Washington (AP) – The Trump administration has dismissed around 1,000 employees of the National Park Service newly hired who maintain and clean the parks, educate visitors and fulfill other functions within the framework of its general efforts to reduce the government.
The layoffs, which were not announced publicly but were confirmed by the Democratic senators and the members of the Chamber, come in the middle of what was Chaotic deployment of an aggressive program to eliminate thousands of federal jobs. The plan is led by the billionaire Elon Musk And the new government ministry of government efficiency, an external government organization designed to reduce federal spending. Adding to the confusion, the Park Service now says that it would reintegrate around 5,000 seasonal jobs which were initially canceled last month as part of a spending freezing Ordered by President Donald Trump.
Seasonal workers are systematically added during the hot weather to serve more than 325 million visitors who descend on the 428 parks, historic sites and other attractions of the country each year.
The defenders of the park affirm that the permanent cuts of staff will leave hundreds of national parks – including some of the best known and most visited sites – in sub -employment and confronted with difficult decisions concerning opening hours, security public and the protection of resources.
“Less personnel means shorter hours of the visitors center, delayed openings and closed campsite,” said Kristen Brengel, vice-president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, a defense group.
Waste will accumulate, the toilets will not be cleaned and maintenance problems will develop, she predicted. Guided tours will be reduced or canceled and, in the worst cases, public security could be at risk.
The actions of the Trump administration “push a park service already exceeded at its point of rupture,” said Brengel. “And the consequences will be felt in our parks for years.”
A spokesperson for the interior department, who oversees the park service, refused to comment on Monday. A separate email at the service of the park received no response.
Democrats in the chamber and Senate credit committees have confirmed layoffs within the framework of a broader list of layoffs ordered by the Trump administration.
“There is nothing” effective “to dismiss the thousands and thousands of workers without discrimination in red and blue states whose work is very necessary,” said senator Patty Murray. D-Wash., Vice-president of the credits panel, who blamed Trump and Musk.
“Two billionaires who have no concept of what the federal labor breaks the US government is doing – decimating essential services and leaving us worse,” said Murray.
Among the other cuts, 16 of the 17 supervision stations of the Grand Teton of Wyoming National Park have been eliminated, said Brengel, leaving only one person to hire, train and supervise dozens of seasonal employees expected this summer in the Popular Park where thousands of visitors are played at the Grizzly Bears and Bison.
In the Virginia Shenandoah National Park, fees and employees of the trails were dismissed, potentially making trails in the Popular Park near Washington, DC, impassable after heavy rains.
“They are mainly on their knees of people who need to train seasonal employees” working as Park Rangers, Maintenance Staff and Managers of Trails, said Brengel in an interview. “It puts the park in an untenable position. You will hurt tourism. “”
The layoffs can force small parks to close the centers of visitors and other facilities, while large parks will have to operate without the workers of cultural resources who help visitors interpret the park, fees of costs and even the processing operators wastewater, she said.
Stacy Ramsey, put away at the National Buffalo river in Arkansas, wrote on Facebook that she was dismissed on Friday. She had been a probation employee during the first year of a four -year position funded by the law on the reduction of 2022 inflation, The climate law signed by former president Joe Biden.
“Those who have made or care about the decision that the main objective of my position is to provide preventive education for research and rescue, to ensure the safety of visitors to the park?” She asked in a largely shared Facebook publication.
Brian Gibbs, who had been an environmental educator at the National Monument of Effigy Mounts in Iowa, was a broken heart after losing what he called his “dream work” on Friday.
“I am the defender of your land and public waters,” wrote Gibbs on Facebook in another widely shared article. “I am the motivation to invent the hill … The dressing for a flayed knee” and “the lesson that has shown your children that we live in a world of gifts – not basic products. This gratitude and this reciprocity are the door of real abundance, not power, money or fear. »»
An expenses freezing under a five -year law signed by Trump also endangers national parks, said Brengel and other defenders. The Great American Outdoors Act, adopted with bipartite support in 2020 and signed by Trump, Authorizes $ 6.5 billion over five years to maintain and improve national parks.
The program is crucial to reducing a massive maintenance backlog in parks and is often praised as a success of the legislators of both parties. The frost could slow down improvements in roads and bridges in Yellowstone National Park, which is in the midst of a $ 216 million project to improve safety, access and experience on the road roads. The project is mainly funded by the Great American Outdoors Act.
Democratic senators have denounced job cuts, claiming that in a letter before mass layoffs, if a significant number of workers from the National Park Service took an early retirement package offered by Trump or were linked to their posts: “The Park staff will be in chaos. Not only does this threaten all the follow -up of visitors’ services, but could completely close whole parks, “the senators wrote.
The letter was directed by Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Angus King of Maine and signed by 20 other senators.
The staff of the victim of the units of the National Park “will devastate the local communities of” bridge “where the parks generate an important economic activity – from hotels to restaurants, including stores via senators,” the senators wrote. Visitors to the park supported around 415,000 jobs and $ 55.6 billion in total economic activity in 2023, they said.
Ramsey wrote on Facebook that she had helped with at least 20 backups on the National Buffalo river in Arkansas in the past five years. She said that she was working like River Ranger, the higher district costs collector, her interpreter and even helped with concessions and maintenance during her stay in the park.
The Buffalo, established as the first national river in the United States by the Congress in 1972, flows freely through the Ozark mountains of Arkansas for 135 miles of quiet swimming pools, majestic bluffs and rapid blows. It is one of the rare unknown rivers remaining in the 48 lower states.
Ramsey remained in the River Ranger employment despite the possibilities of more permanent positions, she said: “Because I liked to seek the safety of people on the river.”
“I really liked my work,” she wrote. “The river houses me.”
___
