Cuts to US national parks and forests met with backlash

I&#x27;m traveling around the western US in my campervan for the last month going between various parks.<p>Lesser known NP&#x27;s aren&#x27;t even checking people at the gate on the way in. I&#x27;ve been able to (leave no trace) boondock easily within the boundaries by finding side roads or even just staying the night in a dead end parking lot. Something I probably wouldn&#x27;t have tried when it is more busy.<p>If this is what it is like to see the park without staff, when warmer weather hits and the parks begin to really fill up, it is going to be a mess. Some of the parks seem to be under various forms of winter expansion and construction of campgrounds, I wonder how they will service the growth.<p>Maybe this happens to be the perfect time right now to be doing this then. The irony for me is that this travel is only possible for me because of Starlink. Thanks Elon?

Was at a couple national parks this month. The chaos due to short staffing saddened me. Foolish tourists will die or be hurt, and nature will be damaged, because the monitors and first responders are not there.<p>What’s the plan here? I thought these were America’s Crown Jewels, monuments we could point to and be proud of?<p>Advice I got from a ranger:<p>Stay away from the large famous national parks: Yellowstone, Glacier, Yosemite. Go to smaller lesser known national parks as well as state parks where the visitor&#x2F;staff ratio is not ruinous.

As countless comments have pointed out, the &quot;savings&quot; here are insignificant. The purpose is to hurt the US, &quot;to put [the state] in trauma&quot;.<p>That part is working. As planned.<p>One little ray of hope though. Project 2025 &amp; Russell Vought are getting the trauma and suffering. But they aren&#x27;t getting the key component that their plan was built on:<p>&gt; <i>When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains.</i><p>I don&#x27;t think anyone is falling for this. I don&#x27;t think the callous chainsaw-wielding cavalcade of wanton destruction is solidifying the GOP anti-government hate machine stance across America. Its not cool, it&#x27;s not making the good people doing hard work for America look like villains. The Project 2025 deconstructionists are the minority here.<p>Thanks Empty Wheel for this key reminder. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.emptywheel.net&#x2F;2025&#x2F;02&#x2F;28&#x2F;russ-vought-got-his-trauma-but-not-the-villains-he-imagined&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.emptywheel.net&#x2F;2025&#x2F;02&#x2F;28&#x2F;russ-vought-got-his-tr...</a>

Trump’s visits to the Super Bowl and the Indie 500 alone cost the tax payers more than was saved by cuts to the national parks staffing.<p>People’s lives, homes, families.<p>Folks who have dedicated their lives to enabling their fellow citizens to experience the grandeur of our nation’s natural beauty.<p>For a photo op.

&gt; Long queues of cars were stuck outside Grand Canyon National Park over President&#x27;s Day weekend, one day after the mass firing, due to a lack of toll operators to check people in at the gate.<p>I was there over Presidents Day weekend. The first day I went in (around 3pm) there was zero wait. The second day I went (around 10am), I had to wait 10 minutes. All the booths seemed open. I didn&#x27;t find this matched up with my experience at all.

》 team typically carry 600lbs (270kg) of litter on their backs out<p>Big part of recent increase in expenses is thanks to dog owners, and damage they do to environment. Post-covid everyone now owns a dog, and leaves bags of poop hanging from tree branches, like some sort of perverted Christmas tree<p>Banning dogs from all national parks, would solve all financial issues!!!

Destroy every agency and privatize them.

5% of National Park Service staff was cut. 10% of US Forest Service. That doesn&#x27;t seem excessive.