The future of the National Park System is in doubt as Donald Trump’s federal hiring freeze has put popular sites like Yosemite National Park in limbo and opened the door to privatizing federal monuments and lands.
Trump’s heavy-handed freeze not only stopped the hiring of workers, it rescinded employment for many who had already received job offers. The staffing situation was characterized as “catastrophic” by former Yosemite Superintendent Don Neubacher.
Summer camping reservations are on hold, impacting park sites from June 15 to July 14. This news comes on the heels of Yosemite officials’ announcement that a new reservation system has been delayed indefinitely. The system was supposed to be fully implemented this year and promised to eliminate the long lines and waits park visitors have faced in recent years.
“We understand the impact this has on visitors who are planning camping trips to the park,” read a statement on Yosemite’s official Instagram page. “We are grateful for your patience. Our goal is to release these campground nights as soon as possible and we will provide at least a seven-day advance notice before reservations go on sale.”
Trump’s federal hiring freeze has affected staffing at all national parks, as at least 5% of parks employees have been fired. Lesser-known parks with smaller staffs, like the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park, face uncertain futures.
During Trump’s first administration, big business pressured Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to jettison environmental science policy when leasing lands to private interests. Trump then allowed Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments to be drilled by a Canadian mining company. America first, and all that.
Trump spent a good deal of time during his first administration signaling his willingness to hand our national parks over to private interests—specifically ones that threw money at him. He even diverted much-needed National Park resources in order to fund a parade for himself.
Now, Trump has teamed up with billionaires and the authors of Project 2025 to craft a much more robust plan to dismantle our country’s administrative state, which includes carving up as much federal land as possible. Their interests are far more naked and ambitious than those of Trump’s first administration.
The cabal is targeting a repeal of the 1906 Antiquities Act, which protected national sites such as the Grand Canyon from becoming mines. Doing so would roll back fundamental protections on national monuments.
Trump sidekick Elon Musk and his goon squad at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency continue to illegally hamstring congressionally funded programs. The endgame is to force taxpayers to pay billionaires (like Musk) and their private businesses to do the things that our government already does—and could do—for its citizens.
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