Photo via Yahoo
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On February 14th, President Donald J. Trump announced layoffs and cuts to both the National Park Service (NPS) and the U.S. Forest Service. Roughly 1,000 workers, or around 5% of positions, were terminated within the NPS, most of which were aimed at employees within their probationary period, meaning they were either newly hired or had recently switched positions within the department. The Forest Service saw cuts to around 3,400 positions or about 10% of the agency’s workforce. These cuts come amid a swath of firings across multiple government agencies as part of the President’s move to reduce the federal government workforce. Yet, the reductions to the NPS and Forest Service stand out among the other agencies due to the peculiar circumstances of the firings.
The NPS has seen a 20% reduction in its workforce since 2010, while visitation numbers have been increasing simultaneously. The plummet in staffing has left the agency dealing with issues like trail maintenance, faulty infrastructure, and park congestion for years now—cutting staff when the agency needs it the most is bewildering. Philip Francis, chair of the executive council for the Coalition to Protect National Parks, asked, “At a time where the demand for those services are at their peak, why would we be offloading staff?”
The NPS hosts around 325 million visitors annually to their parks and historic sites. Both domestic citizens and international travelers come from all over to marvel at the breathtaking nature that lies within America’s national parks. The NPS preserves and protects over 52 million acres of this historic land and allows the public to witness all these beautiful parks offer. The services the NPS provides allow millions of people to spend their leisure time safely but enriching, where they can enjoy the parks without hurting themselves or the environment.
Now that park rangers and other employees have been fired, the safety of visitors, wildlife, and the environment is threatened. In a Facebook post, a California ranger explains his situation, writing, “I honestly can’t imagine how the parks will operate without my position. I mean, they just can’t. I am the only EMT at my park and the first responder for any emergency.” Furthermore, many park rangers in Yellowstone National Park help manage peaceful coexistence between visitors and bison. Almost every year, there are instances of critical injuries and even death of both people and the wild bison. Having fewer rangers to ensure safe conditions will lead to further endangerment of the public as well as the natural wildlife.
However, the parks provide more than just sightseeing; they greatly boost the U.S. economy. In 2023, the latest year we have data for, the Department of the Interior reported that national parks contributed a record-high $55.6 billion to the economy and supported 415,000 jobs. The economic activity that the parks generate helps collect revenue for the federal government and causes rural gateway communities to develop and thrive. Visitors spent around $26.4 billion in communities around national parks, many of which lie in rural backcountry and other underdeveloped areas primarily from red states. This begs the question of why Trump would gut the agency providing so much economic stimulus to the communities that voted for him. For example, take a state like Wyoming. A deep red state with a population of around half a million, with 72.3% of the vote for Trump in the 2024 election. About 7.7 million people visited Wyoming’s seven national parks in 2023. That is over 14 times the population of the state. These visitors also spent around $1.1 billion, producing 14,522 jobs and a cumulative positive to the state economy of $1.4 billion. That is about $2,382 per capita. It is no understatement to say that national parks are essential to the economy of Wyoming. Keep in mind these parks are already understaffed and producing this much output, so gutting them to save a tiny fraction compared to their total output does not make any sense. “Why are we doing this, to what benefit? It’s hard for me to understand,” noted Francis—a sentiment many Americans share.
The Trump administration would answer this by saying they want to reduce the size of the government and cut unnecessary spending, but what seems to be more likely are two primary objectives: first, to loosen protections of public land to open it to oil drilling; second, to cut federal spending to make room for tax breaks for the wealthiest of Americans and his billionaire friends. On his first day of office, Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is run by the richest man on earth, Elon Musk. Musk poured at least $260 million into the Trump campaign to get him reelected and, in turn, was rewarded with DOGE and other questionable political privileges. Since inauguration day, DOGE and the Trump administration have almost completely eviscerated USAID, an agency that delivers care to some of the poorest people across the world. It has cut the federal workforce to about 200,000 across over a dozen agencies. And has issued an executive order freezing all new federal hiring. Thankfully, the NPS was granted an exemption to reinstate around 5,000 seasonal jobs during the busy summer months, but the fallout from the permanent firings will still be massive.
While Trump is doing everything in—and often illegally out—of his power to slash the federal workforce, congressional Republicans are currently devising a bill that would increase spending on the military, border security, and oil drilling permits while cutting spending for health care, food programs, and other safety net programs for the poorest of Americans. The bill would use these cuts to help pay $4.5 trillion in tax breaks for the richest Americans over the next decade, adding about $3 trillion to the deficit. Trump is making the rich richer and putting politics over preserving the environment. He does not care for the communities that voted for him and would rather put short-term profit for oil companies over the millions of citizens living in rural national park areas, many of whom rely on the safety net programs he is cutting.
So, what does this mean for our national parks and their surrounding communities? In the short term, we can expect to see faulty facilities such as out-of-order restrooms, closed visitation centers, and degraded trails and roads. Lack of staff can also lead to limited park access and the inability for visitors to see parks’ most esteemed sights. Park overcrowding is also to be expected, particularly at the more popular parks such as Yosemite, where a new reservation program to limit congestion is indefinitely on hold because of Trump’s freeze on new policies and a lack of staff to manage the program.
Yosemite park workers recently protested the Trump firings by hanging an inverted American flag off the side of El Capitan, the most popular of the park’s rock formations. Popular parks like Rocky Mountain National Park and Joshua Tree National Park have also seen demonstrations.
The environment is also expected to take a beating. Drilling will expand nationwide, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and advancing the climate crisis. Lakes and rivers will be more susceptible to pollution, as rangers and other staff often help keep the parks clean. Wildfires could also become more prevalent as there is less staff to supervise campgrounds and backcountry of the parks. And while it is hard to predict the exact effects of Trump’s firings, we know that they will not be positive on any level, whether environmental or economic.
We can also expect a substantial decrease in park revenue, as many fee collectors and other payment service workers were fired. Furthermore, as people have a less enjoyable time at the parks because of the lack of services and quality conditions, demand is bound to drop, causing a further decline in revenue. This will have staggering effects on the parks and the surrounding communities where thousands of people and their businesses rely on visitors for demand. Over time, many of these communities will probably see setbacks to all of the economic progress they have made over the past few years, and the person to blame is the very man many of them voted for.
Trump’s guise of supporting the “common man” and rural communities is a complete lie. He would rather enrich his billionaire friends and drill these beautiful lands than support the rural communities that rely on them for business. His slashing of the NPS and Forest Service also makes no sense from an economic perspective. These parks generate billions of dollars in revenue and support hundreds of thousands of people and businesses nationwide.
Our national parks belong to every American, no matter their politics. Every American has the right to witness these parks and to enjoy them safely. In return, the parks deserve to be treated with respect and cared for so they can be enjoyed for generations to come. This would not be possible without the National Park Service, and it is a disgrace that President Trump is cutting the already vulnerable agency.
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This article was edited by Naba Syed and Chet-Kane Collins.
John Virgil Aton 
Stan Refermat 
David Tomanelli