Overcrowding and piles of rubbish: Elon Musk's Doge cutbacks plunge America's parks into crisis

Telegraph

28-02-2025

On a cold morning on Feb 14 1862, a flotilla of Union ironclads slowly approached Fort Donelson in Tennessee with the hope of seizing the Confederate stronghold.
Anticipating the attack, the South defended its base with a curtain of artillery fire, turning the gunboats' decks slippery with blood and forcing the Unionists to retreat.
On the same day 163 years later, park ranger David Hatfield regaled visitors at Fort Donelson National Battlefield about the twists and turns of that momentous battle as they stood in the exact spots where the events unfolded.
The anniversary was one of the busiest days of the year, for which Mr Hatfield had been preparing for months, and the scores of visitors appeared to have enjoyed their trip.
Hours later, Mr Hatfield was fired.
While Brigadier General Ulysses S Grant's men would return on February 15 and emerge victorious, in what was the first major victory for the North in the Civil War. Mr Hatfield would not finish the three-day program he had meticulously crafted to commemorate it.
'It was devastating and just infuriating... I definitely wound up crying a lot once I saw it and just angry as well,' he told The Telegraph.
The 29-year-old was one of the 1,000 National Park Service (NPS) probationary workers sacked by the Trump administration in what has been dubbed the 'Valentine's Day massacre'.
The mass layoffs were part of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency's crusade to cut government waste and slash spending across federal agencies.
But the axing of swathes of staff has sparked concern over overcrowding, rubbish build-up and long waits for the more than 325 million visitors who descend on the nation's parks and historic sites each year.
Some of the effects were instant. At the Grand Canyon and Utah's Zion National Park visitors were hit with lengthy queues over Presidents Day Weekend after staff who worked in the entry booths were fired.
Others were forced to cut their operations. Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado announced on Facebook it would be closed Mondays and Tuesdays, the Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa said it would now close two days a week.
Those fired this month also included the only pilot at Wrangell-St Elias National Park in Alaska, according to Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers.
Without a pilot he questions how it is possible to control the biggest National Park in the country, which spans 13.2 million acres.
'Now they don't have the ability to patrol the park, to protect the wildlife from poachers, to locate people who might be overdue in the backcountry, or climbers that might be in distress,' he said.
The only plumber at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington was also let go, he said.
Nate Vince, the only locksmith at Yosemite National Park in California, who said he trained for four years under his predecessor before taking on the job, was also sacked, raising concerns about what happens if a visitor gets stuck in the toilets.
Mr Vince was among a group of fired workers who hung an upside down US flag – a sign of distress – over the park's iconic El Capitan rock formation to protest the job cuts.
Following public outcry, last week the Trump administration gave the green light for NPS to hire up to 7,700 positions this year, higher than in previous years. It has also reinstated at least 50 fired workers in what has been seen as a U-turn to the unpopular policy.
But Mr Wade, who worked for the National Park Service his whole life, said getting rid of experienced staff will have ramifications on protecting park resources, as well as visitor experience.
'We have heard that the two functions that are hit the hardest were the people who, in some parks, we're doing the fee collection, staffing the interest stations and that sort of thing,' he said.
'And then the other category that seems to be hit hard in some parks is the people who are doing the interpretation education, staffing visitor centres, giving school programs, giving ranger-led walks and talks.'
He also criticised the email last weekend asking federal workers to explain what they did the previous week as 'heartless and cruel' after the layoffs.
'Those of us that worked for the park service for a long time, and even those that are working still, you know, recognise that their salaries and benefits are probably lower than many jobs that they could get into the private sector... we used to say that we got paid through sunsets,' he said
'But people are passionate about their jobs, they enjoy it,' he said.
Jim Landahl had been moving willow trees from the nursery to the helipad at Grand Canyon National Park when he received the email saying he had been fired because of concerns over his performance.
The biological science technician, 29, was in the middle of a project restoring privacy and shade hedges which had been ripped out at Phantom Ranch campground to make way for a water pipeline upgrade.
It is now on hold and he fears the work won't be complete before the busy season.
'Phantom Ranch can get up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49C) in the summertime, so if those campers that are hiking down to the river get to their campsite and don't have shade, that's a potential safety issue,' he said.
Mr Landahl had worked at the park since 2022, but accepted a promotion in July and was in his probation period. He said his position was funded by Mr Trump's 2020 Great American Outdoors Act.
'When you walk around the national parks everything looks so pristine. A lot of folks don't realise that that naturalised look is because there's restoration scientists and trails people and vegetation folks working directly to renaturalise disturbances,' he said.
There is also a part of the park which looks like it has a 'two-lane highway' cutting across it because of the work to the pipeline, he said, adding that 'we're going to see that scar on the land for hundreds of years, potentially, because desert restoration takes years'.
US Forest Service layoffs
It is not just the NPS that has seen mass layoffs. Liz Crandall is one of thousands of US Forest Service employees who lost their jobs earlier this month.
Ms Crandall, who was one of 16 workers fired from Deschutes National Forest in Oregon, fears there will be a spike in wildfires without field rangers like her patrolling remote areas of the parks.
'Any remote, weird, middle of nowhere forest road that you're driving on, that's my area. I kind of saw myself as the eyes of the forest... if people are going there it's because they want to get away from people... there's some good intentions, some bad intentions.'
The 32-year-old was trained as a 'militia', which meant she was a qualified firefighter, and she estimates she called in over 100 abandoned campfires over the years.
'Wildfire incidents are going to be prolonged and probably more catastrophic because we're going to have less personnel that are able to work on them,' she said.
And, unlike the NPS, the Forest Service has not been given the nod to hire thousands of seasonal workers to help the depleted workforce over the peak season, meaning facilities could remain locked and rubbish could build up.
She had worked for the forest service for nine years and was coming towards the end of her two-year probationary period for her current role at the Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District when she was told she was being sacked.
Like the hundreds of others let go, Ms Crandall's dismissal included the claim that there were issues with her performance, despite having won several awards for her achievements.
She has vowed she is not going to give up her 'dream job' without a fight and is looking to launch legal action.
'I'm not going to let somebody that I did not elect from Doge to kick me out of my own job for reasons that are totally false,' she said.
A United States Department of Agriculture spokesman said Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, 'fully supports the president's directive to improve government, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA's many services to the American people'.
They added: 'As part of this effort, USDA has made the difficult decision to release about 2,000 probationary, non-firefighting employees from the Forest Service. To be clear, none of these individuals were operational firefighters.
'Released employees were probationary in status, many of whom were compensated by temporary IRA funding. It's unfortunate that the Biden administration hired thousands of people with no plan in place to pay them long term. Secretary Rollins is committed to preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted.'
A department of interior spokesman said the National Park Service is hiring seasonal workers to 'continue enhancing the visitor experience as we embrace new opportunities for optimisation and innovation in workforce management'.
She added: 'NPS is working closely with the Office of Personnel Management to ensure we are prioritising fiscal responsibility for the American people. As always, NPS will continue to provide critical services and deliver excellent customer service. Our teams are dedicated to staffing to meet the evolving needs of our visitors, ensuring memorable and meaningful experiences for all.'
Anna Kelly, the White House deputy press secretary, said: 'In his first term, president Trump proved that environmental stewardship and economic greatness can go hand-in-hand.
'Less than a month into his second term, president Trump turned on the water to prevent another tragedy like the recent California wildfires, and he has urged Democrats like Gavin Newsom to adopt policies that better maintain our nation's forests. He will continue to protect America's abundant natural resources while streamlining federal agencies to better serve the American people.'