America’s National Parks Are in Trouble, and It’s Up to Us to Help

On a beautiful sunny day in Hillsborough State Park, I walked down a familiar trail with my three daughters. 

“Look, a blaze!” my daughter yelled as she passed a tree with the red mark on its thick trunk. This was not one of the metal disks with a figure of a hiker on it that we’d been following. 

I stopped and looked closer at it. Yes, this was a blaze…an old blaze.

I looked up the trail, then back the trail we’d traveled. And I remembered. How could I forget? It was our first.

Moments like this are worth protecting.

Let's look at the problem

The spending is being cut. Personnel is being scaled back. And our national treasures – the National Parks – are feeling the strain. A daunting storm of overcrowding, underfunding, and now, understaffing is threatening our National Park Service. 

At the end of the day, what can the average hiker who regularly enjoys these places do to help our parks weather these storms?

I believe I have an answer where everyone wins – if we are willing to put some skin in the game. But first, we need to fully understand the problem before we can enact real change.

Really anyone can volunteer. There's a job for every age group. This young man's job was to push the compactor to prepare the ground for pouring the concrete. (Please forgive the photo quality. This was before phones had cameras. 🤯)

The Real Crisis Hitting Our National Parks

Recent reporting leaves the impression that our National Parks are on the brink of permanent damage or closure.

But making a decision from a place of fear almost always leads to a bad decision because the real problem runs deeper than the symptoms. So, let’s set up a base camp on facts not fear. 

FACT #1: There have been 1,000 probationary employees fired from the National Park Service (NPS) which employs about 20,000 people. That’s less than 1% of its workforce. 

A federal judge reinstated these roles, and now many of these employees either have their jobs back or are on paid leave. 

FACT #2: The NPS staffs 433 sites including our National Parks and Monuments. That means an average of 2 people per site were fired. For some parks, they'll hardly notice the loss, but for others 2 people equals half their staff – especially if one of them is your only plumber.

FACT #3: Yosemite National Park (arguably one of the most popular parks) lost the most employees. 25 chose to take the severance and 10 were fired.

FACT #4: 23 of the 433 sites have reported reduced hours or suspended services due to recent staffing cuts.

FACT #5: The Federal Government has lifted the hiring freeze on 5,000 seasonal workers for the NPS. 

Yes, these cuts sting. It stings anytime you lose your dream job. Especially when some of these employees are essential to operations, like the Program Director from Denali or Mount Rainier’s only plumber. 

But, truthfully, losing 1- 35 employees does not – or at least should not – mean the end of our National Parks as we know them.

I don’t say this to diminish losses, but to alleviate fears of the worst-case scenario so that we can come together to solve the real, systemic problem that our National Parks face when it comes to funding. 

Why We Can’t Rely on Politicians to Solve the National Park Crisis

Did you know that Congress must allocate funds for NPS on a yearly basis?

Every year, the NPS must lobby (read beg) Congress for their slice of the pie. And, given our familiarity with the whims of congress, you can imagine the uncertainty this breeds. Add to that the shifting whims of one administration to the next, and our parks feel like the only child of a divorced couple. 

One week they get to stay with the parent who spoils them rotten. And the next week they’re at the other parent’s house where they're either expected to do everything for themselves or are outright neglected. 

What’s more is that from 2014-2024 the NPS budget has barely kept up with the rate of inflation. That’s under both democrat and republican rule.

There's got to be a better way.

Funding is a systemic problem. And one that our government can and should solve. We created these national parks to protect and enjoy our national treasures, and the Federal government is duty to do so. We don’t want to see these lands sold and turned into housing developments or lumber yards. (Which is probably what would have happened if Teddy Roosevelt hadn’t stepped in when he did.)

It is good and proper that these are National Parks, owned by the people. And sometimes, when our government falls short on its responsibilities, it’s time for the people to stand in the gap.

How Do We Fill the Gap?

During the 2004 hurricane season, four different hurricanes hit this campground. You can imagine the clean-up that was needed. So we pitched in to gather the downed branches and mulch them.

If you're just an average hiker who loves to hit the trails, you may not have a lot of money, political influence, or business genius to solve a problem this big. And let's face it, another protest, another attempt at media shaming political leaders, and even another op-ed isn't going to solve any part of this problem.

Solving the big problem of funding would mean a hard dive into where the millions of dollars the parks bring in goes? What are the actual operating costs of each park? How do the appropriated funds get divided up between the parks? Are private partnerships helping or hurting our public lands?... and so on.

There are ways we can help influence the funding battle – more on that later – but we can do more than influence the labor and overcrowding problems. We can directly affect change to solve those problems.

We are the ones that use these parks. We hike their trails, participate in the educational displays, and bring our children to listen to the interpretive ranger’s narrative. So why shouldn’t we find a way to give back by filling vacated positions on a volunteer basis and relieving the rangers of simple maintenance tasks?

The Community-Driven Solution: Concrete Steps You Can Take

“Hey, this is the guy I was talking to you about,” the Park Ranger turned to his counterpart and pointed to my dad, “He and his crews go around helping the state parks with projects. They did a few out at Caya Costa for me.” 

They shook hands and my dad explained that what started as trying to get discounted accommodations for our Venturing Crew had turned into a habit. Our crew didn’t have a lot of funding, but we did have a lot of strong backs. So we offered our labor in exchange for camping.

And, as you've seen in the grainy photos, we did a lot. Over four years, we...

• Blazed a new trail at Hillsborough State Park (the same trail may girls and I found 20 years later.)

• Helped eradicate invasive Brazilian Peppers on Cayo Costa, an isolated intercoastal island

• Built boathouses

• Poured concrete

• Mended footbridges

• Demolished buildings

• And cleaned coastlines

Over that time, we saved the parks 10s of thousands of dollars in labor. And it wasn’t difficult to set up. Which makes this the first thing we can do to make a difference for our parks.

Pouring a concrete pad for the construction of a boathouse. I can attest that spreading concrete is backbreaking labor.

1. Commit to Service: 

   
   

   Here’s where we can support our overworked rangers. They always have projects that need doing. And we can help them check those essential projects off their to-do list. 

   
   

   Here’s how we did it. Before we booked our stay, we called the ranger and asked, “Hey, we’ve got a scout group of older teens, do you have any maintenance or projects that you need to get off your to-do list?” 

   
   

   Yep, it was that easy. Not every ranger said yes. But some of them did.

   
   

   We coordinated with the ranger to bring the proper gear for trail clearing or building, and under their direction and supervision, we helped the parks stay in good shape. 

   
   

   Now, imagine if every scout troop, venturing crew, youth group, hiking club, or conservation corps adopted a National Park and volunteered to do one service project a month, how much work could we take off the rangers’ hands?

   
   

   The impact could be enormous. We could relieve overworked park rangers, reduce maintenance costs, and ensure these spaces remain accessible for future generations.

Action Plan:

• Call the park ranger about a month or so before your trip, so you can find out how you can help. How do you know who to call?

  
  

• Look up your destination on the NPS website. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find the contact info for the Rangers’ office. 

  
  

• Call them and leave a message asking if they have any projects that need to get done and informing them how many are in your group and when you’re coming. Speaking from experience, I’ve always heard back from the rangers or the ranger office in 24-48 hours. And they’re really quite helpful, so don’t be shy.

2. Become a National Park Volunteer:

   
   

   I’ve given the example of doing physical maintenance or specific projects as ways to help the overworked staff. But you can also become a volunteer at a park near you. Volunteers staff visitor centers, run interpretive exhibits, and more. 

   
   

Action Plan:

• Go to volunteer.gov to find opportunities near you.

3. Choose to Explore Less Popular Parks: 

   
   

   We can help alleviate the overcrowding by choosing not to go to the popular park. So, instead of visiting the fan favorite, consider exploring a national forest, BLM land, or less traveled National Park. If more of us explore these lesser-known lands, then the argument can’t be made that these lands are dormant or idle. 

   
   

Action Plan:

Use your trusty trail finding app (OnX is a great option) to explore the areas around the popular parks. You'll probably find a national forest, BLM land, or a smaller less popular park. Plan your trip there instead.

4. Advocate for your National Parks: 

   
   

   This means sending a message to your representative letting them know your concerns about National Park funding. Urge lawmakers to support sustainable and dependable funding for the NPS, so they don’t have to beg for money every year.

Action Plan:

• Find your representative's contact information here.

• Call or write to them urging them to support our national parks.

My three adventurous girls followed the trail down to river without any help. They were very proud of themselves.

Conclusion

I look down our backtrail and then to the trail ahead. The trees are taller providing a lot more shade than we had when we were clearing trail. The underbrush is thicker. But sure enough, that was the same red blaze that we used when we first made the trail under the direction of the park Ranger.

Watching my girls walk down the same trail that I had a hand in making 20 years before gave me a deep feeling of satisfaction. Because of the hard work of Rangers and park volunteers who helped with trail maintenance my girls are able to enjoy the same trail and the same park.

That's the power we hold as the people.

The more involved we are in caring for our National Parks, the less vulnerable they become to political and corporate interests. While systemic funding solutions are necessary, we can take immediate action by contributing our time and energy.

Protecting our public lands isn’t a political issue. It’s a moral responsibility to be good stewards so that these incredible spaces remain open, accessible, and well-maintained for everyone to enjoy.

So the next time you visit a National Park, ask a ranger: How can I help?