Defunding the national parks, America’s ‘best idea’

The National Park Service recorded some 323 million visits to its 433 parks, properties, battlefields, and monuments last year. That’s a slight drop from 2024’s all-time high of 332 million, but more than the combined attendance of professional football, baseball, basketball, NASCAR, soccer, and Disney theme parks. Established in 1916, the NPS is today one of America’s most beloved institutions. A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 76% of Americans, including overwhelming majorities of both Republicans and Democrats, view it favorably, a higher share than for any other federal agency. But the NPS, which manages more than 85 million acres across the U.S., now faces an uncertain future because of staffing cuts and the reallocation of critical funds by the Trump administration. Author and conservationist Wallace Stegner once declared national parks America’s “best idea,” but the administration “is treating our treasures like anything but,” said John Garder of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).

The agency has lost nearly 25% of its permanent workforce—over 4,000 positions—since the start of the second Trump administration, according to the NPCA. About 1,000 parks employees with probationary status were fired in early 2025, while senior staffers have been let go through deferred-resignation and early-retirement programs. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who oversees the NPS, said the agency can keep up standards with a reduced workforce by getting staff to focus on hands-on jobs, such as clearing trails. “I want more of that,” he said. “I want less overhead.” Staffers who traditionally work behind the scenes have been pushed into more frontline roles; at Yosemite National Park, a shortage of custodial workers in spring 2025 meant the park’s scientists, IT specialists, and senior management had to take shifts cleaning toilets. Personnel cuts and delays in hiring seasonal workers have caused backups at entry gates, which at some big parks have been exacerbated by the scrapping of timed entry reservation systems. “The traffic reminded me of L.A. at rush hour,” said Sacramento resident Walter Meyer, who visited Yosemite in April.