Our National Park Service (NPS) is at an unprecedented crossroads. We’ve put them in a bind with the largest staff reductions in their history and a tripling maintenance backlog that jeopardizes the integrity of America’s most beautiful landscapes. Additionally, more than 1,000 agency employees—most of them on probationary status—have been fired, adding to an already over-stretched workforce. Our national parks experienced unprecedented years of visitation. The NPS faced challenges in keeping up staffing and funding levels, putting the agency’s operational effectiveness in question.
In fact, the NPS saw a record 331 million visitors last year. Amidst this boom, the creation of permanent staff positions has been in a decade-long free fall. In real terms, the congressional appropriation for park operations in 2025 is still about where it was in 2002. Yet this stagnation in funding continues, which is particularly troubling given how the number of visitors continues to surge. The agency has a staggering deferred maintenance backlog of more than $22 billion. In the process, our most critical infrastructure is literally crumbling and in dire need of urgent repair.
In Alaska, the NPS is reeling from extreme staffing cuts. Now, just one unprecedentedly overworked individual is responsible for overseeing archaeology and protecting cultural resources nationwide across more than 50 million acres of national park land. The NPS’s tribal liaison program has been critically decimated. Regional and national offices that used to have dozens of employees have, in some cases, cut back to just five staff. This extreme cut prevents essential outreach to Indigenous communities.
As an element of a larger plan to decrease spending by $7 billion, the NPS has suggested cutting funding by more than $1 billion. New restrictions have been enacted, such as a statewide hiring freeze and restrictions on out-of-state travel costs and big purchases. The agency wants to cut hundreds of initiatives, such as the popular Scientists in Parks program. This program effectively introduces students and early career scientists into national park workforces.
“The administration would target the National Park Service to prove their point on the federal budget,” said Kristen Brengel. This sentiment is indicative of the sense of desperation among the agency’s leadership as it tries to make moves through a more and more oppositional turf.
Though these are invaluable contributions, they are still complicating times, and park managers report continuing difficulties in keeping their staffs’ morale high. One supervisor noted, “I have spent a lot of time trying to calm our staff.” That instability has brought with it an all-consuming atmosphere of fear and doubt. Just the not knowing that every day you come to work and you have no idea what is going to happen the next. It’s as if we’re all being forced to participate in psychological warfare,” said one other supervisor.
This erosion of the formerly-strong NPS programs is worrisome. More worryingly, it raises fundamental questions about the agency’s capacity to carry out its legal mandate to protect park resources. Recent proposed rule changes to the Endangered Species Act under the Trump administration raised some serious alarms. These amendments are an attempt to roll back the requirements to protect areas of special concern.
“Former NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis issued a statement on the larger significance of these moves. “There are ideologues who want to dismantle the federal government,” he stated. “And the last thing they need is a highly popular federal agency that undermines their argument about how the government is dysfunctional.” He further suggested that this strategy may be designed to make the agency fail: “This is their chance to kill the golden goose.”
In popular parks like the Great Smoky Mountains, operational challenges are evident with five out of ten campgrounds closing due to insufficient staffing. This alarming trend is symptomatic of a larger national issue threatening the public’s ability to experience these beloved landscapes.
Today, the NPS is still stuck in this perfect storm where funding shortfalls and human capital challenges continue to threaten its vital mission. If trends continue, the agency’s dedication to conservation and providing a quality experience to visitors will be deeply eroded.