Don't blink: Your NPS is being annihilated before your very eyes

For immediate release March 24, 2025

Contact Bill Wade at bwade@anpr.org or 520-444-3973 

Don’t Blink: Your Priceless National Park System
s Being Annihilated Before Your Very Eyes

TUCSON, AZ – DOGE is carrying out its actions with everything but “efficiency.”

The agency was established by Executive Order on January 20, to: “...implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity” [emphasis added].

Why then, are these facts about the National Park Service, being disregarded by DOGE:

• On August 12, 2024, the Pew Research Center reported that the National Park Service (NPS) has a 76% favorable rating among Americans surveyed – the highest favorable rating of any federal agency.
• The National Park Service receives a very small portion of the overall federal budget, less than one-fifteenth of one percent.
• The NPS budget is a little over $3 billion. There are just under 167 million taxpayers in the US. That means the NPS budget costs each American taxpayer roughly $18 per year.
• In 2024, the National Park Service saw a record-breaking 331.9 million recreation visits, a 2% increase from 2023.
• In 2023, park visitors contributed to $32.0 billion in GDP and generated $55.5 billion in goods and services.
  • For every $1 appropriated for national parks, approximately $18 are generated to the national economy. That’s a 1700% return on investment.
• In 2023, there were 415,400 jobs in local economies tied to supporting national park visitors, generating $19.4 billion in wages and salaries.

Rick Mossman, president of the Association of National Park Rangers (ANPR) said, "You would think that these statistics would argue for increasing the investment (budget and staffing) for national parks. Instead, Elon Musk is using DOGE ‘to drastically reduce the federal workforce and weed out what he sees as taxpayers' money being wasted.’ Despite the value and benefit being provided to Americans by national parks, they are systematically being robbed of their abilities to meet their mission ....to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.’”

It’s been only two months since it started, but the dismantling and impairment of the national parks and the devastation to its employees have been progressing at a dizzying rate. Here is a summary of what has happened so far:

• Immediately after Inauguration Day, a freeze was placed on the hiring of all seasonal employees of the NPS and offers for jobs that had already been made were rescinded. One person said, “I was on my way to my new job when I got an email that I no longer had the job.”
• On January 28, employees received an email (called the “Fork in the Road”) saying they could continue to be paid until Sept. 30, provided they resign by February 6. Approximately 700 NPS permanent employees, including many senior leaders took this “buyout.” One employee has commented, “There are almost no leaders left in the Northeast Regional Office (Philadelphia).”
• In early February, NPS received information that the General Services Administration will terminate the leases on 34 buildings used in various ways by a number of parks. The headquarters for Wupatki National Monument, Sunset Crater National Monument and Walnut Canyon National Monument in Flagstaff, Arizona is on the list to be closed.
• On February 14, nearly 1,000 permanent employees in their probationary period (meaning usually first year on board) were indiscriminately terminated by email with no more than two hours’ notice to turn in their government equipment and retrieve their personal items from their workplace and leave. At the end of that time, their access to their official government email was shut off and they could not even retrieve important personnel documents.
• On February 20, with almost no warning, a limit was placed on the use of government credit card purchases, capping the charge limit at $1. At Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site in Pennsylvania, a request has been made to the public to help feed the farm animals, since the park is unable to purchase the necessary feed.
• On February 21, the freeze on hiring seasonal employees was lifted and the NPS is allowed to hire up to 7700 temporary employees for the upcoming high travel season. One superintendent said, “While this is good news, I’m not sure we can get them all hired by the beginning of our busy season in time to avoid some impacts to visitors; and then what happens to our operations when all the seasonals are gone at the end of the season?”
• On Saturday, February 22, an email went to all employees requiring them to submit their five accomplishments for the week, warning, “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” They were given a deadline of 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday the 24th. Subsequently, they were instructed to ignore this request and then to submit this information to the Department of the Interior instead. Then employees were informed it was voluntary. Then on March 1, a second request for the same information was received by employees. Employees are still required to submit their accomplishments weekly. One employee commented: “Since they’ve abolished our ‘Employee Performance Appraisal Process’ is this now the way they are evaluating our performance?”
• At the end of February, two federal judges ruled that the firing of the probationary employees was illegal and the NPS was ordered to reinstate them all to their original positions with back pay and benefits. Initially, some were told they would be reinstated, but placed on indefinite administrative leave. After several days of confusion, the NPS said that all fired employees “who could be reached” would be rehired to their original positions. Those who “opted out” or who couldn’t be reached, would be considered to have voluntarily resigned. One employee who returned to their home in another state after being fired said, “I had to pay to get to the job, then I had to pay to get back home, now I would have to pay to get back to the job. I’m just not sure I want to go back after being treated this way.”

The Demolition is Likely to Continue

On February 26, a memorandum was distributed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to all federal agencies requiring them to submit an “Agency RIF and Reorganization Plan (ARRP)” by March 13. The memo stated that ARRPs should seek to achieve the following:

1. Better service for the American people;
2. Increased productivity;
3. A significant reduction in the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) positions by eliminating positions that are not required;
4. A reduced real property footprint; and
5. Reduced budget topline.

“We don’t know what the outcome of this and subsequent actions by DOGE will be,” said Bill Wade, executive director of ANPR. “We do know that NPS employees are confused, disheartened and scared. We know that visitor experiences are being impacted by closures and reduced hours and reduced custodial functions. We know that delays in responses to visitors who are lost or injured could result in more serious injury or even death. We know that there is likely to be increasing impairment of park resources from reduced maintenance on historic structures, relic hunting in Civil War parks or ‘pot-hunting’ in archeological parks. How does this better serve the American people or increase productivity?”

“There is nothing at all that is ‘efficient’ about the way that the Department of Government Efficiency has applied its chain saw approach to the National Park Service,” said Mossman. “Moreover, the American public should be worried that all this could lead to a conclusion that the NPS is unable to effectively carry out its mission, so the solution is to ‘privatize’ national park management.”

Given the value of parks to the American people and the economic benefits to the nation, former NPS Director Jon Jarvis said, “The new Administration would be wise to figure out how to support the National Park Service, its extraordinary employees and their millions of fans."

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