The Trump administration, as part of its downsizing of the federal government, fired roughly 1,000 National Park Service (NPS) employees, who manage protected areas in the U.S. With more terminations on the horizon, former NPS employees are sounding the alarm that critical visitor services and research won’t be conducted, to the detriment of U.S. public lands and visitors.
More than 331 million people visited the U.S. national parks in 2024, the most visitors since records began 1904. The national parks can be dangerous; on average more than 300 visitors die each year and thousands need to be rescued. Russell Galipeau, spent 40 years with the NPS before retiring. He warns that staffing cuts could leave visitors without enough trained personnel to help in emergencies.
Galipeau’s last position at the NPS was superintendent of the Channel Islands National Park, off the coast of California. He now serves as on the board for the nonprofit Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.
Without enough experienced staff in the parks, Galipeau says poaching of plants, animals and fossils will likely increase. He adds that the parks may become degraded as visitors wander off trails; furthermore, roads and facilities may fall into disrepair.
Galipeau says he fears that ongoing research projects are at risk. Many parks have a project called Vital Signs, in which scientists track key indicators to assess overall park health.
“We can’t measure everything in a park, [but] if we can measure these four or five things, it’ll give us a sense of the health of the resource,” Galipeau says.
He cites the island fox (Urocyon littoralis) in the Channel Islands National Park as an example. Park scientists discovered that the fox, the island’s apex predator, was declining due to predation from golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), a protected species in the U.S., but nonnative to the island. To save the foxes, scientists relocated golden eagles and reintroduced bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), which are historically native to the island and prefer fish over foxes. Staff also started a captive breeding program for the fox. Without permanent staff to catch the problem and intervene, Galipeau says the foxes might have gone extinct in the park.
“You need that permanent staff there,” he says.
Many parks work to remove invasive species like rats, which threaten wildlife such as the Scripps’s murrelet (Synthliboramphus scrippsi). Galipeau says that if rats eat the seabird’s eggs and chicks because rangers aren’t there to eradicate invasives, the species’ survival is at risk.
Galipeau says Americans have a responsibility to maintain healthy parks for future generations, adding that he finds hope in the parks themselves.
“As bad as it may be, you have hope that it’s going to be better tomorrow. And where can you find hope? You go this weekend to a national park. That’s what you do,” he says.
Banner image: Banner image: an island fox on Channel Island National Park courtesy of Tim Coonan via NPS.
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