President Donald Trump's gluttonous hunger to gild Washington, D.C has left America's national parks in dire turmoil, according to experts sounding the alarm.
Trump has cut national park staff across the country and steered fee revenue toward his projects in D.C., including the botched Reflecting Pool repairs and covering statues on the National Mall in gold, the New York Times reported Saturday.
Longtime park officials fear the losses will be hard to reverse.
"Any one of these changes could be catastrophic in its own right, especially as it relates to staffing and funding," Dan Wenk, the former superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, told The Times. "When the next administration comes, Republican or Democrat, funding may be restored, but it's going to be incredibly difficult to rebuild."
The National Park Service, where Wenk worked for nearly 43 years before retiring, oversees 433 sites. The cutbacks now reach parks in nearly every region, The Times reported.
Reductions that began early last year have left one in five parks badly short of workers, The Times found. This spring, officials pulled at least $67 million from the fees visitors pay at park entrances and put it toward projects Trump favors in Washington. Hundreds of repairs in national parks could stall this year without funding.
Among the flashier expenses flagged by The Times' reporting was a no-bid contract to coat four statues near the National Mall in 23.75-karat gold leaf ahead of the nation's 250th birthday. The administration also stamped Trump's face on some park passes and sent more than 1,000 employees from parks around the country to help with anniversary events in the capital, The Times noted.
Emily Thompson, who leads the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, questioned the spending as a $24 billion maintenance backlog sits untouched.
Said Thompson, "While the fountains look lovely and regilding statues has value, is that really more important than some of these other very strong needs at parks throughout the system?"