Weekly Watch: Trump and Burgum’s Wrong Priorities
Shutdown Threatens America’s Treasured National Parks, But Not Trump and Burgum’s Sell Off, Fossil Fuel, and Mining Priorities
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.
As the Trump government shutdown enters its second week, the danger for America’s treasured national parks, and its gateway communities that depend on tourism dollars to survive, is abundantly clear. Whether it’s the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Yosemite in California, or Yellowstone in Montana, all our national treasures are at risk of the same problems we saw during Trump’s last shutdown: overflowing toilets, trash spilling out of unserviced containers, vandalism, illegal off-roading and joyriding, and massive damage that may never be repaired.
Damage to America’s natural resources is already occurring, while the Trump administration and Interior Secretary Burgum purposefully ignore the warnings. But Trump’s shutdown hasn’t stopped his administration and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum – which is chock-full of people who have directly worked for oil, gas, and coal companies – from pursuing its fossil fuel and mining priorities, at the expense of our cherished parks, public lands, and wildlife.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum even met with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and offered his unwavering support for his and others misguided plan to transfer federal public lands to states – a precursor to selling them off – so they can dramatically ramp up industrial fossil fuel and mining development on Utah’s public lands. Public land advocates on the ground – who just a few months ago helped defeat Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s provision to sell off public lands for development – know that deregulation and development will endanger Utah’s beautiful landscapes, wildlife, and water, as well as its most vulnerable communities.
This comes at the same time as the White House openly admitting that they offer “concierge, white glove service” to fossil fuel companies, while slowing down, blocking, and freezing clean energy projects. So while national park gateway communities across the country get screwed by Trump’s shutdown, the White House’s and Burgum’s Big Oil friends get uninterrupted, first-class treatment.
Even before the shutdown, basic park operations were already collapsing across the system, and now they’re being pushed to their breaking point. The “Parks Under Assault Map” details the breakdown using government data from the National Park Service to expose the cross-country devastation they have wrought. At least 10 parks across the country were operating with compromised emergency response systems before the shutdown, putting park employees, visitors, wildlife, and gateway communities in immediate danger.
Visitors to America’s parks and public lands contribute untold billions of dollars to those surrounding gateway communities every year. Now, not only are those communities’ livelihoods at risk, but all parks and public lands are on the chopping block as a result of a nationwide, systematic fail-by-design scheme by Trump and Burgum.
Save Our Parks is asking all users to submit information on misuse, damage, vandalism, safety concerns, and overflowing bathrooms and garbage cans to the group’s tip line. The anonymous and secure portal at SaveOurParks.US is a way for the public to make sure emerging and critical issues can be addressed, since the Trump administration and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum won’t.
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
ABC News: Public lands could fall into disarray as a result of the government shutdown, advocates say
“Short-term impacts on public lands, such as national monuments, national conservation areas, and wilderness, include pileups of trash and human waste as well as vandalism due to a lack of adequate law enforcement, David Feinman, vice president of government affairs at the Conservation Lands Foundation, told ABC News.”
SFGATE: Joshua Tree National Park now an epicenter of concern, confusion
“The park was hit especially hard during the last government shutdown: Over 35 days in 2018 and 2019, vandals defaced the park’s rocks with graffiti, went off-roading in ecologically sensitive areas and even chopped down beloved Joshua trees. Park advocates refer to those events as ‘atrocities’ and say the damage could take hundreds of years to reverse. It happened because the park was left open with minimal staffing, they say, which raises an important question: What will be done during this shutdown to prevent the same things from happening again?”
Privatization and Sell-Offs
Utah News Dispatch: Thousands of acres of federal land now open for coal leases are adjacent to Utah national parks
“An initiative of Congress’ spending package known as the ‘big, beautiful bill’ started becoming a reality last week, leaving environmentalists with deep concerns about the future landscape of national parks. The map of 13.1 million acres of federal land now available for coal leasing triples the benchmark set by the law and includes parcels near or directly adjacent to landmarks like Zion, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef national parks, an analysis from groups including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance found.”
Deseret News: Trump administration backs Gov. Cox’s vision on energy, lands
“U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Tuesday that the White House supports his vision for greater state control of public lands and dramatically increased energy production. The federal government is not ‘the landlord for the state of Utah,’ Burgum said. He vowed that the Trump administration is trying to ‘turn this around 180 degrees’ so that local partners can lead on lands issues.”
Alaskan Beacon: Trump approves appeal for Ambler Road project, reversing Biden administration’s rejection
“President Donald Trump on Monday signed an order that overturns a decision by the Biden administration to cancel a 211-mile mining road through Alaska’s Brooks Range by denying a right-of-way permit. The action removes a major hurdle for the project, but developers would still need to overcome lawsuits and opposition from environmental and tribal groups. They would also need approval from NANA and Doyon Ltd., two Alaska Native regional corporations who own land in the road’s path.”
Wes Siler’s Newsletter: The Senate Just Voted To Break Public Lands
“Once Trump signs the measure into law, every permit written on public lands since 1996 will suddenly be in legal jeopardy. They will not be instantly rendered invalid, but they are no long protected in law, and will become the subject of litigation. Because no “substantially” similar decision making can be performed by the BLM or USFS, each permit will need to be litigated separately.”
Community Impacts
NPR: National parks caught in the crosshairs of government shutdown
“Across the country, parks have been forced to close, operate under reduced staffing or rely on outside donations to keep the lights on as the shutdown stretches into its fourth day. The lack of a unified plan across all parks and sparse details outlined by official government resources has sparked confusion about which places parkgoers can visit or if the shutdown has caused sites to temporarily shutter their services.”
NBC News: Governors tap state funds to keep some national parks open during the government shutdown
“The push to keep national parks open as usual during the shutdown has met resistance from the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit advocacy group that wants the parks to stay fully closed during this period. The group said that there is precedent for states’ tapping into their funds to keep parks open — but that keeping parks open during shutdowns has generally led to natural resource destruction.”
Associated Press: At America’s national parks in the Trump era, the arc of history bends toward revisionism
“As part of a broader Trump directive reaching across the government and the country, the park service is under orders to review interpretive materials at all its historical properties and remove or alter descriptions that ‘inappropriately disparage Americans past or living’ or otherwise sully the American story. This comes as the Republican president has complained about institutions that go too deep, in his view, on ‘how bad slavery was.’”
Daily Montanan: National parks, historic sites contribute $1.2 billion in economic output for Montana
“The shutdown of the federal government, which began Wednesday, could have a more visible presence in Montana due to the outsized impact the National Park system has on Montana’s economy [...] Last year, visitors spent roughly $838 million in Montana communities near the national parks and historic sites, anchored by Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park.”
Stories on the Trail
@western.priorities: “Congress should be focused on stability, not creating more chaos.”
Sail Local: It’s the little things.
@RepGabeVasquez: Thousands of national park staff remain furloughed without pay, our parks are losing $1M a day in revenue, and nearby communities are losing $80M in visitor spending. Families are locked out, workers are left behind, and park resources are unprotected.
@americanhuntersanglers: This 211-mile toll road would cut through caribou habitat, wild salmon rivers, Indigenous lands, even a national park. If this road gets built, one of the wildest places left in America becomes an industrial corridor. Hunters and anglers should be furious.
@National_Parks_Traveler: President Donald Trump has issued an executive order approving the Ambler Road Project, a controversial 211-mile industrial road proposed to run through National Park System units from the Dalton Highway to Alaska’s remote Ambler Mining District, but getting the project up and running is expected to require more environmental reviews.
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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