With Busy Season Near, Yosemite Shows Signs That Trump Cutbacks Taking a Toll

The park has delayed campground reservations, and other national parks report staff shortages amid federal belt tightening.

A school group crosses a meadow in front of Yosemite Falls in Yosemite National Park, Calif., on April 28, 2023. Mario Tama/Getty Images

A delay in campground reservations is a sign that Yosemite National Park might be feeling the squeeze of Trump administration cutbacks, with the busy season just weeks away.

The Northern California park has delayed the sale of reservations for five campgrounds, affecting spots from June 15 to July 14, the park announced on social media on Feb. 14.

The campgrounds include Upper Pines, Lower Pines, North Pines, Wawona, and Hodgdon Meadow.

“We understand the impact this has on visitors who are planning camping trips to the park. We are grateful for your patience,” the park posted on Facebook. “Our goal is to release these campground nights as soon as possible.”

The park stated in an email to The Epoch Times that it would provide at least seven days’ notice on its website and social media when campground nights would be available.

Park staff and the National Park Service did not respond to a request seeking further information about the reservation delays.

The announcement followed claims by the National Parks Conservation Association that recent federal job reductions by the Trump administration have resulted in staffing shortages at some national parks.

Thousands of workers across several government agencies were fired last week after the deadline for employees to accept a buyout had passed.

It’s common sense to connect the job reductions with the unprecedented reservations delay at Yosemite National Park, according to Neal Desai, the National Parks Conservation Association’s regional director in California.

“It’s difficult to see how they’re not related,” Desai told The Epoch Times.

He said the directive for parks not to hire or retain employees just before the busy season is “a major problem.”

“These parks are owned by all Americans,” Desai said. “It’s an attack on this concept of America First.”

At least one park lost 20 percent of its permanent staff, and another park lost three-fourths of its interpretive staff, according to the association, a nonpartisan organization and advocate for national parks protection. The association wouldn’t name the parks, however.

“At one park, we know they lost ... multiple fee staff as they are getting ready for the busy season,” John Garder, the association’s senior director of budget and appropriations, told The Epoch Times in an email on Feb. 24.

According to the association, one park’s administrative staffers were decimated, making it difficult if not impossible to hire, process, and train seasonal employees as the busy season approaches.

Positions were lost in maintenance, administration, cultural resources, and fee collection, it said.

The association claims that more than 2,000 park workers have had their job offers rescinded in the federal workforce reduction.

Bison gather in front of lodging at Yellowstone National Park. Many national parks staffers lost their jobs this month, just before the busy season. Courtesy of the National Park Service

The park staff perform search and rescue operations, clear trails, clean bathrooms, and ensure that the parks are ready for visitors, according to the association.

It claims that many park staff members are feeling insecure about their jobs since President Donald Trump took office.

The uncertainty and confusion resulting from staff reductions is already taking a hefty toll on the National Park Service, the association wrote on Feb. 4.

National parks rely heavily on seasonal staff, according to the organization. Each year, the park service hires more than 6,000 seasonal employees to operate visitor centers and entrance booths, maintain facilities and grounds, repair buildings, protect historic and national resources, and conduct research.

A widespread federal government hiring freeze enacted by the administration has upended this process, according to the association.

The hiring freeze affected more than 2,000 seasonal and permanent positions across the country as parks prepared for spring break and summer visitations, the group said.

The park service also has well more than 1,000 employees considered to be in a probationary period, according to the association. The Trump administration urged the park service to review these employees and consider reassigning them to temporary duties or putting them on paid leave, and determine whether the employees should be retained.

“Visitors from around the world come to our national parks expecting a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but instead could be met with overflowing trash, uncleaned bathrooms, and fewer rangers to provide guidance,” Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, said in a statement posted online. “These are not the memories we want people to take away from their experience at our parks.”

Since reductions started, several former parks employees have posted their termination letters on social media, including Andria Townsend.

Townsend posted on Feb. 23 on Facebook that she had lost her job as a carnivore specialist for Yosemite National Park on Feb. 21. She said she researched projects on federally endangered carnivore species.

“I am devastated for myself, but also for the team of amazing biologists I supervised, the incredible programs we worked so hard on, and the resources that will suffer across the country because of this,” she wrote in the post.

Townsend said her position was funded by grants from local nonprofits. “Not a single dime of taxpayer money is being saved by firing me,” she wrote.

Beth Pratt, a regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation who lives near Yosemite, commented on Townsend’s post.

“These stories are heartbreaking. And also makes me furious. Putting people and our wild heritage at risk,” Pratt posted on social media platform X on Feb. 23.