Parks and Park Employees in Peril
- jakiday4
- 20 hours ago
- 3 min read
Bill Pierce was a Park Ranger and Park Superintendent for the National Park Service for 40 years. He served at Glacier, Olympic, Katmai, Lake Clark, Great Smoky Mountains, Everglades, Capitol Reef, Crater Lake, Redwoods and Shenandoah National Parks. He also served at Point Reyes National Seashore, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Devils Tower National Monument. He was the back-country Ranger for all of the North Carolina side of Great Smokies in the 1970’s and has come back to Blount County in retirement.
Parks and Park Employees in Peril
By Bill Pierce, retired Park Ranger and Superintendent
Currently over 2,500 employees have been terminated, as well as funding cuts and purchasing limited in all of the 433 Park areas. The Administration has proposed an additional $1 Billion cut to the National Park Service (NPS) budget and the administration is about to terminate thousands more employees with a Reduction in Force this month. This would be a 25% reduction in the budget and require closure of some areas and reductions in protection, services and safety in all of the Parks.
Add to these, two orders from the Secretary of the Interior that directly impact the Parks and employees. The first order delegates full responsibility for budget, operations and human resources to DOGE ( Department of Government Efficiency) and the second is a requirement that all Park Superintendents get prior approval from the Department before any reduction in hours of operation or services (including trails, roads, campgrounds, visitor centers, etc.).
Congress has also proposed cutting $267 million in the NPS FY 2026 budget and reductions in employee benefits and retirement. There is a freeze on all permanent hiring and a delay in seasonal hiring along with consolidation of all human resource offices to the Department level. All of these proposed cuts along with the losses over the past few years has made for the “perfect storm” that imperils our Parks and employees.
The NPS protects, interprets and provides access to the most important cultural, historical, natural and recreational areas of our Country. The NPS preserves millions of the most important artifacts, second only to the Smithsonian Institute, and provides for over 300 million visitors a year.
Locally Great Smoky Mountains National Park serves over 13 million visitors a year and generates over 3.3 Billion dollars to local businesses. The Park currently has no permanent Superintendent and has 14 vacant positions including a wildlife biologist, a botanist, 11 maintenance positions and a museum technician. Purchasing authority has been limited in the Park and supplies are running out for daily operations. There are over 19,000 species of plants and animals preserved in the Park, miles of trails, campgrounds, roads, picnic areas and historic structures and collections to maintain.
Our greatest natural, cultural, recreational and historical sites are in peril and need our support. The world’s “Best Idea” and first public lands saved for this and future generations cannot be lost on our watch! Our generations need to step forward and gain support to save our collective heritage for our grandchildren. If you are looking for more information two sites that have current and accurate information on the NPS are NPCA.org and PROTECTNPS.org or write me at flamingo12az@aim.com.
