President Donald Trump is downsizing the federal workforce through the Department of Governmental Efficiency, which is headed by billionaire Elon Musk and commonly known as DOGE.
Since Trump began his second term in office, thousands of workers have been placed on administrative leave, laid off or simply fired.
National parks across the U.S. are not immune to the Trump administration鈥檚 cuts, and North Carolina is already seeing the impact.
At least six people from the Outer Banks group of national parks had their jobs terminated this month, according to the Association of National Park Rangers. The national parks in that part of the state that were impacted are the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site in Manteo.
Bill Wade, the executive director of the ANPR, said he didn鈥檛 know which specific positions were cut in the Outer Banks, but confirmed the number of job losses to 瓜神app.
Amongst all of North Carolina's national parks, at least 23 park rangers have been laid off.
Wade wrote in that 鈥渁bout 1,000 rangers still in their probationary appointment鈥� had their jobs terminated on Feb. 14 and those employees had just a 鈥渇ew minutes to turn in their government property, recover their personal property and vacate their place of work.鈥� Probationary workers are typically people who have been employed for less than a year or two.
鈥淭hese actions will hurt visitors and the parks they traveled to see across the United States,鈥� Rick Mossman, president of the ANPR, said in a statement.
According to , 4.8% of the National Park Service's workforce has been fired, or about 1,000 workers nationwide. The Forest Service has seen 9.7% of its workforce terminated, or about 3,400 people.
People employed by the National Park Service do a lot of different jobs. Indeed, some are guides, historians and caretakers, but others are locksmiths and janitors. Some respond to medical emergencies and automobile accidents. Others need to be efficient with tools like a chainsaw.
At least in North Carolina, Wade says rangers who also act as first responders were not laid off.
"The people that are hired, for the most part, in national parks are very passionate about doing the work of either serving visitors or serving the resource," Wade told 瓜神app. "They're not doing it to make the money."
To Wade鈥檚 point, the number of full-time employees at national parks went down by about 15% between 2011 and 2022, , which forced some parks to limit hours and days of operation.
In addition to the job cuts in the Outer Banks, 12 people lost their jobs at the Great Smoky Mountains National Parks, which is located in both Tennessee and North Carolina, Wade confirmed. There were three layoffs at the Guilford Courthouse, one at the Blue Ridge Parkway and one at Cape Lookout.
As the weather gets warmer and the spring and summer approaches, North Carolina鈥檚 national parks will likely head into their busy season understaffed. , North Carolina鈥檚 10 national parks generated $2.6 billion in revenue in 2023, which was second amongst all states to only California.
Wade says parks will likely have to limit services, like shortening hours for visitors' centers or cleaning public restrooms less often.
