President Trump on Monday put a freeze on federal government hiring, an action that could have wide-ranging impacts for the National Park Service as it moves to hire thousands of seasonal rangers and other employees for the upcoming summer.
Beyond seasonal positions, there are many vacancies involving permanent positions that parks are trying to fill. Then, too, there are personnel who have been offered permanent jobs but haven't begun working and are wondering how the hiring freeze will impact them.
At the National Parks Conservation Association, President and CEO Theresa Pierno said the hiring freeze would adversely affect the National Park System.
“Protecting our national parks requires the dedicated efforts of tens of thousands of rangers and other Park Service employees every day, but much of their staffs are edging closer to retirement. Parks already have 10 percent fewer rangers and other staff compared to a few years ago," said Theresa Pierno in a prepared statement. "They cannot continue to be hampered by low staffing, and that’s exactly what will happen with this hiring freeze.
"Park rangers are already forced to do more with less because they don’t have enough staff to handle record-breaking crowds. If Congress and the administration don’t work together to better staff our parks, this will only make it harder for those remaining park staff to care for and manage America’s favorite places.”
Traveler has reached out to Park Service officials for their interpretation of the scope of the hiring freeze and will update the story when possible.
Comments
Yes, I want to go back to what the founding fathers envisioned and yes the wild west or maybe even before that.
I simply cannot believe that you advocate banning foreign tourism. That won't solve anything but put our parks in a more dire financial situation. We, like other countries, rely on tourism to EMPLOY people, directly and indirectly. Let's see how you like it when you can't access America's parks, or perhaps you simply do not care.
The Great American Entitlement Mentality will eventually come into play in some way here. When Entitled Americans suddenly realize they are not going to be receiving the services and infrastructure they have come to depend on, the screams of agony will be loud and prolonged.
Blaming the Obama administration for low park funding is also a falsehood. (Plenty of those to go around these days, though.) It is something called CONGRESS that has consistently cut, cut, cut and cut again the budgets proposed by that administration.
We heard this evening that DJT is proposing to seek "private funding" of much of his proposed infrastructure work. That includes such things as highways, bridges, and who know what else. No one has explained how "private funding" will work, but even some in the GOP are beginning to worry that many of our highways will become toll roads to repay the investors. There has not been much reaction from them yet -- ostensibly because details are currently still very murky. However, the Tea Party will love it -- won't they? Until they roll up to a toll booth, that is.
We need George Hartzog again.
You xenophobes would be cute if we hadn't just elected a xenophobic jingoistic isolationist. Until his impeachment, it is going to be interesting times [in terms of the ancient Chinese curse].
That's not a solution. Keep in mind that those foreigners also pay entrance fees to visit US national parks and those fees are what allow that parks to be able to continue functioning so that we can all enjoy them. The park service mission does not specify that parks exist for US citizens. Parks are here for the enjoyment of this and future generations whether from the US or somewhere else. Other options need to be examined to handle the crowds.
Are you banned from visiting national parks in other countries because you are a foreigner?
All the snowflake NPS staff will have to stop wasting time with thier identity politics and fake climate change and have to actually work. I'm sure there is a pile of administrative staff that could do the work. Go Trump Go!
Im a wildland firefighter, I rely on seasonal employment in region 5 of our countires forest service. I am without a job.