staff fear turmoil as shutdown looms
“‘National parks don’t run themselves. It is hard-working National Park Service employees that keep them safe, clean and accessible,’ 40 former superintendents said in a letter issued to Doug Burgum, the interior secretary, this week, urging him to close the parks if a shutdown occurs. ‘If sufficient staff aren’t there, visitors shouldn’t be either.’”
CNN: What A Federal Government Shutdown Might Mean For Travelers
“‘Our national parks are already in crisis,’ she said in a statement on the association’s website. ‘A shutdown would furlough thousands of staff, drain millions in revenue from communities that rely on park tourism, jeopardize the protection of historic and natural resources, and upend plans for countless visitors.’”
“The initiative appears to be in response to a sweeping executive order, ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,’ signed by President Donald Trump in late March, which decried information in national parks that included ‘improper partisan ideology.’ By June, notices began appearing at NPS sites requesting that park visitors report ‘any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans.’”
Maine Monitor: Trump administration pulls climate change signs from Acadia National Park
“The now-removed Acadia signs, installed in 2023 at the summit of Cadillac Mountain and at the 100-acre Great Meadow wetland, informed visitors of the many ways Maine’s only official national park is changing and how park officials are working to better manage the ecosystem amid rising temperatures and extreme weather.”
Stories on the Trail
@KAMCNews: Plans to keep America’s national parks open amid the government shutdown face challenges as the National Park Service (NPS) furloughs more than 60 percent of its staff.
@brettforrestTV: National parks will mostly remain open with skeleton crews during the shutdown according to the Interior Department's guidance I'm reading. Similar to Trump's first term.
But park advocates wanted them closed, arguing last shutdown brought about great damage to the parks.
@NPCA: 🚨 We are sounding the alarm 🚨
The government shutdown will leave our parks understaffed and vulnerable, putting our most cherished places and millions of visitors at risk.
@resistancerangers: So- if you have plans to visit a National Park site- even if the website says it’s open- please, don't. The best thing you can do for parks right now is to stay away. This is a great chance to visit local and state parks!
@americanhuntersanglers: HUNTERS, HIKERS, FISHERMEN: Read this before your trip. Public lands are about to get shut down again and the same politicians are pointing fingers.
@c_m_dangelo: signage at Acadia National Park detailing the mounting impacts of climate change (a very real thing) have been removed as part of the Trump admin's purported campaign to "restore truth and sanity to American history"
@Race2Extinct: We’re keeping the gates open while the foundations crumble. National parks look “normal,” but ecosystems, science, stewardship & staff are being gutted. It’s the same story everywhere: we sacrifice both nature and our health for profit.
@National_Parks_Traveler: Water and limited flush restrooms (supported by porta-potties) are available again at Paradise in Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State. While Narada Falls water has not yet been restored, porta-potties remain in place for visitor use.
The Crisis Continues:
The crisis continues to escalate across America’s 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. 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 supporting visitor safety.
Save Our Parks documents and exposes conditions across America’s federal park and public lands system through monitoring reports, visitor testimonials, and accountability research. The campaign maintains comprehensive documentation through its website at SaveOurParks.us.
To speak with Save Our Parks spokesperson Jayson O’Neill, email jayson@focalpointstrategygroup.com.
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