BAYFIELD, Wisc. – Cuts to more than 2,000 National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service workers will have impact across all of the country’s protected public lands.
Already the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore let go of several employees, which according to retired National Park ranger Neil Howk, will impact visitor’s experiences.
“There are certainly going to be longer lines at parks with entrance fees since not enough people will be manning the booths,” said Howk. “Rangers and workers won’t be able to maintain historic buildings at the Apostle Islands, but maintaining the recreational facilites and visitor centers are going to be more difficult.”
While the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore isn’t a National Park, with the 21 islands and 290,000 acres, it’s considered larger than Rocky Mountain National Park.
Howk says the rangers and other workers who work at the park help train volunteers during the summer, but with limited resources, fewer volunteers will be able to help kayakers get from island to island.
“Over the years, volunteers have provided important services to visitors including campground hosts and tour guides,” said Howk. “There are at least five islands that the park staffs with volunteers in order to help coordinate the camping activities on those particular islands.”
The main thing that concerns Howk though are the impacts that are made to emergency crews in case people get lost or are injured.
“It’s not going to be as safe,” said Howk. “There won’t be as many people who will beable to conduct search and rescues or respond when people get hurt. It’s a sad thing to see, but it’s much more than that. For a lot of people, it’s going to feel like an inconvenience, but for a few people- it could be a matter of life and death for them.”
The Trump administration announced that the National Park Service will be working to hire 5,000 additional seasonal workers at designated parks, but with the reduction in permanent workers, training may be limited to what America’s favorite parks can offer moving forward.
