A staffing shortage has led to closure of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument on Mondays and Tuesdays/NPF file

There continue to be many unknowns in terms of National Park Service staffing and operations heading into the busy spring and summer seasons. More unknowns than knowns, unfortunately.

For instance, The Associated Press reported the other day that the Park Service has been authorized to hire 7,500 seasonal workers. What isn't known is how soon that might happen. 

When the seasonal job offers were rescinded in January there was some considered thought that if the agency received permission to hire seasonals that it would have to go back to square one. In other words, advertise the positions, take applications, and vet the applicants before hiring them.

If that's the case, not all parks are likely to have their seasonal workers report when they normally would, and so there might be on-the-ground impacts, possibly in the form of closed visitor centers and restrooms, trails that haven't been cleared of downed trees, not all entrance gates open to handle incoming traffic.

And then, of course, some would-be seasonal workers might have found other jobs, or decided that the Trump administration is not a good employer.

"Parks are also being told no more seasonals than they previously planned for, so no making up for loss of permanents," one Park Service observer told Traveler. "And unless they re-offer the jobs to those whose offers were rescinded (which no one has heard is the plan) then starting over now hardly allows parks to hire seasonals in time and at previous levels. And I assume a lot of those whose jobs were pulled have either found alternatives, or will be very wary of accepting any NPS job now. Who’s to say they won’t be fired later?"

Of course, the resumption of hiring seasonal workers doesn't help the 1,000 permanent Park Service staff who were fired on Valentine's Day because they were on probation.

Another unknown is just how many parks have scaled back operations due to the lack of staff. Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico has announced the cancellations of three different cave tours, and beginning on March 25 the 8:30 a.m. self-guided cave tour will be canceled. And Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado is closed Mondays and Tuesdays due to a lack of staff.

Saguaro National Park in Arizona also is closing its two visitor centers on Mondays, though did not specify why on its website. And, as the Traveler reported last week, campground reservations at Yosemite National Park are being delayed due to staffing shortages.

Further complicating operations is that there still is a freeze on federal government hiring, a freeze that affects the Park Service, and reduction-in-force plans reportedly are still being developed, so there could be additional shocks coming to the parks.

If you know of parks that have closed visitor centers, delayed campground openings, or some other operational shortfall due to lack of staffing, please let us know by emailing that information to news at nationalparkstraveler dot org.

One of the more interesting things we're hearing is that Park Service staff has been ordered not to use government credit cards for travel...or for any other purchases. So you might want to pack an extra roll of TP if you're heading to a park soon.

Finally, we're hearing that the Office of Personnel Management has started looking to reduce many civil service protections for senior Park Service managers by reclassifying their jobs as "policy" positions that would serve at the president's pleasure. Part of the Executive Order President Trump signed during his first term to create a new category of the federal workforce stated that agencies needed “the flexibility to expeditiously remove poorly performing employees from these positions without facing extensive delays or litigation.”