Already burdened by chronic staff shortages, low morale, an $11.3 billion maintenance backlog, and claims of disloyalty by the Interior secretary, the National Park Service will soon ask “a number of employees” to accept voluntary early retirement, according to a memo obtained by the Traveler.

Where eligible, those in identified positions will be contacted by the agency’s Washington Support Office detailing offers that may include severance packages, called Voluntary Separation Incentive Payments (VSIP), according to the email sent this week to all employees by Deputy Director of Operations Michael T. Reynolds, who has been serving as interim director.

“In recent years, budget reductions and the absorption of fixed costs have constrained the ability of NPS units, including parks and program offices, to recruit and fill positions through attrition and existing workforce management authorities,” the memo said. “High priority permanent positions remain lapsed in order to afford existing encumbered positions, and seasonal positions critical to the operation of national parks are not filled. Units have also seen their workload change as old processes are modernized and new responsibilities emerge.”

Employees were told that the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA) approval is a continuation of a buyout program that began in 2014 and isn’t the result of a government-wide reform plan being developed by the Interior Department and the Office of Management and Budget, and Congress.

“If you are offered a VERA or VSIP, your acceptance is completely optional. You will notice the first word in each of these authorities is ‘voluntary’ and that’s exactly how they should be interpreted,” the email said. “You are not encouraged one way or another to accept or decline. The decision is yours and you should think it over carefully. Your Regional Human Resources Manager can answer any questions you may have about this offer.

“I recognize the work you do every day is not only valuable but has been essential in developing the remarkable organization we have all helped to build. I want each and every employee to know, whether you are offered a VERA/VSIP or not, and whether you choose to accept or not, that the work you do is no less important to those you serve.”

The move would further deplete institutional knowledge from the Park Service, which hasn’t been able to fill all of its open positions for many years.

“Since 2001, the parks have lost the capacity to hire over 1,400 people due to annual NPS appropriations not keeping up with costs and with inflation. For too many years, the Park Service has been required to absorb fixed costs, and appropriations have not kept up with costs associated with employee salaries and benefits,” Deny Galvin of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks told a subcommittee of the U.S. House Natural Resources
Committee in testimony earlier this month.

The Park Service continues to be mired in the bottom 25 percent of all government agencies in terms of being a great place to work, according to the annual Best Places in the Federal Government to Work survey. In addition, a survey revealed that nearly 40 percent of the Park Service workforce has been the victim of sexual harassment, intimidation, or discrimination.

In September, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told the National Petroleum Council that "I got 30 percent of the crew that's not loyal to the flag," according to The Associated Press.

All this while national parks surge in popularity, with record-high visitation surpassing 330 million in 2016 during the Park Service’s centennial year.