The situation at the National Park Service continues to be tense and uncertain given hostile moves by the Trump administration toward the NPS and other public land agencies. Caldera Action is monitoring the situation with the Park Service on a nearly daily basis. Here is a rundown of the current situation for Valles Caldera and Bandelier National Monument.
There are two levels of difficulty facing the National Park Service and its staff. First the Trump regime is cutting staffing significantly at the NPS. Second, Congress and the administration are setting budgets for 2026 which could have major implications for the agencies and the parks.
Trump and his advisor Elon Musk began a series of actions against the National Park Service early in Trump II. Musk and his organization (DOGE) sent out e mails to all federal employees including NPS staff urging them to retire and resign. About 2500 NPS staff took the “fork in the road” offer for immediate retirement. Another 1000 were fired on February 14. This and other staff losses accounts for about 12% of the agency staff.
The administration planned a new wave of mass firings (reduction in force) starting on May 10 which would have hit the National Park Service and other agencies at all levels, but they were sued by a group of cities, labor unions, and nonprofits. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in northern California issued a temporary restraining order against the administration, barring them from any further layoffs. She said that the restructuring of the federal government that Trump and DOGE are engaged in needs to be conducted with the Congress under the Constitution.
Trump’s attorneys appealed her ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Her restraining order expires on May 23rd and we don’t know if the restraining order stays in place during the appeal or if Trump could start firing park staff on May 23. This case likely will go to the Supreme Court which has been issuing mixed rulings on Trump’s attack on the federal government.
All federal staff have a black cloud hanging over their heads knowing that any number or all of them could be fired at almost any time regardless of what they do or how long they have worked for the government.
Trump’s 2026 budget proposal:
The NPS has been understaffed and underfunded for decades. Now the Trump administration is proposing a 75% budget cut for the NPS in its 2026 budget proposal to Congress. While president’s budget proposals rarely are enacted by Congress, this one could have more traction given that republicans control Congress at both ends of the Capitol.
Moreover, the budget proposal shows that Trump may be planning to make major, transformative changes to the National Park system, particularly if Democrats don’t win back one or both houses of Congress in 2026. The national parks are extremely popular with the American public and extremely vulnerable now.
Yet the House of Representatives is onboard with Trump’s attacks on the National Parks. In the budget reconciliation bill passed on May 22, the House proposes to cut the NPS budget by $277 million, rescinding funds from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act meant to boost NPS hiring and help with park infrastructure. By government standards this is a tiny amount of money and it shows these cuts are not about saving money but about pursuing an antigovernment agenda.
Trump’s staff has been talking about selling off smaller national park units or transferring them to the states. All the NPS units in New Mexico would qualify for disposal. This is speculative at this time given that most of those park units were authorized by Congress and Congress would need to authorize disposal. The administration would face certain lawsuits from nonprofit and business organizations that seek to protect the parks.
Meanwhile, Trump is firing most of the scientists that work for the National Park Service and the associated US Geologic Survey. Trump also plans to gut the staffs at the NPS regional offices and the Washington office, leaving parks without support staff for their various functions such as human resources, legal, and science.
Meanwhile, a young DOGE staffer named Tyler Hassen, an an oil executive from Texas with no public land background, has been charged with consolidating the Department of Interior. The administration refuses to share details of its plans for the agencies within Interior, but it may mean that various support staff from the different agencies are consolidated. Already some NPS staff are being removed from the NPS and assigned to the DOI.
NPS staff has been told not to discuss any of these changes with the public and questions to top NPS officials are met with propagandistic responses.
At this time, the only hope of forestalling major damage to the National Parks lies with the courts and with the US Senate which could strip the worst anti NPS provisions out of the extreme bills emerging from the House. The public should urge their senators to increase funding for the Park Service and stop any further staff cuts.
Everyone needs to make family and friends aware of these threats. Everyone must contact Congress, write a letter to the editor, make sure the word gets out far and wide. We can defeat this historic menace with a public outcry and it must start now.
