Between the National Park Service and the United States Forest Service, about 4,400 full-time employees were fired on Valentine’s Day. Most of these employees were in probationary periods, being in their first or second years on the job. About 5,000 temporary and seasonal positions within the NPS alone were halted as well.
These two agencies control over 277 million acres of land, about 12% of the entire U.S. land. The USFS manages 193 million acres while the NPS manages 84 million. With only around 35,000 and 18,000 employees respectively, the removal of these workers threatens a large portion of the public lands that Americans recreate on, visit and utilize.
These mass layoffs – not just within public lands agencies, but across the federal government – come in a move by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to reduce the size of the federal government. DOGE is not actually an agency of the federal government, as that would require an act of congress, so the legality of the firings has come into question.
For the 2025 fiscal year, the NPS has a budget of $3.58 billion and the USFS has a budget of $8.9 billion. However, in 2024 the government spent over $6.75 trillion in total, meaning these two agencies combined would make up about 0.1% of the total federal budget, not near enough to justify cuts to large amounts of needed workers.
Focusing specifically on the impact on the NPS, over 330 million people visited sites managed by the park service last year, a 2% increase from 2023. With less than 20,000 employees across 433 sites before the firings, resources such as trail maintenance, visitor services and campsites will become even more strained.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the only national park in Ohio, lost three employees to the layoffs and froze 40 seasonal positions. Most national parks, including CVNP, rely heavily on seasonal workers for management of the land that draws in millions of people per year.
Along with the NPS, the USFS firings and hiring freezes will have dire consequences for the almost 200 million acres under the view of the agency. Even before Donald Trump was elected, the agency announced in September that it would be freezing 2,400 seasonal jobs. With the current freeze and firings, even more jobs could be lost.
Many of these seasonal jobs work to control fire within the forests, with the USFS, NPS and Bureau of Land Management having over 15,000 total permanent and seasonal firefighters. As seen with the January wildfires around Los Angeles, the intensity of wildfires has only gotten worse in recent years, and pulling away the people trained to fight them could result in more land burning and fire encroaching into populated areas.
The USFS also manages trails, campgrounds and other recreational spaces and activities within the national forests. Without workers to maintain them, trash could pile up at campgrounds and on trails, making experiences in forests less enjoyable for everyone.
By firing over 4,400 full-time workers and freezing the hiring of thousands more, the federal government is setting up land management agencies for disaster. Without needed workers in the NPS and USFS, visitors to public lands are more likely to experience trash, dangerous fires, rougher trails and an overall decline in the recreation experience.
Ethan Herx is a sophomore studying photojournalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to share your thoughts? Let Ethan know by emailing or tweeting them at eh481422@ohio.edu or @ethanherx.
