(NewsNation) — National parks across the U.S. face service reductions and staffing shortages due to federal budget cuts, affecting nearly 1,000 employees and potentially millions of visitors.
According to the National Parks Conservation Association, about 400 people took the federal buyout, and about 1,000 more were laid off.
Despite a hiring freeze, the Department of the Interior reinstated 5,000 seasonal employees last week, and now they’re signing off on over 2,000 more.
Elon Musk gives federal workers ‘another chance’ to justify jobs
“The Park Service has been given clearance to hire as many as 7,700 seasonal staff, which is a good number, but definitely not a replacement for those permanent staff that have been lost, that provide the expertise to manage those seasonals and operate parks and protect resources,” John Garder representative for National Parks Conservation Association Government told NewsNation.
“People should be prepared to lower their standards, because they may very well see things like long lines on the way into the park, dirty bathrooms, or even some closed bathrooms or visitor centers,” he added.
The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado announced on Facebook that it would be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays due to a lack of staffing.
At Yosemite National Park, photographer Brittany Colt captured the American flag being hung upside down on the famous El Capitan rock formation. An upside-down flag is a sign of distress.
“I realized that there was about six climbers up there rigging a American flag upside down right next to the fire fall,” Colt told NewsNation.
According to the National Park Service, more than 325 million people visited national parks in 2023, up 13 million from just the previous year.
The National Parks Conservation Association said the visitors spent more than $26 billion in businesses near national parks in 2023.
