UPDATE | National Park Service, Federal Agencies Face Prospect Of Widespread Firings

Editor's note: This updates with additional comment from a National Park Service ranger and from a former park superintendent.

A high-stakes poker game being played out in Washington, D.C., could not only shutter the National Park System on October 1, but also see most National Park Service employees fired due to a lack of funding.

With Congressional Republicans and Democrats far apart on the makeup of a Continuing Resolution to keep the federal government operating while negotiations continue to seek a Fiscal 2026 budget agreeable to both parties, the Trump administration is suggesting governmental agencies that rely on federal appropriations to operate shut down next Wednesday, the start of the government's new fiscal year.

"With respect to those federal programs whose funding would lapse and which are otherwise unfunded, such programs are no longer statutorily required to be carried out," reads a section of a memo sent from the Office of Management and Budget to federal agencies. "Therefore, consistent with applicable law, including the requirements of 5 C.F.R. part 351, agencies are directed to use this opportunity to consider Reduction in Force (RIF) notices for all employees in programs, projects, or activities (PPAs) that satisfy all three of the following conditions: (1) discretionary funding lapses on October 1, 2025; (2) another source of funding, such as H.R. 1 (Public Law 119-21) is not currently available; and (3) the PPA is not consistent with the President’s priorities."

The memo was first reported by Politico.

“It’s the height of irresponsibility for the administration to further threaten federal workers, including dedicated National Park Service staff, in the event of a shutdown that would already be devastating for them," John Garder, senior director for budget and appropriations at the National Parks Conservation Association, said in an email. "They have already forced the loss of a quarter of Park Service personnel. Enough damage has been done. The administration should instead be focusing on negotiating a funding deal that would keep parks open and prevent adding insult to injury.”

Interior and National Park Service staff in Washington, D.C., did not immediately reply to an inquiry on whether any programs in the Park Service could operate without the agency's annual appropriation.

Bob Krumenaker, who spent four decades with the Park Service and worked as a superintendent at both Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and Big Bend National Park, questioned whether the Trump administration could order the Park Service to shutter its doors on October 1 if there is a government shutdown.

"The idea that a temporary lapse in appropriated funding could be construed as erasing the statutory authority for federal agencies like the NPS to operate, is, I think, unprecedented," he said in a text. "Congress didn’t just authorize the National Park Service. It DIRECTED the National Park Service to conserve the resources unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. It DIRECTED the NPS to utilize the highest quality science to enhance park management and to inventory and monitor the condition of park natural resources. It DIRECTED the NPS to conduct an interpretation and education program of 'the highest quality.'

"Authorizations and appropriations are separate, and I don't see how the administration can just declare that the authorizing statutes no longer apply," he said. "At least not legally. If they go through with this, and use it to justify firing most NPS employees, they’ll destroy the oldest and most admired national park system in the world.”

Living On The Edge

Park Service employees have been put through a career-straining gauntlet since President Donald Trump began his second term in office on January 20. First the administration put a freeze on the hiring of seasonal workers, then it tried to fire thousands of probationary employees on February 14, Valentine's Day, in an action that later was reversed. Still, through administration programs encouraging federal employees to quit, the Park Service has lost an estimated 24 percent of its workforce since Trump returned as president.

On top of that, promotions have been delayed, even for those tasked to do the work of supervisors who left the agency, and hirings to fill vacancies often have been denied.

On May 2 a memorandum went out to parks stating that there was a hold on promotions, a park ranger told the Traveler on Thursday. The ranger, an interpreter at a park site in New York City, one of the more expensive places to live in the United States, said he took the job with the understanding that he would gain promotions every two years.

The ranger, who asked not to be identified to avoid retribution from the administration, said he arrived in the city with an annual salary of "around $50,000 and you can imagine trying to live in the New York City area off of that. But it was under the understanding that it's a ladder position. So after a year, you get a promotion to a GS seven, and then a year after that, you get a promotion to a GS nine. So those promotions are on indefinite hold."

"They've also not told us if there will be any sort of backpay," the ranger continued. "And the frustrating thing is, technically they they are allowed to do this, you're not guaranteed these promotions, but the general accepted knowledge is that the only reason people are ever denied these promotions is because of performance issues."

Asked why he stuck with the Park Service the ranger said, "[T]his type of work is what I like and enjoy. I think it's important. I've worked at a number of sites with the Park Service, and they're all really important sites and I like telling people about them. I like sharing this with visitors. I like being a steward of either the natural environment or historic sites. That's why I joined the Park Service, and I feel like leaving would almost be like admitting defeat."

Staff shortages have led parks to seek volunteers to perform trail work, provide guided tours, and help with search-and-rescue missions, have stuck to winter operational hours rather than expanding to summer hours, and repairs to facilities damaged by past years' hurricanes have been slowed.

Some campgrounds have opened with severely restricted hours, some parks have gone without maintenance workers, museum hours are limited in some parks, and other parks have had to pull staff "from all divisions" to staff visitor centers.