The Trump administration is planning to enact “major” changes to the National Park Service that advocates say could spark “chaos,” according to internal Interior Department documents obtained and reported on by NOTUS Tuesday.
“If this proposed reorganization plan moves forward, it is going to jeopardize park relationships with communities, stakeholders, and partners,” warned Emily Thompson, the executive director of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, speaking with NOTUS.
“There are going to be countless issues and challenges involving park funding, travel and other logistics — this will waste taxpayer dollars and further contribute to the chaos that already exists.”
According to the documents, which were confirmed as authentic by an "Interior executive” involved in the planning who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the Trump administration is planning to restructure America’s national parks using a “hub and spoke” model, giving more authority to “hub” parks to allocate spending and set priorities.
Furthermore, the documents suggested that while “short-term” layoffs would likely be avoided during the restructuring, layoffs in the long term were on the table.
“This reorganization could fundamentally change how our national parks operate, without any clear communication about what ‘problem’ might be solved,” Thompson said. “It can’t possibly be addressing budgets or efficiency.”
An “astounding” amount of tax dollars earmarked for national parks was discovered last month to have been diverted to fund Trump’s beautification projects in Washington, D.C., at more than $323 million. This comes as national parks are facing a backlog of deferred maintenance projects estimated to cost as much as $30 billion amid “strained resources” and “traffic jams.”
Russell Galipeau, who previously led the Channel Islands National Park as its superintendent for 15 years, feared that national parks’ ongoing struggles could only be made worse by the Trump administration’s plans, which the Interior executive described as being developed in a “very hush-hush” manner.
“We find a way to say it’s more efficient, and what we end up doing is finding out we have less and less resources to work with,” Galipeau told NOTUS. “Perhaps reorganization wouldn’t be necessary if these unnecessary cuts weren’t made.”