What government layoffs at U.S. national parks mean for your next trip
The National Parks Service reported 331.9 million visits in 2024, a record high. But the White House has slashed jobs, which could affect travelers.
The new budget proposal from President Donald Trump would reduce the budget for the nation’s national parks, monuments, historic sites, seashores and trails by nearly 25% and hand over many of those to the states.
The proposal suggests cutting more than $1.2 billion from the $4.8 billion park service budget. It quickly sparked outrage from leaders of organizations devoted to national parks and recreation lands, who had already voiced concern about the staff cuts ordered by the Department of Governmental Efficiency and other plans raised by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
“It’s nothing less than an all-out assault on America’s national parks,” said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit advocacy group. “This is the most extreme, unrealistic and destructive National Park Service budget a President has ever proposed in the agency’s 109-year history.”
In total, the park service cuts are among more than $33 billion in proposed reductions in the budget proposal related to parks and public lands, environmental management, conservation and science-related programs and grants.
The Center for Western Priorities called the budget “a bleak vision for America’s parks and public lands.”
The park service has lost 2,400 to 2,500 employees, more than 10% of its staff, including probationary employees who were fired and others who accepted voluntary buyouts and early retirements, according to the Parks Conservation Association. The cuts have forced parks to cut hours, close visitor centers, suspend tours and limit camping reservations.
“This administration is trying to dismantle the park service from the inside out,” removing staff and attempting to give away hundreds of sites within the system, Pierno said.
Giving away park sites
Statements in the budget proposal prompted concern about the loss of park sites.
Many of the 433 sites within the park service aren’t “national parks” in the traditionally understood sense, “receive small numbers of mostly local visitors, and are better categorized and managed as (s)tate-level parks,” the proposal said. It added there’s an “urgent need to streamline staffing and transfer certain properties to state-level management to ensure the long-term health and sustainment of the National Park system.”
If the White House proposal is approved, Americans would “lose access to millions of acres of their public lands,” said Rokala, of the Center for Western Priorities.
“Handing over national park sites to states is a non-starter,” Rokala said. “States can’t afford to manage them, so the inevitable outcome is the closure, then privatization of our most treasured public lands.”
While it’s true that only 63 of the properties are formally designated as “national parks” but all the units have park service designations. Dozens are labeled national monuments and the list includes several sprawling monuments in the Southwest that protect thousands of ancient archaeological sites.
The list includes scenic shorelines such as Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan and Canaveral National Seashore, the 24 miles of untouched dunes and beach in Central Florida preserved when the Kennedy Space Center was created at Cape Canaveral.
In total, the 433 units are the nation’s “greatest legacy,” Pierno said. “Any effort to hand many of these sites over to the states is a betrayal, and the American people won’t stand for it.”
Proposed budget cuts
The budget proposes to cut:
- $900 million from park service operations
- $158 million from historic preservation
- $77 million to reservation and preservation funding
- $73 million from national park construction, the parks organizations said.
The proposal suggested the park service’s Historic Preservation Fund is duplicative, and often funds projects of “local, rather than national, significance.”
The budget accused the Biden administration of “wasting federal funding” on construction projects at sites that would be more appropriately managed at the local level. It also stated the reduction would complement the administration’s agenda of “federalism and transferring smaller, lesser visited parks to State and tribal governments.”
The budget stated many projects that receive national recreation and preservation grants are “not directly tied to maintaining national parks or public lands, which have a large backlog of maintenance and are more important to address than community recreation initiatives.”
The park service does not yet have a confirmed director after the departure of Chuck Sams, who served during the Biden administration. The park service went without a confirmed director during Trump’s entire first term.
How many national park sites are there?
Of the 433 units in the system, the largest is the 13.2-million-acre Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in eastern Alaska. The smallest is the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial in Philadelphia, the 0.02-acre former home of a Polish freedom fighter and engineer who designed fortifications during the American Revolution.
Here’s a breakdown of the national sites.
| National monuments | 87 |
| National historic sites | 76 |
| National historical parks | 63 |
| National parks | 63 |
| National memorials | 31 |
| National preserves | 19 |
| National recreation areas | 18 |
| National battlefields | 11 |
| Other designations (includes the White House and National Mall) | 11 |
| National wild and scenic rivers | 10 |
| National seashores | 10 |
| National military parks | 9 |
| National scenic trails | 6 |
| National battlefield parks | 4 |
| National parkways | 4 |
| National rivers | 4 |
| National lakeshores | 3 |
| National reserves | 2 |
| National battlefield historic sites | 1 |
| International historic sites | 1 |
Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, covers climate change, weather, the environment and other news. Reach her at [email protected] or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.