More than 1,000 National Park Service staff, including rangers, have been laid off across the country.
In the D.C. region, there are concerns that more cuts could be coming, affecting the experience of millions of tourists who flock to the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms each year.
WTOP has reached out to the National Park Service to inquire about local cuts to its staffing.
According to the National Park Service, nearly $2 billion was generated in 2023 thanks to tourism linked to the parks in the National Capital Region. The 2024 Cherry Blossom Festival generated $202 million in D.C. alone.
Ed Stierli, mid-Atlantic regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for the National Park Service, said that as a result of the widespread layoffs, “There are going to be fewer park guides to offer programming. There’s going to be fewer maintenance staff to keep facilities looking great, to empty the trash, to make sure that bathrooms are clean.”
“So many positions were vacant to begin with,” Stierli said. “The National Park Service recently had been stepping up efforts to really hire and fill out positions that had been vacant in a lot of the urban parks here.”
According to Stierli, at least two positions at Rock Creek Park were cut, along with “a dozen or more” positions across the National Capital Region. WTOP reached out to the National Park Service for confirmation and comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
Along with park maintenance and educational programming, Stierli said the people laid off as part of the Trump administration’s goals to slash government spending included “people that were making sure that the parks were protected from sea level rise from the Potomac River, or making sure that there were forest resilience plans in place at places like Rock Creek Park.”
The National Parks Conservation Association was founded in 1919 to support the national park system.
“What we want to see is Congress and the administration really take a stand and both reinstate these positions, as well as make sure there aren’t any further cuts.”
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