National Parks, such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Denali, Everglades and so many more are some of The United States’ greatest locations.
National Parks cover around 13% of our nation’s territory. That is around 85 million acres of land containing thousands of species of plants, animals, fungi, etc. However, on Feb. 15, the Trump administration cut funding to the National Park services and forced around 1,000 workers out of jobs.
This cut off of the National Parks’ funding is detrimental to the National Park Service (NPS) and can be utterly catastrophic not only to the land they are meant to protect but also to the rangers who work there and the tourists who come to look at the beauty of the land. This defunding can lead to either making the land into zones for mineral mining, logging, farming, hunting, or just a fancy resort only the rich can go and see. Additionally, this defunding can lead to the destruction of unique environments along with the native species there, the economic inequality of who can see these parks, and the utter loss of the source money that National Parks bring in.
Currently, National Parks forbid any mining in their lands with some exceptions. These National Parks may contain wanted minerals such as oil, coal, gems, etc underneath the National Parks. With the defunding of the NPS, rules of law can hypothetically be changed in order to harvest said minerals along with making other parks into logging or farming zones or even hunting reserves. Around 600 endangered or threatened species call our national parks home. The resource harvesting of the parks could destroy the protection of these species and harm their respective populations even more, not counting the monitoring perimeter of poachers who can come in, kill their game, and leave without ever being caught. So, the resource harvesting of these amazing lands would not only destroy the beauty of the land but also threaten the species that call the parks home.
The NPS released data stating that around 331.9 million people visited the National Parks in 2024 alone. However, due to the funding cut, the NPS would need to increase their payment so they can keep the park intact. Entrance fees (before the cut) cost from $8-$35 USD. Now with the cut off of National Park funding, parks would have to increase their prices of their entrance fees. Depending if more funding is cut or taken away from the NPS, this could hypothetically only allow the richest Americans to go visit a National Park without it being as stressful or costly as the rest of Americans planning to go to Disneyland or traveling out of the country. Again, this is if National Parks are not turned into oil mining zones by the time our generation has kids of our own.
The NPS generated $55.6 Billion to the US economy and supported 415,000 jobs in 2023 alone. In 2018, around 14.3 million visitors of the National Parks were tourists from other countries. This means more money is actually entering our economic system instead of just being circulated. National Parks are some of the only reasons why some tourists come to America, to witness its natural beauty.
If you feel that these actions that the House of Representatives and the Trump administration are doing to our nation’s most cherished lands are terrible and should be stopped. You, yes you, can write a letter or make a call to your state’s senator or representative to beg them to bring funding and staff back to National Parks and other public. You can also go up to Denver on May 17 to protest against the Trump administration in order to protect public lands from the fates I previously mentioned. But one of the best things you can do is to visit nearby National Parks and other public not only to visit these lands before their possible destruction, but also to give the NPS money in order to keep the land protected and alive.
