A slow degradation...

The National Park Service manages more than 84 million acres of land, from the tiny Gateway Arch National Park in St. Louis to the sprawling 13.2 million-acre Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve in Alaska. The Forest Service manages an additional 193 million acres: bigger than the whole of Texas.

Since taking office, Trump and his administration have fired thousands of park service and Forest Service employees, implemented a hiring freeze and delayed the planned hiring of seasonal workers critical to staffing visitor centers, maintaining trails and cleaning toilets. But at the same time, Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum has ordered park managers to keep open campgrounds, visitor centers and toilets.

Longtime public lands advocates say it's only a matter of time before campers, hikers and anglers start seeing cracks in what those advocates believe is a facade to keep up with the layoffs,  retirements and buyouts. They worry the Trump administration will use the subsequent problems as justification for closing, selling or transferring parks and land to private operators. To understand the motivations of this regime, always follow the money...

Some examples: 
Normally, Forest Service employees make sure that the more than 300,000 annual visitors have access to both toilets and drinking water when they arrive at the Maroon Bells trailhead. Now they expect that many pit toilets in the forest will only be pumped out once this summer down from as much as four times. They had planned to bring in student-workers this summer to help with maintenance and trail-clearing, but approval from Elon Musk's DOGE teams came too late to make it work this year. And no water will be available: bring your own.

At the Grand Canyon, regular Park Service employees were fired.  Services now rely on a cadre of trained volunteers (without supervisors) who, in turn, have to train new volunteers in the science of rescue operations (apparently at least 3 to 4 people A DAY have to be rescued from their treks through the Grand Canyon) -- some in dire condition... A friend of mine who is such a trained volunteer worries about what he thinks is the certainty of unnecessary deaths.

And then there is the wildfire season. Typically, National Incident Management Teams are made up of public lands workers across the country ‒ people who have other day jobs but get seconded to the fire-management teams during big fires. Trump's reductions have created a dramatic drop-off in the number of both firefighters and firefighting supervisors in both national parks and national forests.

"Simply put," says Trust for Public Land CEO Carrie Besnette Hauser, "there are fewer rangers, wildlife and conservation experts, and stewards on the ground ‒ just when they’re needed most. This isn't just a risk to visitor experience, it's a risk to the health of our lands and the economic vitality of rural and gateway communities, from Maine down to Florida, to Texas and Hawaii. Our public lands are more than beautiful places. They are economic engines, job creators, and essential spaces for healing, connection, and shared history."

Interestingly enough, over 65% of Americans value the park services and do not wish to see them -- and their custodians -- damaged or hurt...