The Trump administration has announced plans to terminate the National Park Service lease of at least 34 buildings, which are visitor centers, law enforcement offices, museums, archives and centers to provide necessary park services.
“The park was demolished before our eyes,” National Park Conservation Association (NPCA) in an emergency statement issued Thursday, March 6.
The NPCA is a politically independent civic group that was designed a century ago to defend and affirm the establishment of the shared public land in the United States without weakening. “The situation has become terrible,” the statement said.
“Step are being taken Remove obstacles to drilling and mining On public land, the NPCA warned that even the national monuments were on the table.Park staffing Cutting is being drastically. We are seeing LGBTQ contribution to the United States History has been deleted. Plans have been announced Shutter Visitor Center, Museums and other important facilities Termination by lease. ”
The NPCA statement warns that, as the Trump administration says, rather than making it more efficient, rather than achieving our shared heritage by forcing some visitor centers to limit opening hours and threatening repositories of millions of national heritage artifacts.
The entire U.S. National Parks are now closed because newly cut workers can no longer keep up, the NPCA said.
Experts say Trump’s cuts have not improved anything
Due to the speed of the White House and the almost total lack of transparency in action, it is difficult to accurately determine the full impact on vacationers.
However, future travel plans have been destroyed. In California Yosemite National ParkThis is one of the jewelry of the public land system in the United States, and administrators are unable to implement the park’s annual admission booking system, which helps manage overcrowding. As a result, bookings for camps and hotels in the area have dropped dramatically, threatening the livelihoods of people in the tourism industry there.
“It’s horrible to be honest,” Elisabeth Barton, a travel agency near the park, told The Park SFGATE. “We are deeply concerned about the long-term health of Yosemite National Park in the current government.”
Former Yosemite principal Don Neubacher told far away. “During peak summer hours, the waiting line at the entrance station will be miles long and for hours. Transportation systems without reservation systems will not work properly and will be overloaded.”
Some national parks that require reservations, e.g. Arches in Utahcan be opened Booking system At least part of the summer of 2025.
At least 34 NPS rental plans have been cancelled
The NPCA has compiled 34 rental lists, and the White House is unilaterally terminated without first Congressional approval, nor consulting experts overseeing local operations of affected parks.
The entire list can be downloaded from the NPCA website Download via this PDF. In a sudden interruption of lease:
- this Southeast Archaeological Centera property located at Florida State University. The NPCA said the facility “provides a centralized location for storing archaeological objects of national significance. Climate and personnel must be carefully controlled to protect these irreplaceable resources without irreparable damage.” The Archaeology Center’s own website says its buildings manage 8 million precious artifacts in U.S. history and prehistoric, facilitating “the long-term production, compilation, utilization and dissemination of archaeological information obtained from them.”
- National Park Service Fairbanks Alaska Public Land Information CenterThe NPCA said it was funded by Congress grants. “The public can obtain entrances and other public use permits in the facilities,” the NPCA explained, “and the homeless people here provide education for safe use of public land.”
- Law Enforcement Office San Antonio Mission National Historic Park (pictured above) in Texas. According to the NPCA, “The facility has numerous NPS staff managing the park, including First Response and other public safety functions, maintenance, IT, device storage and artifacts.”
- this Little River Canyon Center (pictured below), working with Jacksonville State University since 2009 Little River Canyon National Protection In Alabama. According to the NPCA, the facility “has a lobby, HD cinema, gift shop, a natural history library, exhibitions, classrooms, a back deck, outdoor amphitheater, and trails for education and adventure. Meetings, social gatherings, corporate retreats and other special events can be rented.”
- National Park Services Southern Arizona,support”Parks in southern Arizona“This centralized office is a cost-effective means to support leadership and administrative functions for many smaller parks, precluding the need and additional costs of demonstrating such services at each site,” the NPCA said.
- Offshore office Channel Islands National Park In Southern California. The Protection Team asserted that the office’s location “is important for maintenance and/or public safety (i.e., EMT/Dispatch/First Response). … No other park building can provide ventilation and safety equipment for the area to support these essential activities.”
NPCA lists another 28 doomed resources destined to perform similar functions.
We know that the White House has been claiming that its federal cuts are about reducing so-called waste, but the NPCA’s list contains many instances of locations, which actually saves money by performing multiple dedicated responsibilities under a single roof.
In fact, the government’s reduction list seems to be partly aimed at maintaining millions of valuable artifacts in U.S. history and for sharing information about the public land they share with taxpayers.
Looking at this list, the real nature of the cut seems not about waste at all, but about erasure.
Here is a list of more threatened public resources
The NPCA has also compiled a list of nature reserves and parks for oil, gas and mineral extraction by the Trump administration. you can Download this list here as PDF.
Republican lawmakers are currently searching for public recreation land to extract potential, including public recreation land in Wyoming. National Monument to the Devil TowerThis was founded in 1906 by Theodore Roosevelt and is the first national monument in the country; Aztec Ruins National Monument In New Mexico, homes with delicate ruins dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries; and Grand Canyon – Parashman National Monumentthe watershed of the Grand Canyon itself.
In California, tribal and local leaders are Plan an emergency trip to Washington Pleasant for oil exploration in Chuckwalla, they only managed to Designated as a national monument After decades of lobbying, January.
As if all this is not enough to turn the peaceful John Muir into a revenge John Brown, the U.S. Congress is also preparing to pass legislation Open millions of acres of federal land to log There is no scientific review, no consideration of endangered animal habitats, and no community input. Furthermore, the measure would undermine citizens’ ability to challenge timber mining in public land in court.
Congress gave the bill the Orwellian name, calling it the “Fix Our Forest Act.” However, outside Capitol Hill, the legislation is called “f*ck our forest law. ”
The pending bill for politicians to wrap up in a more delicious public message about mitigating California wildfires is Gather steam for passage soon.
Visitors are also affected by cuts made outside the National Park Service. wired Already assembled This map and searchable list in all general services authorities that the Trump administration has said it intends to sell to the highest bidder.
Those sudden threats to federal property include: Montgomery Bus StationThis is a key historical landmark that the Free Knights advanced in the 1960s Alabama civil rights movement; Oklahoma City Federal Buildingreplaced the building of anti-federalist terrorist Timothy McVeigh in 1995 Kill 168; and plants that provide heated and cold water Go to museums and national monuments In Washington, DC