Jackson
Leaders from Wyoming conservation groups and the Center for Western Priorities called on President Donald Trump, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and Wyoming’s congressional delegation to stop attacking and instead fully fund America’s parks and public lands.
At a community gathering and press conference, the Keep Parks Public tour highlighted the ongoing threats to American public lands, including budget cuts, increased risk of wildfire, limited access to educational programming in the parks, diminished earnings for local businesses, and pollution brought from companies seeking to extract natural resources. The gathering was organized by the Center for Western Priorities and the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance.
The event was held one day before a congressional field hearing in Grand Teton National Park aimed at “modernizing” the Great American Outdoors Act, a bipartisan achievement which President Trump signed in 2020. Funding for the Legacy Restoration Fund, one of the cornerstones of the GAOA, will expire this month unless Congress steps in.
Speakers at the press conference included Wyoming State Representative Liz Storer, Jenny Fitzgerald, executive director of the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Peggie dePasquale, a former U.S. Forest Service Ranger in the Bridger-Teton National Forest who now represents the Wyoming Wilderness Association, and Lauren Bogard, senior director of advocacy at the Center for Western Priorities.
“Being terminated from my wilderness ranger job with the forest service obviously makes the issue personal to me, but this should feel personal to everyone. These places belong to all Americans and reversing the recent staffing cuts needs to be a shared priority if we have any hope in getting boots back on ground.”
Across the country, funding and staffing shortages have left national parks, monuments, and forests scrambling to serve summer visitors:
At Grand Teton National Park, 16 of 17 supervisory positions were eliminated, leaving just one person to hire, train, and supervise dozens of seasonal employees.
At Yosemite National Park, some seasonal employees worked for up to six weeks without pay. Staff members at the park, including scientists and hydrologists were reassigned to cleaning tasks and acted as gate attendants to keep the park running.
At Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado, all custodial staff have been terminated, and a third of the park’s 74 positions remain vacant.
At the nearby Curecanti National Recreation Area, four out of ten campgrounds were closed due to short staffing.
At Montana’s Bitterroot National Forest, between 30 and 40 of the 208 employees have been fired or taken buyouts.
In Utah, local rangers received just $2,500 to manage all 57 pit toilets along Mirror Lake Highway in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest.