Former National Parks worker warns tourists ‘DO NOT visit’ after 1,000 fired

A Reddit user claiming to be a former U.S. National Parks Service employee warned visitors away after a massive staff cut. According to the anonymous Redditor, things were already dire for these protected areas, and recent actions taken by the second Trump administration may push the situation over the edge.

President Donald Trump recently fired around 1,000 newly hired National Parks workers whose job it was to clean and maintain the parks as well as educate tourists on how not to damage the environment, and how to stay alive. So now might not be the best time.

'Please cancel your trip'

Following the news of these firings on Feb. 18, 2025, Reddit user zuzuofthewolves posted a plea to the r/collapse sub warning potential visitors to stay away from the parks until or unless they can regain the staff necessary to protect them. And by "them," we mean both the parks and the people.

"I used to work in the National Parks," the user writes. "They were already at a critical point before Donald Trump decided to fire a huge amount of staff. I watched the 'permanent' ice caps melt on the top of some peaks in Yosemite’s high country. I saw garbage washing up on the shore of Olympic National Park everyday."

According to this individual, there were already too few park workers to protect either the environment or the people visiting from harm. They begged those thinking about scheduling a trip to reconsider, both for the sake of the wildlife and themselves.

"There is not enough staff to protect the wildlife anymore," they insisted. "There is not enough staff to keep tourists from falling off waterfalls or getting lost in the back country. There are no programs left to teach clueless people how to behave in these wild areas."

"I don’t care if you have the best intentions in the world, you are doing damage to the park if you visit at this point."

The Redditor's only solution at this time is to close all the parks to all visitors, fearing the damage done to the parks is "irreversible." With around 1,000 workers now gone, there is no way that they have enough help to even mitigate this harm.

"Please cancel your trip and find somewhere else to see," they concluded.

'They want to end public resources'

Commenters fear that the "irreversible damage" predicted by the OP is exactly what Trump wants. The President has an extensive history of fighting against environmental regulations and opening up protected spaces for human exploitation. "Drill, baby, drill," and all that.

"They want to end public resources and privatize all of it," wrote user jack_skellington. "So the idea, as I understand it, is to defund the parks, let them fall apart, say to the public 'look this is a failed idea, let's sell it off,' and then turn the land into oil refineries, mining operations, etc."

"The people in charge are not concerned that the parks might fall to pieces because there is no intention for them to survive. They will be razed anyway, once private interests are brought in to 'salvage' them."

With a possible recession looming and economic fears exacerbated by all this new unemployment, others worry that squatters will become an increasingly prevalent problem. Another user claiming to be a park ranger says that staffing issues make this issue worse.

"Was a permanent ranger during COVID - which ironically is what finally made me leave," writes Dire88. "Its always an issue, but staffing issues exacerbate it. We had an extreme uptick in squatters, vandalism, and illegal activity (ie. More used needles, illegal dumping, etc.)."

"100%, currently many parks limit access to camping via a permit system," WSUKiwiII agrees. "That only works if there are Rangers available, deep in the backcountry, to check and enforce the requirements."

Shorter hours, delayed openings, closed campgrounds

Confirmed experts on the state of U.S. National Parks are already saying that the mass firings will end up limiting public access to these places, and those that do come may be at increased risk.

"Fewer staff means shorter visitor center hours, delayed openings and closed campgrounds," senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association Kristen Brengel told AP News.

She went on to confirm that the firings "are pushing an already overwhelmed Park Service to its breaking point. And the consequences will be felt in our parks for years.”

According to the National Parks Service, there were 2,149 deaths in these areas from 2014 to 2019 and they seemed to be trending upward. The leading causes of unintentional park deaths, which accounted for 50 percent of the total, are motor vehicle crashes, drownings, and falls, in that order.

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