“We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.” The quote is sometimes attributed to Konstantin Josef Jireček, a 19th-century Czech historian and diplomat. But, of late, it may be well-used by National Park Service rangers and managers. While park service staffing levels shrink by firings and prompted “separations”, park managers are now being told not to cut back services.

Park Service staffing goes down, but managers told to keep things rolling

The ball got rolling last week when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued a directive telling the National Park Service (NPS) to make sure all national parks are properly staffed and open according to the hours listed on their websites. As we’ve reported, some national parks and park-operated sites have been cutting back operating hours and even campground availability.

What led to the cutbacks and closures? A hiring freeze, a pause on seasonal hiring, an attempt to fire 1,000 probationary employees, and pressure on others to retire early. Despite the huge cutbacks in manpower, Burgum’s order to the director of National Parks is to keep all parks open and ensure visitor services, like campgrounds and trails, remain available as advertised. It also stated that any changes, such as closing facilities, shortening hours, or cutting services, must first be approved by top officials at the department.

One can only imagine the consternation the order placed on park superintendents. What are they to do, in order to keep a bold face on anything park visitors may see or experience, yet do it with what was already a shortage of people power?

“Superintendents will need to scramble”

“This new memo from the National Park Service shows how much park superintendents will need to scramble in order to maintain visitor services and resource protection in parks this summer,” Kristen Brengel, senior vice president for government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, told National Parks Traveler. “Rather than lift the hiring freeze and stop a reduction-in-force, the administration is asking park staff to stretch themselves even thinner. This is not good for our parks and their visitors and resources.”

Evidently, higher-ups at the Park Service got wind of the concerns of park superintendents. Early this week, Jessica Bowron, the acting NPS director, fired off an email to park managers. It told them how they should handle the “stretched-thin but keep it open” directive. How to handle park service staffing? In the email, she told them they should simply reassign whatever existing staff they had left to handle “public-facing” jobs. Is your park short-handed? Then get workers from other national parks. Lean on volunteers. The advice even suggested that national parks should “borrow” staff from state parks.

Park managers might be losing sleep over this, but the big question is—How’s it going to affect visitors? Higher echelon park management essentially says, “Everything is beautiful.” “As in other years, we are working hard to ensure we make this another great year for visitors. National park employees are dedicated problem solvers used to working around obstacles and will continue to work hard to provide memorable experiences this summer,” said Rachel Pawlitz, the agency’s public affairs chief, in an email to National Parks Traveler.

Warning to park visitors: Read between the lines

But an additional paragraph in the email gives a “read between the lines” warning for those heading to the parks. “As always, travelers visiting national parks this summer should do their due diligence by planning for their trip,” Pawlitz continued. “This means doing research about the park you’re looking to visit, understanding what passes or reservations you will need, creating a backup plan in case things don’t go as planned, packing the 10 essentials, and making sure you download the NPS App to access park information and maps while in the park.”

“A backup plan in case things don’t go as planned.” It could be just a coincidence, but we noticed a number of individual national park websites have put out “where you can camp near the park” information releases recently. Does that mean these parks are expecting higher-than-normal in-park campground use? Or that despite the Interior Department chief’s direction, it just might be impossible to stretch staffers thin enough to cover the needs?

Park Service already down 20%, then another 6%

There certainly is reason to wonder about it. “Staffing to operate national parks had already fallen by 20 percent since 2010, and now we’re seeing at least a 6 percent loss in Park Service staffing in less than three months—and that’s a very conservative estimate,” John Garder told National Parks Traveler. “We’ve never seen such a devastating assault on the dedicated staff of the Park Service, and if this keeps up, we’re looking at a park system gutted of its experts who don’t just provide for visitors but research and protect those irreplaceable resources people go to enjoy.”

Garder tracks budget and appropriations issues for the National Parks Conservation Association. On top of his concerns about staffing cuts, he pointed to a major decision that rangers and other staff had to make earlier this week. Wednesday was the deadline for many Park Service employees to accept a federal buyout offer: Quit now and still receive pay through September. It remains unclear how many chose to take the offer, and what the impact on park staffing will be.

Park Service staffing issues will affect RVers and other visitors. We’d like to hear your experiences as you visit national parks. Please leave comments below.

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