UPDATED: NPS Seasonal Hiring Given OMB Approval

February 21, 2017

Editor's note: This updates with word that the Office of Management and Budget had approved the National Park Service's plans for hiring seasonal employees.

A logjam in the hiring of seasonal workers for the National Park Service was breaking up Tuesday, as parks were told that the Office of Management and Budget had approved the agency's hiring plans.

"We just learned this morning that all of our seasonal hiring has been approved," Acadia National Park Superintendent Kevin Schneider said in an email. "Hopefully the loss of a month doesn't hold us up in terms of getting people on board. We start opening roads facilities to the public on April 15."

In Washington, Park Service spokesman Tom Crosson sent out an email to the field staff Tuesday morning that "on Friday, Feb. 17, the Office of Management and Budget approved the National Park Service’s hiring plans for seasonal employees. We will immediately resume the hiring process for thousands of seasonal employees critical to supporting our national parks during their peak visitation periods."

Park Service hiring officers last week were told to interview and make tentative job offers, but that they had to hold off on finalizing those offers until OMB gives final approval to the agency's hiring process.

The time it's taking for that OMB approval to come through had some Park Service staff concerned that they wouldn't get seasonals on board soon enough for programs ranging from interpretation to wildlife projects. For instance, in some parks migratory birds will soon be showing up to nest and seasonal workers routinely help visitors keep their distance from nesting areas.

At Acadia in Maine, for example, peregrine falcons return to cliffs there in late March and early April to engage in courtship behavior. Park staff routinely close the popular Precipice Trail on the east face of Champlain Mountain and the equally popular Orange and Black Path for several months.

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