As the Trump administration continues to cut the federal workforce, the National Parks Service, which has lost almost 10% of its staff due to sweeping cuts, has just reported that 2024 established a record record for visits to its parks.
Almost 332 million people appeared to walk, camp or simply get a breath of fresh air in the national parks of the United States last year. That is 6 million more visits than the previous year, and one million visits more than the previous record, established in 2016.
The news occurs when park supervisors fight to discover how clean parks will keep and keep visitors safe this summer given the loss of hundreds of permanent workers. Around 1,000 employees of the National Park Service of probation, generally people in their first two years of service, were fired on February 14, along with tens of thousands of other federal test employees, part of a multi -basisal purge orchestrated by the Elon Musk White House advice team, which he calls the government efficiency department, or Doge.
At the other end of the spectrum, more than 700 parks service workers participate in the Trump administration purchase program, which allows federal employees to resign now, but continue to receive their salaries and benefits until September. These programs generally attract older employees to retirement.
“It is a slap to the hundreds of millions of people who explored our parks last year and want to continue returning,” said Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs of the Conservation Association of Non -Profit National Parks. “Americans love their national parks; These cuts have no public support. “
The national parks service is possibly the most beloved branch of a large and extensive federal bureaucracy. Even the Americans who could lose a little in the alphabet soup of other agencies, there are more than 400 of them, will probably never forget to be standing in the Yosemite valley and quiet speech in silence astonishing with an imposing waterfall.
The first cuts to the agency announced by the Trump administration in January, eliminating the positions of thousands of seasonal workers who collect input rates, clean bathrooms and help with search and rescue operations, caused a quick and furious reaction.
After a coordinated social networks campaign of Parks employees and enthusiasts in the whole country, the Trump administration restored seasonal positions and promised to hire hundreds of more temporary employees this year.
But that was a remarkable exception to the general strategy of the administration of seemingly indiscriminate cuts.
In total, the National Parks Service has lost about 1,700 permanent employees of a staff throughout the year of just under 20,000.
Losses occur after almost 15 years without a significant increase in funds in the operational budget of the Parks Service, said Brengel. “That means that many employees have already done more than one job and have been doing it for years,” he said.
California has nine national parks, more than any other state, including renowned sites such as Yosemite, Joshua Tree and Death Valley. His cliffs and night skies full of stars are the backdrop of millions of family vacations every year. There were more than 4 million visits to Yosemite last year, almost 3 million to Joshua Tree and around 1.4 million for Death Valley, according to the Parks Service website.
The news of last year's registration visits were published on the agency's website, but without any of the usual celebration fanfare. Instead, it was more a cautious whisper, indicative of the general mood in the Federal Labor Force these days.
“You listen to so many rumors, especially here in DC, about the people who are fired for doing anything that seems contrary to the Trump administration agenda,” Brengel said. “Everyone is scared.”
National Parks Service officials did not respond to a request for comments.
