DOGE Cuts Could Affect Your Summer Visit To National Parks In These Ways

The millions of tourists expected at national parks this summer could see long lines, limited hours and fewer guided activities due to the Trump administration’s aggressive downsizing at the agency overseeing these natural treasures.

Earlier this year, the Department of Governmental Efficiency cut 1,000 probationary park workers and suspended seasonal hiring. Though a court ruling later reinstated many of these positions, the uncertainty disrupted operations at multiple parks. The strain on park resources has led to overcrowding, maintenance delays, and visitor safety concerns.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding national parks, officials are expecting a year similar to 2024, which saw a record 331.9 million recreational visits, a 2 percent increase from the year prior and surpassing the all-time high set in 2016.

The most popular of the 63 national parks last year were:

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park (12,191,834 visits)
2. Zion National Park (4,946,592 visits)
3. Grand Canyon National Park (4,919,163 visits)
4. Yellowstone National Park (4,744,353 visits)
5. Rocky Mountain National Park (4,154,349 visits)
6. Yosemite National Park (4,121,807 visits)
7. Acadia National Park (3,961,661 visits)
8. Olympic National Park (3,717,267 visits)
9. Grand Teton National Park (3,628,222 visits)
10. Glacier National Park (3,208,755 visits)

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What You Will And Won’t See

At busy parks, visitors may not notice the work that is going undone this year, former national park ranger Cassidy Jones wrote in a recent blog post for the National Parks Conservation Association, an independent, nonprofit group advocacy group where she heads the group’s visitor program.

“Park managers will be forced to prioritize visitor-facing roles and services, pulling staff away from other duties to do so,” Jones wrote. “In other cases, administrative actions have hamstrung park managers and taken important decisions out of their hands.”

A few things visitors may notice:

Gated entrance stations to the park, where visitors pay fees and receive valuable information such as maps, may be closed due to staffing shortages. That means more visitors may be funneled through fewer entrance stations.

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Visitor centers, where rangers help visitors determine which hikes match their endurance levels, find the most scenic hikes, and issue back-country permits could be short-staffed or closed entirely. Some of the buildings that house visitor centers are for sale.

National parks and historic monument sites may offer fewer ranger-guided tours, which Jones said Is “the best, or only, way to experience the place.”

The restrooms and campgrounds at national recreation areas may not be as clean as visitors prefer. At areas best experienced by boat, including Lake Mead and Glen Canyon, boat ramps could see long lines for vessel inspections to prevent the spread of invasive species.

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What they won’t see is a disruption of scientific research and services required by law, such as tribal consultation and historic preservation compliance.

“Between the elimination of key science and research positions, severe travel restrictions and a $1 spending limit imposed on park staff, critical work is being shelved in national parks as well as at other public land agencies,” Jones wrote, describing far-reaching effects.

Those activities include archaeological surveys of cultural resources, removal of invasive vegetation species that threaten key resources and monitoring species that threaten visitors — bears, for example. It also may mean that fallen trees may block some trails

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What To Do: Visitor Checklist

Above all else, be patient when visiting public lands, advocates say. Park employees are working in stressful and uncertain conditions, and fellow visitors may not be at their best as they navigate traffic jams and other experiences that don’t match their expectations.

“A little kindness goes a long way,” Jones wrote on the blog.

It’s also smart to have a backup plan and call ahead about park hours. Know whether advance reservations and permits are required — which is the case at Acadia, Arches, Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Shenandoah and Zion national parks. More information about reservations and permits is found National Park Conservation Association’s Know Before You Go website Also, go to the home page of the park you’re visiting and click the “Plan Your Visit” tab.

Restrooms may be closed, so visitors should plan ahead with a personal hygiene kit. They should also pack supplies to carry out their trash and garbage. Because of slim staffing levels, visitors are encouraged to pick up others trash as they see it

At many parks, an honor system will be in place and visitors will be trusted to respect the land and its history and cultural significance, Jones said.

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At many national parks, thousands of years of Native American history have been documented. Ancestral lands are considered sacred, Jones said. Fossils, bones and cultural objects should be left undisturbed; visitors should avoid touching rock imagery; and children and pets should be kept out of sacred cultural sites. All visitors should stay clear of ancestral structures and avoid leaning or climbing on them, she said.

Search-and-rescue operations may not be fully staffed, which can mean long waits for people who take risks such as pushing their endurance levels or venturing into places they shouldn’t. To avoid incidents that would require such a level of response:

• Stay on trails and boardwalks, and don’t breach guardrails and barriers; obey the park rules.
• Wear appropriate shoes that allow stability on different terrains.
• Bring along GPS and mapping equipment and pack extra layers and gear if exploring trails and remote park areas.
• Don’t provoke wildlife by trying to get too close for a photograph; instead, use a zoom lens and stay at least the length of two school buses away from the animal — or eight for large species such as bears and wolves.

Consider Lesser-Known Parks

The shakeup comes as outdoor recreation experts cite growing public interest in nature, increased road trips, and social media-driven travel trends fueling the continued rise in national park visits. The rise of remote work has also allowed more travelers to extend their stays in outdoor destinations.

To avoid big crowds and find greater opportunities for solitude, consider some of the least-visited parks last year. These places require more planning and logistical hurdles, but the reward of experiencing some of the best of nature in the most raw form:

1. Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (11,907 visits)
2. North Cascades National Park (16,485 visits)
3. Kobuk Valley National Park (17,233 visits)
4. Lake Clark National Park and Preserve (18,505 visits)
5. National Park of American Samoa (22,567 visits)
6. Isle Royale National Park (28,806 visits)
7. Katmai National Park and Preserve (36,230 visits)
8. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (81,670 visits)
9. Dry Tortugas National Park (84,873 visits)
10. Great Basin National Park (152,068 visits)

What Happens Next?

Depending on how Trump’s proposed budget shakes out, another $1.2 billion could be cut from the National Parks Service’s operations, construction, its Historic Preservation Fund, and National Recreation and Preservation grants. The rationale is that parks get “duplicative” state, local and private sector support.

Outdoors advocates say that could exact a toll on state and local parks, especially in areas where the local economy is dependent on national park visitors.

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Overall, the federal government oversees 640 million acres of land. The Agriculture Department oversees the forest service; the Department of the Interior’s purview include national parks, monuments, wilderness areas, more than 650 National Wildlife Refuges, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation

Support has traditionally been bipartisan, with legislation such as the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020, which Trump championed and signed in his first term, along with the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act.

The landscape has shifted dramatically. Congressional Republicans plan to sell potentially hundreds of thousands of acres of federal land to generate revenue and ease growth pressures in booming Western cities. Yet without clear details on how it will work, skeptics worry it could be a giveaway for developers and mining companies and do little to ease the region’s housing crisis.

Specifically, legislation passed by the House Natural Resources Committee earlier this month includes about 460,000 acres in Nevada and Utah to be sold or transferred to local governments or private entities.

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About half of the acreage under federal control is in the West. Utah, where the feds oversee 80 percent of the land, has five national parks known as the “Mighty Five” (Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion), and 11 national monuments historic sites, and recreation areas.

In Nevada, 63 percent of the land is under federal control, including Death Valley National Park, Great Basin National Park, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument. Nevada also shares the California Trail, the Pony Express Trail, and the Old Spanish Trail with California.

Who should control such sites has long been a burning source of disagreement in the West, where about half the acreage is under federal control and cities that sprawl across open landscapes face rising demand for housing, water and other necessities.

The Republican budget has rekindled the fight, generating strong blowback from Democrats and conservationists, who see the measure as a precedent-setting move that would open the door to public land sales in other states.

“We have grave concerns that this is the camel’s nose under the tent,” Steve Bloch with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, told The Associated Press. “If it can happen in Utah, if it can happen in Nevada, it’s not going to stay here. It’s going to spread.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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