Weekly Watch: Trashing America’s National Heritage
How Trump, Billionaire Doug Burgum, and Their Cronies are Trashing America’s National Heritage
HELENA, MT – Save Our Parks is tracking a massive assault against America’s national parks and public lands system by Donald Trump, billionaire Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and their cronies, documenting the ongoing consequences of Trump’s unprecedented attack on our nation’s natural heritage.
This week, after launching the campaign, Save Our Parks exposed explosive revelations that a former investment banker with “scant background in conservation or land management” is now running America’s National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, with critics alleging his actions may be illegal without proper authorization. “Without an official Secretarial Order by Burgum, all actions taken by Lilly in his current role would be illegal,” said Jayson O'Neill, spokesperson for Save Our Parks, to SFGate.
Meanwhile, Lilly’s leadership is already devastating public land and wildlife conservation efforts, as his U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service just withdrew a massive 700,000-acre expansion of the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, canceling 15 years of scientific research and blocking critical habitat protection for endangered species. This is exactly what Trump, Burgum, and their cronies are doing to America’s natural heritage: placing unqualified insiders and minions in charge of destroying our parks and public lands.
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:
Save Our Parks Exposes Unqualified Former Investment Banker Ruining Our National Parks
SFGate: A former investment banker is now running the national parks
“Lilly, a wealth manager and Army veteran from Houston, is the acting assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks for the Department of the Interior. That means Lilly is now in charge of the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, despite a scant background in conservation or land management.
“Park service and public land advocates said they are concerned about the lack of transparency around Lilly’s position, and at least some advocates are claiming that Lilly’s work may not be legal. ‘Without an official Secretarial Order by Burgum, all actions taken by Lilly in his current role would be illegal,’ said Jayson O’Neill, a spokesperson for Save Our Parks, a recently launched campaign to expose threats to national parks and other public lands.”
Safety and Preparedness
The Mirror: Teen dies at Maryland beach days after lifeguard 'shortages' prompt urgent warning to Trump
“An 18-year-old male died at a beach in Maryland days after Maryland Senators asked the Trump administration to hire more lifeguards at the beach due to federal budget cuts creating staffing shortages.”
SF Gate: Bay Area woman, 29, dies in Yosemite National Park after being struck by falling tree branch
“‘It was just unimaginable that something like this could occur,’ Hua said, his voice unsteady over the phone. ‘On such a popular trail, too.’ ‘We are seeking more information from the park service regarding this incident, especially around trail safety, maintenance and awareness of problematic trees on popular trails, and future prevention of similar incidents,’ Hua wrote in an email.”
Inside Climate News: How the Trump Budget Cuts Are Playing Out at Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park
“The restrooms may be clean (for now), but a former administrator sees an erasure of history and scientific research and situations that may pose a ‘direct hazard to the general public.’”
“According to the internal national data, which has not been previously reported, more than 4,500 Forest Service firefighting jobs — as many as 27% — remained vacant as of July 17. A veteran Forest Service firefighter in California characterized the Trump administration’s current estimate of the size of its firefighting workforce as ‘grossly inaccurate.’”
PBS: How the National Parks Service is struggling with drastic funding and staffing cuts
“I think the endgame is to get rid of the Park Service. If you can make them so poorly organized and so poorly run that people don’t — can see it and they want to get rid of the Park Service, it will be that much easier for them to, hey, let’s defund the Park Service, and we will just take a percentage of the concessionaire.”
Washington Post: In beloved national parks, summer crowds throng despite budget cuts
“Park employees warned of long-term consequences, including hamstrung search-and-rescue operations and the demise of behind-the-scenes scientific research.”
Privatization and Sell-Offs
Bloomberg: Trump Seeks Steep Cuts to Monuments, Parks, Wildlife Protection
“The White House’s 2026 budget request proposes to get rid of units of the National Park System, plus national forests, and other public lands…Park units like Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve and the Appalachian Trail could be transferred to the states or possibly even privatized or closed altogether.”
Montana Dispatch: Trump is Handing Our National Forests To A Repulsive, Greedy Billionaire
“Thousands of highly qualified career staffers will be lost…That’s why it should come as no surprise that Micael Boren, a Republican billionaire mega donor from Idaho who has been waging a public war with the agency for years, is Trump’s hand-selected nominee to supervise the USFS.”
The ‘Gander: Report: Trump’s plan to offload national parks would cost Michigan millions
“All told, the report estimates that Trump’s plan would shift more than $150 million in park maintenance and additional staffing costs onto Michigan taxpayers, while simultaneously raising visitor fees, slashing tourism revenue, and putting active military and veterans’ benefits at risk.”
Public Domain: The Trump Team Is Still Eyeing Hundreds Of Thousands Acres Of Public Land For Housing
“Burgum and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner signed an agreement to ‘identify underutilized federal lands suitable for residential development…’ In an op-ed announcing the effort, Burgum and Turner wrote that ‘much of’ the 500 million acres Interior manages is ‘suitable for residential use.’”
Community Impacts
New York Times: Trump Told Park Workers to Report Displays That ‘Disparage’ Americans. Here’s What They Flagged.
“In addition to reshaping the way the parks present history, the executive order could result in the removal of information about the risks that climate change poses in the present day. At Cape Hatteras National Seashore, for instance, the internal documents show that a Park Service employee asked the Trump administration to review a sign that explains how rising seas are threatening the habitat of wild horses.”
The 19th: Women’s contributions and men’s racism erased from history of Muir Woods National Monument
“Under pressure from the Trump administration, the National Park Service (NPS) removed historical context from signage that explained the role women played in the creation of the Muir Woods National Monument and highlighted the racist ideologies of some of the men associated with the site.”
PBS: How funding cuts to national parks may harm the communities around them
“America’s national parks have long been considered national treasures. But federal funding cuts imposed by the Trump administration are leaving a mark on these iconic landscapes and the communities that surround them.”
Minnesota Reformer: Coming soon: MAGA's version of American history at national parks
“If carried out in full, the order would shield visitors from the truth about a range of historical subjects, including slavery, Jim Crow, Native genocide, environmental degradation and climate change.”
Axios Philadelphia: Independence Park exhibit and displays flagged over Trump order
“Philly preservationist Faye Anderson, a founder of PHL Watchdog, worries that any attempts to alter or remove materials at Independence Hall (where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were signed) could ‘erase Black history and whitewash American history.’”
Stories on the Ground
Washington Post: “Stephen Spencer, 54, who works in environmental waste management, has been coming to Mammoth Cave since he was a kid in Kentucky. I met him on the way to the Historic Entrance — the main access point used by Indigenous Americans seeking shelter millennia ago and, much later, by explorers and saltpeter miners.
“‘This is where our parents took us, and where we learned a lot,’ Spencer said as he chased after a 2-year-old grandson. ‘I’d hate to see that die.’”
Washington Post: “Millions of tourists are streaming by car, camper, boat and hiking boot to America’s national parks. But the summer of 2025 is unlike any before.”
KSL News: “County leaders said they were stepping in to pump and clear popular canyon bathrooms in Forest Service territory ahead of the July Fourth weekend as federal workers apparently remained mired in budget issues and red tape.”
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 Republican’s 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 press@saveourparks.us.
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