July 6, 2025
The executive order also rescinds a Barack Obama-era executive order promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion at America’s national parks.
On the heels of reports that the Trump administration’s budget cuts are having a disastrous effect on the National Park Service system, a new executive order from Donald Trump, which seems designed to force the now-beleaguered agency to generate money, was issued on July 3.
According to the executive order, titled “Making America Beautiful Again By Improving Our National Parks,” the National Parks and Federal Recreations Lands Pass or other multi-site passes will now be sold to foreign visitors at an increased rate, while on the other hand, charging the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture with improving services and affordability for United States residents visiting the parks. It should be noted that most national parks across the country do not charge an entry fee, and the ones that do, are already priced affordably.
The executive order also rescinds a Barack Obama-era executive order promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion at America’s national parks, in line with Trump’s obsession with eliminating diversity, and inclusion from the federal government since retaking the White House.
As The New York Times reports, the National Park Service is in the midst of its busiest time of the year, and Theresa Pierno, the leader of the National Parks Conservation Association, warned that the parks cannot function correctly due to the staff reductions and the voluntary exits created by the federal government’s approach to both staffing levels and the budget for the parks themselves, both of which have been greatly reduced.
“National parks cannot properly function at the staffing levels this administration has reduced them to,” Pierno told the outlet in a statement. “And it’s only getting worse.”
Rep. Jared Huffman, (D-CA) the top Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources, also criticized the federal government’s contradictory and haphazard approach to the budget cuts that have resulted in the loss of park rangers and custodial crews as well as other key employees, in his own statement.
“Keep in mind, these are the rangers who rescue stranded or injured hikers, the crews who fix busted water systems and the law enforcement officers who keep families safe,” Rep. Huffman said. “Lives could be put in danger because of this administration’s incompetence and carelessness.”
According to CNN, the park rangers who are being asked to pick up the slack created by the federal government’s irresponsible budget and job cuts, could be dealing with increased burnout as the summer wears on. Meanwhile, visitors to the parks have not been shy about expressing the emptiness they feel during their time at the parks due to a lack of appropriate staffing.
“By mid-August, you’re going to have staff that is so burned out,” Kym Hall, a former NPS regional director and park superintendent, told CNN. “Somebody is going to make a mistake, somebody is going to get hurt. Or you’re going to see visitors engaging with wildlife in a way that they shouldn’t, because there aren’t enough people out in the parks to say, ‘do not get that close to a grizzly bear that’s on the side of the road; that’s a terrible idea.’”
She continued, “Even if the parks had permission, and even if they had some funding, it takes months and months to get a crew of seasonal (workers) recruited, vetted, hired, boarded into their duty stations, trained and ready to serve the public by Memorial Day. What you’ve lost with all this attrition – you’ve lost all this knowledge that’s going to take years to build back up.”
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