Trump Administration Proposes Massive Cuts to Both Funding and Staffing of National Park Service
Fiscal Year 2026 Budget would eliminate more than 5,000 Park Service jobs and cut almost $900 million from park management budget.
In the dark of night on Friday, May 30, 2025, the Trump administration published new specifics about its Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request.
Posted on the White House website, this massive 1,224-page document details a series of enormous cuts to both funding and staffing in the national parks and other public lands.
While the initial FY 2026 Budget Request, released on May 2, 2025, contained provisions to reduce the operational budget of the National Park Service (NPS) by $900 million, this new, more detailed document has the specific number.
Historic $897 Million Cut to National Park Service’s Operational Budget
The administration requests an $897-million budget cut to “park management.”
The requested park management budget for FY 2026 is $1.779 billion. In FY 2024, the actual budget was 2.676 billion, which is also the estimated budget for this current fiscal year.
This is a crippling 34% cut to an agency that actually generates money for the U.S. economy.
The park management budget is the funding that gets spread out across all 433 park sites. It’s what each park relies on to function properly (along with, in many cases, revenue from entrance fees, support from non-profits, etcetera.)
A park’s management budget is the financial cornerstone of its operations—it cannot function without it.
Park management is a huge part of the total overall budget of the National Park Service, which also includes funding for things like “national recreation and preservation,” the “urban park and recreation fund,” the “historic preservation fund”, and “construction.”
If approved by Congress, this would be the biggest cut to the National Park Service budget in its 109-year history.
For reference, in order to eliminate this amount from the NPS budget, my analysis shows that up to 350 park sites must be entirely removed from the park system.
This budget only allows for the operation of the 63 National Parks, plus a handful of other select sites. That’s it. There’s no financial room for anything else.
Rather unbelievably, this would effectively abolish nationally significant parks like Lake Mead, Devils Tower, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Mount Rushmore, Gettysburg, and even the National Mall and Memorial Parks.
“This the most extreme, unrealistic and destructive National Park Service budget a President has ever proposed in the agency’s 109-year history. It’s nothing less than an all-out assault on America’s national parks.” - Theresa Pierno, President and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA)
Additionally, the President’s Budget Request also reduces the National Park Service’s national recreation and preservation budget from $97 million to only $22 million, cutting its full-time permanent staff from 231 in 2024 to merely 54 in 2026.
It’s worth pointing out that “national recreation and preservation” budget covers the management of natural and cultural resources across the country.
It encompasses cultural programs, including the National Register of Historic Places and the National Historic Landmarks program, as well as—importantly—environmental compliance and reviews.
Other Noteworthy National Park Service Budget Cuts
Almost every line item in the National Park Service section of the FY 2026 Budget Request has a budget reduction (compared with 2024). However, there are some that I must mention here because they stand out so much.
Operation and maintenance of equipment: 53% cut
($53 million —> $25 million)
Operation and maintenance of facilities: 34% cut
($153 million —> $101 million)
Supplies and materials: 34% cut
($116 million —> $76 million)
Printing and reproduction: 50% cut
($4 million —> $2 million)
Remember that the National Park Service currently already has a deferred maintenance backlog of $23 billion—billion, with a B.
More Than 5,000 National Park Service Jobs Eliminated
In addition to the gigantic cuts to the NPS park management budget, the administration’s FY 2026 Budget Request also calls for a significant reduction of full-time permanent personnel compensation.
Put in numbers: FY 2026 would allocate $714 million to wages and salaries for full-time permanent employees. This is $318 million less than the estimated employee compensation budget for this fiscal year. Or a 31% budget cut.
Of course, reducing the budget for employee compensation means that you can’t employ the same number of people.
So, how many jobs is the administration proposing to eliminate from the National Park Service exactly?
Well, the detailed Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request actually has those numbers.
While FY 2024 had 15,096 full-time permanent employees, there will only be 10,020 of those left in FY 2026. A total of 5,076 full-time jobs—or 34%—would be eliminated from the National Park Service.
And if you thought that the so-called “seasonals” would pick up what those 5,000+ full-time permanent employees had left, here’s another budget cut to consider.
The budget for “other than full-time permanent” employees, which include part-timers and seasonal workers, will be slashed by an incredible 51%, from an estimated $80 million this fiscal year to only $39 million in FY 2026.
“The Park Service is in a full-blown staffing crisis. Even national parks like Yosemite are struggling to provide basic visitor services with overwhelmed park staff. Thousands of essential positions remain vacant across the system, including roughly 100 superintendent roles. The agency is being stretched to the limit without the leadership or resources it needs to function. Any further reduction in force, as the administration is reportedly planning, would be devastating to the future of our national parks.” - Theresa Pierno, President and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA)
Other Land Management Agencies Are Also Greatly Affected
Elsewhere in the FY 2026 Budget Request, other land management agency cuts are eye-opening as well, particularly the following:
U.S. Forest Service (USFS)
4,638 full-time equivalent jobs (30%)
(15,414 in 2024 —> 10,776 in 2026)
Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
1,292 full-time equivalent jobs (15%)
(8,345 in 2024 —> 7,053 in 2026)
$156 million from land resources (52%)
($300 million —> $144 million)
$114 million from wildlife habitat management (77%)
($149 million —> $35 million)
$57 million from resource protection (36%)
($157 million —> $100 million)
$45 million from national monuments and national conservation areas (75%)
($60 million —> $15 million)
$30 million from aquatic resources management (53%)
($57 million —> $27 million)
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
2,717 full-time equivalent jobs (34%)
(7,948 in 2024 —> 5,231 in 2026)
$281 million from ecosystems (90%)
($310 million —> $29 million)
$74 million from water resources (24%)
($304 million —> $230 million)
$59 million from core science systems (22%)
($270 million —> $211 million)
$46 million from natural hazards (23%)
($203 million —> $157 million)
$46 million from facilities (22%)
($210 million —> $164 million)
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
2,229 full-time equivalent jobs (27%)
(8,336 in 2024 —> 6,107 in 2026)
$149 million from National Wildlife Refuge System (27%)
($555 million —> 406 million)
$75 million from ecological services (26%)
($290 million —> $75 million)
$58 million from fisheries and aquatic resource conservation (25%)
($230 million —> $172 million)
$50 million from conservation and enforcement (24%)
($208 million - $158 million)
“The president's FY26 budget request affirms the destructive impact to wildlife evident in his early topline budget request. The Trump Extinction Budget would destroy the national endangered species program, a highly effective and already underfunded effort that provides a lifeline for critically imperiled species, and is yet another example of the disregard this administration has for the people and agencies charged with conserving America’s wildlife. The fate of over 1,600 species listed under the Endangered Species Act is largely up to Congress which must reject the Trump Extinction Budget and affirm the nation’s longstanding commitment to saving wildlife.” - Robert Dewey, Vice President of Government Relations at Defenders of Wildlife
“You can see why President Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum tried to hide this budget proposal in the dead of night—it’s indefensible. Our national parks are already understaffed, and Burgum wants to eliminate another 5,000 positions from the Park Service alone. […] All of this is consistent with Secretary Burgum’s dream of selling off America’s lands to the highest bidder because he refuses to take care of them. This budget is a bleak vision for the country, especially for everyone in the West who relies on America’s public lands for camping, hiking, hunting, and fishing. Just five years after President Trump signed a landmark bipartisan outdoors bill into law, he’s trying to erase the promise he made to future generations. When Secretary Burgum travels to Capitol Hill in a few weeks, I’m confident he’ll get a frigid reception from both sides of the aisle if he doubles down on this plan to eviscerate the lands he’s supposed to care for on behalf of our kids and grandkids.” - Aaron Weiss, Deputy Director of the Center for Western Priorities
The President’s FY 2026 Budget Request shows the priorities of the President and his administration, but ultimately, it is Congress that holds the power to determine budgets and allocate federal funding.
It is now up to both the House and the Senate to review the budget request, draft their own spending bills, and vote on them.
This is where you come in.
If you care about our national parks and public lands, their dedicated employees, their wildlife, and the peril they find themselves in at the moment, there are a few things you can do to help protect them.
The first, and arguably most important, action you can take is contacting Congress—regardless of what side of the political aisle they’re on.
You can conveniently contact Congress by filling out this form on the National Parks Conservation Association website.
Additionally, you can also contact your Senator or Representative directly. The best way to do that is through the 5 Calls app.
They need to be aware of how enormously unpopular these cuts are. The more people tell them, the more likely they’ll listen.
Another way to help is by donating to, or otherwise supporting, the following conservation associations:
Additionally, sharing this article and spreading the word—far and wide—also helps raise awareness about this pressing issue.
Most big media organizations don’t focus on national parks and public lands, and it’s quite unlikely you’ll hear about this from them, as they tend to prioritize other topics.
In a more practical way, when visiting national parks and forests, always make sure to follow the seven Leave No Trace Principles. This is more important than ever, considering that public lands may have fewer staff available.
Keep yourself safe, keep the landscape clean, leave the wildlife alone, be nice to park rangers, stay on trails, and look out for other visitors as well.