LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A federal hiring freeze is starting to affect the National Park Service.
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump implemented a freeze on hiring federal civilian employees.
There are a few exceptions. The order does not apply to:
- Military personnel of the armed forces
- Positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety
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One of the federal agencies that is being affected is the Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service system. According to the Office of Personnel Management, as of March 2024, the Department of the Interior had 62,890 employees.
I spoke with Jeff Mow, who is on the Executive Council of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks. He worked for the National Park Service for about 34 years and was a superintendent for several national parks across the country.
He said due to park seasonality, the number of employees varies throughout the year.
"In order to serve the millions of visitors that come to national parks, we need to bring on employees during certain times of the year," Mow explained. "At a park like Glacier National Park, for example, there's about 125 to 130 permanent year-round employees but we bring on almost 350 to 370 seasonal employees to accomplish all the things that need to be done in a national park."
Mow added that due to the remoteness of national parks, employees do everything from run gift shops and give tours to operating utility systems like sewer plants and water systems.
Most people might not think of summer operations in February. However, Mow said park officials need that time to make sure employees can respond to any type of situation appropriately and that typically, training can take at least a month.
"The federal hiring process takes some time and they do background checks on everybody who comes to work for the National Park Service," Mow said. "Because of the remoteness and the activities that visitors engage in, any employee that's in the field, so somebody collecting garbage can be approached by somebody who needs search and rescue help. They need to know. They need to have that training to know how to trigger that process, how to participate in that, and what needs to be done first."
Many students use seasonal jobs as a stepping stone to land full-time job, which is one reason why park officials are watching the hiring freeze so closely.
"It's always a kind of hurdle, I think, for people to realize just how competitive the jobs with the National Park Service can be," Mow said. "There's anxiety out there already. I think these delays or if the freeze becomes permanent, we'll have a very detrimental effect on attracting that next generation of stewards and advocates for national parks."
When I asked about putting park budgets together and planning for the busy summer season, Mow said there is still time for changes to be made.
"The budget for this summer hasn't been set yet. The park service and all federal agencies are on a continued resolution that's up until March. The anticipation is we'll have funding to operate the national parks. I also think a lot depends on the new Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, who just got confirmed by the Senate last Friday. We all welcome his entry into his new position because he's someone who could really speak with authority on a lot of this uncertainty that these actions have brought with them."
And as for the future, Mow said park superintendents are used to making decisions and adjustments.
"We've had one arm behind our back for quite awhile, just in terms of the jobs we need to do. We always rise to the occasion and we seem to be doing more and more with less," Mow said. "But if seasonal hiring gets impacted significantly with delays, that could really impact some of the operations and what visitors will see."
I reached out to the Department of Interior to learn more and received the following statement.
"The Department of the Interior and the National Park Service are implementing President Donald J. Trump's Executive Order across the federal civilian workforce."
According to the executive order, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Government Efficiency are working on a plan to reduce the size of the federal government's workforce. Within 90 days, a plan will be developed and departmental leadership will work closely with bureaus to execute personnel decisions.
I also reached out to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and have not heard back from park officials, as of Monday afternoon.
