Summer travel is in full swing, but so is our country’s pride and joy.
Since President Donald Trump took office in 2025, the National Park Service has been decimated. Employees have left or been laid off, historical markers have been removed, and funding to maintain and operate the parks has been cut.
Still, Trump doesn’t seem to be slowing down. The administration’s proposed 2027 budget would cut more than a quarter of the remaining annual budget for national parks.
Despite this, Trump still wants Americans to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday by visiting the underfunded park system (and he has he hit his face on annual national reserves).
He hopes Americans will follow the example of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, a former reality TV star whose new YouTube show, The Great American Road Tripcaptures Duffy’s travels across the United States.
But the parks are not ready for that, experts warn. A lack of funding could further damage the experience and conservation of America’s most visited parks, but journalist Stephanie Pearson says. Today, It’s Explained that he is more concerned about the damage that visitors cannot see.
Pearson has written to Outside the Journal for decades and wrote two books about our national parks. Today, It’s Explained co-host Sean Rameswaram asked him how the parks are faring in light of major cuts from the Trump administration.
The following is part of their conversation, edited for length and clarity. There’s much more in the full podcast, so listen to Today, Explained wherever you get the podcast, including Apple Podcasts, Pandoraand Spotify.
How are our parks doing? Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is urging Americans to stay on track. I think the place Americans tend to go when they hit the road is the zoo, especially in the summer. What will they find when they go?
It is a goal to move forward. There is a lot happening in the garden right now. Nearly a quarter of the National Park’s full-time employees have lost their jobs. That’s more than 4,000 positions.
When you lose a quarter of your reserve staff, what do you end up losing?
Most of the public viewing will still be there. People may not necessarily realize that. They will still be greeted at visitor kiosks. They will still have news people.
Where they are lacking are scientists, biologists who study flora and fauna or wildlife, people who are integral parts of these parks who try to balance wildlife visits, for example. To build infrastructure for the people who take care of the reserves and maintain them. The way it is interpreted is that the abandoned people have many hats, and they have to do many different things.
It’s amazing what the National Park staff continues to do. Anyone who sees someone in a National Park Service uniform should probably go give them a hug or, you know, high five or something.
You have to ask before you embrace them, though. You don’t want to make their lives worse.
Yes, very true. But I would say that I think their jobs are very difficult right now. And so just keep that in mind. However you want to do it, send them good vibes.
I don’t know if you watched the Sean Duffy trailer The Great American Road Tripbut in fact he seems to emphasize that this country has a lot to offer, and especially its natural beauty, its parks.
I think the maintenance and infrastructure of our national park system is included in that marketing campaign that they have going on right now. And you’re telling me that parks are struggling in that regard.
Yes, they are struggling in that regard, and it is all documented. You can do your own research and see where these cuts are made. And I agree with Duffy. I think it’s an amazing and amazing storage system, but it’s greatly limited by the budget that goes into it and the manpower that they have.
They hire seasonal workers, but what they do is add “seasonal worker” to mean a nine-month position. So they will probably get health insurance, but they won’t get other benefits. But what that means is that they are not only full-time employees and therefore many of them are also transferred to different positions.
Can you give us specifics about what conditions might be like in some of these parks that are struggling and understaffed? I mean, can’t you use a pot in the garden? Are there no devices to speak of at this time?
There are facilities, and these parks do not close. But, for example, in Yosemite National Park, on the first weekend of May, it took an hour and a half to get to the entrance of the people. When they arrived at the park, what is also happening is that they have removed all reservation systems.
(At) some of these famous parks – Yosemite, Glacier National Park, Acadia National Park – you had to make a reservation to drive your car, for example, on Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. They’ve raised those, and so it’s kind of a free-for-all.
It all depends on which park you will go to. There are parks in the system that are less visited; with these photo parks where everyone always seems to want to go, there will be many people who want to see the same things as you do.
Beyond the budget cuts to these parks, there is also an agenda here to reorganize the cultural and historical education programs in our national parks. How is that going?
It is being implemented as we speak. In March 2025, President Trump issued an executive order titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. And what it does is, as Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said, is remove exhibits from the Park Service that inappropriately denigrate past or living Americans, including from the colonial period.
What this means is that the signs of climate change in Acadia National Park have been removed. (Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail) had to do a major inspection, and the Park Service staff realized, which was a responsibility, I think something like 80 things that they needed to take out of the park.
It takes place in places, in parks all over the country. For example, Stonewall in New York City – they took the (pride) flag down, but it went back up because New York City officials wanted it back up.
Do you think this could be an extra incentive to get out there this summer and see these parks despite the gas prices, because it’s America 250 and the parks are being destroyed, so you might as well see them before they’re trashed?
It almost breaks my heart to even think about it. I still have some hope. I hope that they will not be thrown. I hope that people on both sides of the aisle understand the value of these reserves. I am an advocate for understanding our American history because there is so much to offer through these gardens. You’ll gain insight when you visit Ancestral Puebloan lands in New Mexico or see the geology of Big Bend National Park.
I really hope that people understand the value of these places. In Big Bend National Park, people are rallying around the fact that they are trying to build a border wall through it. People have come together, on both sides of the aisle, to say, We don’t want a border wall in Big Bend National Park. And so I think there’s hope that people will rise to the occasion.
What you’re saying at Big Bend is that you can only push people so far, and eventually they’ll stop if you go too far.
Absolutely. I think Teddy Roosevelt is a good example of this. Teddy Roosevelt is the president of conservation. Teddy Roosevelt was changed, essentially changed, by the environment of the Badlands. And that is my hope that people go to these scenes and are fundamentally changed and understand what we have to lose here.
