National Parks Face 'Lowest Staffing in Modern History' Ahead of Summer

Newsweek

6 days ago

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As summer approaches, the National Park Service is facing what has been described as its "lowest staffing levels in modern history," raising concerns about the agency's ability to manage record-high visitor numbers.
Kristen Brengel, the National Parks Conservation Association's senior vice president of government affairs, said in a recent webcast hosted by environmental nonprofit Oregon Wild that "this is probably the lowest staffing in modern history for the park service," according to reporting by California-based news website SFGate.
Newsweek has contacted the National Parks Conservation Association and the National Park Service via email for comment.
File photo: visitors take in the scenery from Tunnel View in Yosemite National Park, California.
File photo: visitors take in the scenery from Tunnel View in Yosemite National Park, California.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP
Why It Matters
The staffing crisis comes at a time when the country's many national parks are drawing record visitor levels. In 2024, the National Park Service reported a record-high number of people visiting the national parks - at more than 331 million recreational visits.
However, federal budget decisions are making it harder for the National Park Service to respond to the increased demand, particularly as it navigates a shortage of staff.
What To Know
The National Park Service has seen a 20 percent reduction of staff since 2010, and since January it has seen an additional 13 percent decrease in employees, according to the National Parks Conversation Association.
The park service has only hired around 3,000 of the promised 7,700 seasonal employees it vowed to take on after its hiring process was frozen and many permanent staff were laid off in February.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order mandating an immediate hiring freeze on the federal government, prohibiting any federal office from hiring new employees until late April.
While the president made some seasonal employees exempt from the hiring freeze, the park service is still going "into the heaviest visitation seasons for the parks, and they are completely understaffed with seasonals," Brengel said, according to SFGate.
In addition to the staffing challenges, the budget bill passed by the House of Representatives earlier this month proposed cutting all the remaining Inflation Reduction Act funding for the National Park Service.
This included $267 million, which the National Parks Conservation Association said could have supported critical park staffing needs.
The association said the funding was "essential" for "national park staffing and greenlighting mining development near Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, in the same watershed as Voyageurs National Park."
After thousands of park advocates spoke out, the final version of the bill has removed certain provisions, including one which would have seen thousands of acres of land in Utah and Nevada transferred elsewhere.
What People Are Saying
Daniel Hart, Director of Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the National Park Conservation Association, said in a press release in May on the staffing issues: "As we speak, hundreds of millions of visitors are making their way to America's national parks and nearby communities. And rather than provide support for our overwhelmed park staff, Congress is pushing a bill that will only make matters worse for Americans who not only love their public lands, but pay taxpayer dollars to ensure their protection and care."
What Happens Next
The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill now heads to the Senate.