From research to restrooms: Summer staffing crunch hits national parks after Trump cuts [View all]

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From research to restrooms: Summer staffing crunch hits national parks after Trump cuts

https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/research-restrooms-summer-staffing-crunch-hits-national-parks-after-trump-cuts-2025-06-08/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us


By Steve Gorman, Tim Reid and Ruffin Prevost


June 8, 20252:42 PM CDTUpdated 2 days ago


Parks watchdog group warns thin workforce puts tourists at risk

CODY, Wyoming, June 8 (Reuters) - At Yosemite National Park in California, one of the oldest and most popular U.S. natural preserves, the workforce is stretched so thin this season that nearly all staffers, even scientists, are required to take turns cleaning campground toilets, according to two people familiar with conditions there................................




..............In Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, 500 miles (800 km) to the north, workers are so overextended that the loss of just one plow truck driver in the high-elevation park would make it impossible to clear ice and snow from roads before travelers return en masse in the coming weeks, said Kevin Heatley, who quit as park superintendent in May in frustration over staff shortages.

Conservation advocates point to such extremes as signs that the National Park Service, already strained from growing numbers of visitors and years of lean funding, may be facing a busy but uncertain summer season.

The NPS has lost 13% of its 20,000-strong workforce since Trump took office in January, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, a watchdog-advocacy group, which attributes much of the drop to job eliminations and staff taking buyouts offered by DOGE.