Making Our National Parks Great Again

Our national parks are our national treasures. I genuinely believe that they represent the very best of this country. They showcase our most breathtaking and varied land, they preserve our heritage, they allow us to remember our history, and without them, many of our most endangered wildlife would already be gone.

I am certain about these truths, down to the very marrow of my bones. I’m therefore finding it really hard to write the following sentence, but I feel compelled to do so. Please support our national parks, but avoid visiting them for at least the next four years.

Okay, that brought tears to my eyes. It really did. But I think avoiding the parks right now is in the parks’ best interests. The current presidential administration is hellbent on wreaking havoc on the entire system with its assault on federal spending. Visiting at this time will only add to the chaos and destruction.

First of all, due to Trump’s general hiring freeze on federal employees, his layoff threats, and his attempts to buy people out of their jobs, staffing at our national parks is at an all-time low. Two days ago, 1,000 dedicated permanent employees of the National Parks Service were fired without warning or any consideration as to the critical nature of their positions. Just as the larger parks were on the brink of hiring their seasonal workers, which they heavily rely on during the peak summer months, all those workers were sent an email that said that their job offers were rescinded.

These permanent employees and seasonal workers are not just the cashiers in the gift shops. No. They are law enforcement rangers, wildland firefighters, and EMTs. They are the people who clean the bathrooms and haul away the garbage. They help maintain the wastewater treatment plants and high voltage lines. They are the ones that help find our stupid butts when we get lost. Even if Trump suddenly sees the light and changes his mind, we are now too far behind in the hiring process to adequately staff these parks for the summer.

Consider this: In the summer, Yosemite alone gets 20,000 visitors a day. A DAY. And without anyone minding the store, many of these visitors will run wild. How do I know this? Because during our various government shutdowns, and during the worst of the COVID 19 pandemic, here is what happened in our national parks:

Visitors left garbage piled high at scenic viewpoints.
They let their dogs run free in prohibited, environmentally sensitive areas.
They drove over curbs.
They relocated rocks to create parking spaces.
They defecated on the ground near locked bathrooms and left feces in rivers and streams.
They put graffiti on previously pristine cliffs, harassed wild animals, and defaced petroglyphs and pictographs.

These parks need oversight, because, as the pictures below show you, people suck.

Due to other governmental shenanigans, it is very likely that those parks that have been employing a visitor reservation system to reduce crowding will not be allowed to do so. That will mean a return to hours long lines of idling cars outside the parks, and when you do get in you will find it all but impossible to find someplace to park, and many will therefore park illegally. And due to this overcrowding, there will once again be damage to park resources, and threats to staff and visitor safety.

Other policies are derailing decades of efforts to protect fragile ecosystems, migration routes, and endangered species. Trump is also attempting to redraw park boundaries in order to lease public land to drilling companies, and that will cause further damage to the environment.

As the national park experience deteriorates, fewer people will want to visit, and this in turn will cause economic damage to the hotels, businesses and small towns that rely on these parks to survive. As with any type of destruction, there is always a ripple effect. The big Cheeto does not seem capable of considering consequences. He doesn’t care about the health and safety of the American people or the preservation of what makes this country truly great. All he’s interested in is “Drill, baby, drill!”

If you have any doubt that the tiny-fisted thug is out to destroy the national parks, consider the fact that he nominated Kathleen Sgamma, an oil and gas company representative, to oversee the Bureau of Land Management. He also named Doug Burgum to the US Secretary of the Interior to be his “Energy Czar”. The man has said that he views America’s public lands and waters as part of the country’s financial “balance sheet,” and has advocated for extracting potentially trillions of dollars’ worth of oil, gas and minerals via mining and drilling.

Oil and gas advocate named by Trump to lead agency that manages federal lands

One of Trump’s executive orders has declared a national energy emergency, which allows the administration to expedite permits for oil and gas drilling on public lands. This will require a committee of political appointees to review requests for exemptions to the Endangered Species Act. Potentially, drilling companies will then be able to overlook regulations that protect our most vulnerable plants and animals, destroy habitat, and disrupt migration routes.

Many of our national preserves allow hunting, but they have long fought for responsible hunting regulations, such as not killing bears while they hibernate, for example. Our current administration has directed the park service to revisit some of these regulations, such as the one related to bear baiting. Why shouldn’t hunters be allowed to lure bears to them with grease-covered donuts? (My response would be that if you even have to ask, then the bears are pretty much f**ked.)

But hey, here’s some good news! Just last month, Trump signed an executive order to create a “National Park of American Heroes.” It will be a park with 250 statues of the greatest Americans who ever lived.” These will include such notables as Davy Crockett, Billy Graham, and Audie Murphy. The most contemporary president mentioned so far will be Ronald Reagan. Antonin Scalia will be there, but not Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

They haven’t mentioned where this site will be. Only that it will be a site of natural beauty near at least one population hub, and it will avoid disrupting the local community. So yeah. We’ll get that. More National Parks funding will go toward that, while the rest of our parks get to go to sh*t. Way to go, you buffoon.

If you really want to keep abreast of all that is going on with regard to the National Parks crisis, I suggest you check out The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks website. You can’t join the coalition unless you are a current, former, or retired National Park employee or volunteer, but you can at least get the latest information. And if you want to take an active part in making a difference for our beloved parks, I urge you to take this National Parks Advocacy Crash Course.

And yes, as much as it pains me, I suggest we all avoid our national parks for the next several years. Let’s give our beleaguered park service staff as much of a break as we can, shall we?

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with just a few heartfelt messages from former rangers that I came across on Facebook. Based on a quick and lazy fact check, they appear to be legitimate. If this doesn’t break your heart, then you don’t have one.

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I am absolutely heartbroken and completely devastated to have lost my dream job of an Education Park Ranger with the National Park Service this Valentine’s Day.
Access to my government email was denied mid-afternoon and my position was ripped out from out under my feet after my shift was over at 3:45pm on a cold snowy Friday. Additionally, before I could fully print off my government records , I was also locked out of my electronic personal file that contained my secure professional records.
Please know and share this truth widely:
I am a father, a loving husband, and dedicated civil servant.
I am an oath of office to defend and protect the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic.
I am a work evaluation that reads “exceeds expectations.”
I am the “fat on the bone.”
I am being trimmed as a consequence of the popular vote
I am a United States flag raiser and folder
I am my son’s “Junior Ranger” idol
I am of the place where I first told my spouse I loved her
I am a college kid’s dream job
I am the smiling face that greets you at the front door
I am your family vacation planner
I am a voice for 19 American Indian cultures
I am the protector of 2500 year old American Indian burial and ceremonial mounds
I am the defender of your public lands and waters
I am the motivation to make it up the hill
I am a generational cycle breaker
I am the toilet scrubber and soap dispenser
I am the open trail hiked by people from all walks of life
I am the highlight of your child’s school day
I am the band aid for a skinned knee
I am the lesson that showed your children that we live in a world of gifts- not commodities, that gratitude and reciprocity are the doorway to true abundance, not power, money, or fear.
I am the one who taught your kid the thrush’s song and the hawk’s cry.
I am the wildflower that brought your student joy
I am the one who told your child that they belong on this planet. That their unique gifts and existence matters.
I am an invocation for peace
I am gone from the office
I am the resistance
But mostly I’m just tired.
I am tired from weeks of being bullied and censored by billionaires
I am tired of waking up every morning at 2am wondering how I am going to provide for my family if I lose my job
I am tired of wiping away my wife’s tears and reassuring her that things will be ok for us and our growing little family that she’s carrying.
Things are not ok. I am not ok. (This is the second time in under five years a dream job I worked has been eliminated. Now I may need to uproot my FAMILY again.)
Stay present, don’t avert your gaze.
Until our paths cross down the trail,
Fare thee well.
Ranger Brian (Gibbs)💚

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Today I was fired from my permanent Kauai NWR Complex Biologist position with no warning, locked out of my email by 3pm on the same day I barely had time to get the documents I need to file for unemployment. This is coming directly from the Trump administration and is likely illegal but somehow has not been stopped. Three of my amazing co-workers were also fired; the critical skilled biologists and habitat restoration experts, who are in the field day in and day out, pouring their blood, sweat and tears into conserving native Hawaiian birds and habitats. This was not just a job for us, this was our everything, caring for the aina. For me it was the dream job of all dream jobs. I have no idea what I’ll do now, I thought I would be in that position for a very long time. I even bought a horse in December with the notion of a permanent, salaried position.

US Forest Service fired 3400 yesterday
National Park Service fired 1000 today
US Fish and Wildlife Service fired 420 today
Homeland Security fired 405
Etc

I really have no words right now; we are literally watching our democracy slip away from us. Now is not the time to sit back and “wait and see”. I gave an oath of office on my first day that I would defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. How is this not a domestic enemy?! These billionaires have so much money they have everything they could ever want and more …. this is literally just Hunger Games or Squid Games. It’s just little chess pieces, some funny little game to them. There Is going to be nothing left of this country by the end of the week. It’s time we stand up, before it’s too late.

Bryn M. Webber