Interior secretary orders national parks to be open and accessible as workforce is cut

Under criticism for staff cuts across the country, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is directing national parks to “remain open and accessible” and says officials will ensure proper staffing to do so.

The order, issued late Thursday, also calls for a detailed review of each park’s operating hours, trail closures and other limits on visitor services.

Burgum said in the order that his department and the National Park Service “are committed to ensuring that all Americans have the opportunity to visit and enjoy our Nation’s most treasured places.”

But park advocates and others criticized the move and questioned how park employees could comply, given the Trump administration’s workforce reductions through voluntary separation offers, layoffs and an earlier hiring freeze. Fewer workers can mean shorter hours, delays, closed campgrounds, overflowing trash bins, unkept bathrooms, and risks to public safety, they say.

The park service has lost somewhere near 1,500 permanent employees since the beginning of this year, Rick Mossman, president of the Arizona-based Association of National Park Rangers, said Friday in a statement. And it's "bracing for another reduction in force expected in the very near future.”

The administration initially restored about 50 national park positions and hired some seasonal workers following an uproar over an aggressive plan to downsize the agency. More workers were offered their jobs back last month after a judge's order, but some decided to leave federal employment or were immediately placed on administrative leave.

Republican Rep. Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, praised the order and said it will ensure parks fulfill their mission.

“As we head into the summer months, millions of Americans and visitors from around the world will be enjoying our beautiful national parks,” he said in a statement.

But Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Denver-based Center for Western Priorities, said mandating parks to remain operational without needed personnel and resources is an impossible task.

“This secretarial order is a hollow and cynical attempt to save face amid the outrage from the public about the harm the Trump administration is inflicting to not only national parks, but the communities across the country that depend on them for economic survival,” Rokala said in a statement.

Burgum's order says assistant secretaries will review the operating hours for each park and a full report must be sent to him within 15 days.

Rokala said that plan would remove park superintendents and the public from any future decisions regarding park management.

“If past is prologue, the public will be left completely in the dark about all the decisions," Rokala said.

The order noted that national parks welcomed more than 331 million visitors last year. The sites were run by more than 20,000 employees and 300,000 volunteers, he said.

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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report from Washington.