What bottom-line impact will national parks and other public lands suffer from Trump administration policies that already signal a dramatic shift in how the nation's public lands have been treasured and cared for down through the decades?

I'm writing because I want you to know you might not get an answer to that question unless the National Parks Traveler draws more financial support. That's because we are the only media organization devoted specifically to news of the national parks and their ecosystems. While other worthy news organizations are covering an entire government that's undergoing dramatic transformation, we are laser-focused on those public lands where you turn for recreation and rejuvenation, or even to make a living.

Trying to predict how this all ends up is impossible. But fears abound that the Trump administration's job cuts are designed to put some public lands under private management or ownership. More campgrounds managed by concessionaires, interpretive programs led by private companies that charge a fee, higher campground fees.

Worries also envison millions of acres being sliced away from national monuments for mining, energy development, and logging, and significant weakening of the Endangered Species Act.

Yes, right now it's impossible to say for sure that's where things are heading. What is important now is whether you'll know what changes are coming down the pike in time to stop them. And that's why I urge you to support the National Parks Traveler with a donation.

The Trump administration has placed an incredibly tight information filter on the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Bureau of Land Management, just to name five land-management agencies. Questions that individual parks used to answer over a phone call or via email now must be forwarded to Washington, D.C., where answers are slow in coming and robust in vagueness, if an answer comes at all.

Some examples:

• During a press conference Friday, top Blue Ridge Parkway officials would not answer when asked whether personnel cuts earlier this year by the Trump administration impacted recovery efforts along the Parkway in North Carolina. Instead the Traveler was told to ask Washington that question. 
• When we asked if six of the 10 campgrounds in Great Smoky Mountains National Park were closed heading into the high summer season, and if so why, the answer was that yes, the six were closed, and "we regret the inconvenience." No reason was given, including the actual reason we later learned: a lack of seasonal employees, a problem the Trump administration created in January when it rescinded all of the Park Service's seasonal job offers.
• When we asked Park Service HQ why — after a federal judge ordered rehiring of NPS probationary workers fired on Valentine's Day — superintendents were told not to contact the probationary workers, we were told that, "The Department of the Interior remains committed to its mission of managing the nation’s resources and serving the American people while ensuring fiscal responsibility. The Department will comply with the court’s order while the White House works through the appeals process."

There are other examples, but those three frame the issues that media outlets are facing these days. It's not the fault of the Park Service employees out across the system, but it appears a fear culture has taken hold and all have been ordered to partake in censuring the news, which makes the job of journalists far more difficult and time-consuming as we try to dig out what is really happening.

We're not going to throw up our hands and toss our keyboards out the window. We will remain focused on reporting on the Park Service and the National Park System and seeking answers so you know how your national parks are being managed and how you can get the most out of your park visits. But to do that, we really need your support to cover all the stories that are cropping up. It's not a 9-5, Monday through Friday job. It's 365 days a year.