Exemptions granted this week for the hiring of seasonal workers in the national parks were welcomed by Park Service officials, though Arches National Park will be challenged to get its full seasonal workforce on board for spring before visitors turn out in droves this March/Kurt Repanshek

Exemptions to President Trump's hiring freeze for federal employees will allow the National Park Service to address seasonal and short-term positions, but uncertainty remains over the size of the agency's permanent workforce and whether it will be sufficient to manage the more than 400 units of the National Park System, a National Parks Conservation Association official said Wednesday.

“This is a serious threat to an already understaffed agency, that they won’t be able to fill the needed permanent positions," said John Garder, NPCA's director for budget and appropriations. "You can get the seasonals out there cleaning the bathrooms, changing the toilet paper, but you need the engineers, the cultural resource staff. You need the maintenance chiefs who are overseeing the work.” 

The acting director in the federal Office of Management and Budget notified federal agencies on Tuesday of exemptions to the hiring freeze that's in place while OMB develops a long-term plan for reducing the size of the federal workforce. Among those exemptions are seasonal and term employees. Term employees are hired for a specific period of time, such as a year or three years.

"The seasonals is a big deal, and that’s (hiring freeze) been reversed and we’re really happy about that. We can march on and do our job for this summer," said John Marciano, Zion National Park's spokesman.

But across the state of Utah, Arches and Canyonlands national parks are struggling to get seasonals on board in time for their early spring season, which arrives in March.

“Spring will be a challenge, but we’re happy that we think we’ll be staffed up with seasonals during the summer season," said Kate Cannon, superintendent for the two parks. "We might get some (seasonal workers) here in two months."

Looking long-term, Superintendent Cannon is anxious to see the workforce plan OMB staff produce. Her permanent staff currently has about 25 vacancies; "That's 20 percent of our staff at Arches and Canyonlands," she said. Among the vacancies is the job of chief ranger for the two parks and the chief of natural and cultural resources.

Among the open National Park Service positons listed at USAJobs.giv were:

• Cultural resource program manager in southwestern Texas near Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns national parks to produce National Historic Preservation Act compliance documents
• Environmental protection specialist at Big Thicket National Preserve in southeastern Texas to serve as the park's principal environmental coordinator.
• Superintendent for Big Bend National Park in Texas
• Archaeologist at Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania
• Superintendent at Andrew Johnson National Historic Site located in Greeneville, Tennessee.

"The superintendent position at Bryce (Canyon) has been vacant and the superintendent position at Capitol Reef has been, too, because the current superintendent will be leaving for Saguaro, leaving the position open during the hiring freeze," said NPCA's Mr. Garder. "We are seeking details, but are concerned that this freeze could end up being a threat to the management of those parks."

Other areas of concerned cited by the NPCA included Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina, where the park has lost 30 positions in recent years. At the same time, the park has experienced an increase of 1.2 million visitors over the last two years, a 12 percent increase (10,099,276 in Dec 14; 11,312,786 in Dec 16), said Mr. Garder.

At Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, there are six vacant park ranger positions, he said. If not filled, there would be an impact on 70 percent of the lakeshore's visitor programs, said Mr. Garder. There also are three vacant natural resource positions there, which he said are "critical to, at a minimum, maintaining progress made in culling invasive species throughout the park."