While the Trump administration continues to reduce the federal employee, the National Park Service, which almost 10% of its employees lost due to the comprehensive cuts, reported only that 2024 set a record high for visits to their parks.
Almost 332 million people appeared in America's national parks last year to hike in America's national parks, camp or simply get fresh air. That is 6 million more visits than in the previous year and a million more visits than in the previous record, which were set up in 2016.
The news comes when the parking ladder, after the loss of the loss of hundreds of constant workers, struggles to the parking ladder, how they keep the parks clean and bring the visitors to safety. Around 1,000 employees of the national park in the probation helper – generally in the first two years of service – were released on 14 February together with tens of thousands of other federal employees of the federal government, part of a multi -cyst robber, which is orchestrated by Elon Musk's White House Advisory Team, which he describes as the ministry of government efficiency or mastiff.
At the other end of the spectrum, more than 700 Park -Service employees take part in the Trump management program that enables federal employees to resign now, but continue to receive their salaries and services by September. Such programs usually attract older employees who approach retirement.
“It is a slap in the face of the hundreds of millions of people who explored our parks last year and want to go back” National park protection Assn. “Americans love their national parks; These cuts have no public support. “
The National Park Service is probably the most popular branch of a large and extensive German bureaucracy. Even Americans who are lost a little in the Alphabet soup of other agencies – there are more than 400 of them – will probably never forget to stand in the Yosemite Valley and to grab in a quiet miracle with a high -towering waterfall.
The first cuts for the agency, which the Trump government announced in January – the positions of thousands of seasonal workers who collect entrance fees, clean toilets and help with search and rescue processes triggered a quick and angry counter reaction.
After a coordinated social media campaign by Parks employees and outdoor enthusiasts across the country, the Trump government restored the seasonal positions and swore to hire hundreds of more temporary employees this year.
However, this was a remarkable exception to the overarching strategy of the government to be apparently indiscriminately cuts.
The National Park Service has lost a total of around 1,700 permanent employees all year round under 20,000 years.
The losses are almost 15 years without significant funding increases in the parking service budget, said Brengel. “This means that many employees have already done more than one job and have been doing this for years,” she said.
California has nine national parks, more than any other state, including renowned areas such as Yosemite, Joshua Tree and Death Valley. Their rising cliffs and their night sky with stars are the backdrop of millions of family vacation every year. According to the Park Service website, there were more than 4 million visits to Yosemite last year, almost 3 million for Joshua Tree and about 1.4 million for Death Valley.
On the agency's website, the record visits of last year were published on the agency's website, but none of the usual solemn fanfare. Instead, it was more of a cautious whisper, which nowadays indicates the general mood in the federal workforce.
“You hear so many rumors, especially here in DC, about people who are released because they have done something that contradicts the agenda of the Trump government,” said Brengel. “Everyone is just afraid.”
National Park Service officers did not answer a request for comments.