“This administration is using very blunt tools to reduce government in a way that doesn’t regard parks,” Lehnertz said on a recent episode of Forum.
Kenan Chan, a former marine scientist at Channel Islands National Park, was one such national parks worker affected. His work focused on intertidal monitoring for a program that tracked changes in population in kelp forests, algae, invertebrates and fish for over 40 years — with the goal to identify trends and potential threats to the ecosystem’s overall health.
Chan, who is from the Bay Area, had been with NPS as a seasonal employee for a decade before finally securing a permanent position in October last year. But just months into his new role, he was let go on Valentine’s Day — and “it happened very fast and unexpectedly,” Chan said.
Former marine scientist Kenan Chan working on long-term intertidal monitoring at Channel Islands National Park. (Courtesy of Kenan Chan)
How will national parks — and their visitors — be changed by these losses?
These layoffs have included public-facing roles like campsite maintenance, custodial teams and even search and rescue personnel — the absence of which can have extreme consequences for visitor safety.
Alex Wild, a former interpretive ranger and Emergency Medical Technician at Devil’s Postpile National Monument, about 50 miles south of Yosemite, told Bloomberg that in the summer and fall, he would respond to emergency calls “two to three times a week and mostly on weekends, to respond to visitor emergencies.” These situations, said Wild, can range from “a twisted ankle” to “a flare-up of a heart condition.”
Fewer staff performing emergency medical technician and search and rescue roles means that visitors might have to wait longer for the remaining staff to respond to emergencies. Jump ahead to: What should national parks visitors know about safety amid the layoffs?
The layoffs have impacted not only public-facing positions like campsite maintenance and search and rescue but also roles that usually go unnoticed and are essential for long-term park health. “There are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that are critical to ensuring the park maintains a healthy system, which will be maintained for generations to come,” Chan said.
Chan’s work has helped track changes experienced at the Channel Islands. “We’ve documented new invasive species, we’ve tracked the decline of some abalone species, we’ve contributed to countless research projects. This data helps inform fellow scientists and policymakers,” he wrote in his Instagram post.
Chan hopes that the parks are able to restore the staff shortage “to allow the American people to fully enjoy these beautiful and amazing resources that we have. They are meant for everybody to enjoy,” he said.
“We do it because we love it. We’re passionate about the mission of the park service.”
Planning to visit? Set your expectations
In recent years, staff shortages at national parks — albeit on a much larger scale than these recent layoffs — have had big impacts on visitors. During the 2018 government shutdown that saw 80% of NPS employees furloughed, fewer emergency and law enforcement personnel were left to police the parks or rescue injured guests.
Since the recent layoffs, Yosemite National Park has delayed its summer campground reservations. These reservations were implemented to better manage crowds and visitor expectations for the millions of summer visitors.
Beth Pratt, California regional executive director at the National Wildlife Federation, said this delay could lead to overcrowding, damage to wildlife, and strain on park infrastructure.
The reservations are usually open five months in advance, and experts worry that this delay may be “too close to the summer season to adequately plan for the park’s annual crush of visitors to avoid complications for both visitors and park infrastructure,” wrote Justin Housman on National Parks Traveler.
Visitors should check Yosemite’s website for the latest on camping and reservations.
Neil Desai, Pacific regional director at the National Parks Conservation Association, NPCA — an independent, nonpartisan organization advocating for the NPS — said these recent park layoffs will impact the visitor experience in many ways, including:
- Traffic into some parks will be longer than usual.
- Park staff will pull back camping reservations.
- Parking will be harder to find due to larger crowds and less staff to manage them.
- Trash may be overflowing from trash cans and dumpsters due to a lack of a cleanup crew.
- Bathrooms and trails in certain parks will be unmaintained.
- Guided tours and ranger programs for kids may also be closed or have reduced hours.
With layoffs impacting search and rescue staff as well as park EMTs, visitors should also plan ahead in case an emergency arises during their national park visit:
- Be aware of weather alerts and warnings — and take extra caution at parks like Death Valley, where temperatures can rise to the hundreds in the summer. Prepare to cancel plans if weather conditions aren’t in your favor.
- Bring your own emergency kit that includes medicine, first aid supplies, food, water and other essentials. This list by NPS provides an overview of the 10 essentials in an emergency kit.
- Be prepared to “self-rescue.” Wild told the SF Standard that visitors should be prepared to treat a national park “like a wilderness area and manage your own emergency.”
- Take extra caution when hiking more difficult terrain in parks, in the knowledge that if search and rescue roles have been cut in that park you’re visiting, you may have to manage a possible emergency situation on your own.
Desai encourages future visitors to set expectations before visiting a national park, understanding that the experience may not be what they were necessarily expecting due to park staff layoffs. “People have these expectations of what a visit to a national park should be. And they should expect to be disappointed if things [like staff shortages] don’t turn around,” he said.
