America’s national parks saw more than 331 million visits last year, a record. But the Trump administration does not want to call attention to those numbers, according to a National Park Service memo, amid mass firings of rangers and other employees at the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Arches and other popular destinations.
The internal memo, issued on Wednesday, said the agency would “not issue a press release or other proactive communications, including social media posts” regarding the numbers. Individual parks could make public visitor numbers if directly asked for them, it said. The data also was posted online.
The Trump administration fired about 1,000 National Park Service employees in February as part of a plan by President Trump and Elon Musk to reduce the size of the federal work force. More than 700 additional park employees also have submitted resignations as part of Mr. Musk’s “fork in the road” offer, and agency directors are required to report their plans for still more cuts to the White House by March 13.
“The National Park Service just reported the highest visitation in its history, as the administration conducts massive firings and threatens to close visitor centers and public safety facilities,” said Kristen Brengel, the senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan group.
She said the numbers showed that Americans love national parks and warned that the cuts would mean closed campgrounds and canceled ranger programs and would curtail the ability to conduct search and rescue activities as peak travel season arrives.
“It’s a slap in the face to the hundreds of millions of people who explored our parks last year and want to keep going back,” Ms. Brengel said.
The National Park Service declined to comment on the internal memo. In a statement, the agency said it was hiring seasonal employees and was also coordinating with the White House on prioritizing fiscal responsibility.
According to the visitor data, the park system saw 331,863,358 visitors last year, the most since record-keeping began in 1904. The previous record of 330 million visits was set in 2016, when the Park Service celebrated its centennial.
The most visited were: Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee, with 12.1 million visits; Zion National Park in Utah, with 4.9 million visits; Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, with 4.9 million visits; Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, with 4.7 million visits; and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, with 4.1 million visits.
Just days after firing employees and imposing a hiring freeze, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that the Park Service would rehire thousands of workers, albeit as temporary, summer positions.
“Go apply. Apply for a job,” Mr. Burgum said on Fox News. “We want to make sure that we’re giving a great experience for citizens at our national park system.”
Ms. Brengel noted that many of the people Mr. Burgum said the agency would hire had been offered jobs in January and then rescinded the offers when the Trump administration issued a hiring freeze.
She said agency leaders were “kidding themselves” if they believed they could rehire those and thousands more seasonal workers in time for the busy season, adding that the agency had also reduced the human resources staff that is responsible for making new hires.
The website USA Jobs, which lists open federal government jobs, offered only 197 seasonal Park Service positions as of Thursday.
