Will an already strapped National Park Service be forced to do even more with fewer rangers this summer?/NPS file

Editor's note: This updates with 1,000 staff fired, Park Service given permission to hire 5,000 seasonals.

Trump administration guidelines aimed at dramatically shrinking the size of federal government could diminish services across the National Park System "like no other time since WWII," according to a National Park Service veteran who spent decades with the agency.

Since taking office on January 20 President Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders that have reached into all corners of the federal government.

The National Park Service has been forced to rescind job offers to seasonal workers — a decision that just this week was modified to allow the agency to hire an unspecified number of public safety positions and, on Friday, 5,000 other seasonal workers — saw a hold placed on millions of dollars distributed through the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act to address climate change, been told to prepare a reduction-in-force (RIF) list of employees, and ordered agencies to "hire no more than one employee for every four" let go.

On Friday the administration also ordered the Park Service to fire 1,000 probationary workers.

Plus, an unknown number of Park Service staff might have taken up the administration's "deferred resignation" offer, in which they tender their resignation now but remain on the payroll through September. And the Trump administration has ordered agencies to "terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary."

The Park Service veteran, who asked not to be identified for professional reasons, said parks "must prepare for RIF by creating a list ahead, and for relocating all folks who probably support park missions that were working remote to be moved into an office ASAP. There are some regions with little office space now to save money; with so many remote it made sense. So there’s a cost potentially, too. Also hearing they will only hire one for every four that leave.

"If it stands, parks will be overrun. Services diminished like no other time since WWII," they told the Traveler on Friday.

On a Reddit site followed by park rangers, and those who want to be rangers, one active NPS employee wrote that, "[T]he superintendent said we should all have a plan B. ... I've been here less than a month. Pretty sure I’ll be on the chopping block."

"I think all of us seasonals are most likely toast for 2025," another wrote on the thread.

How staffing losses could affect park operations this spring is unknown.

"The most troubling part of this directive is that it’s leaving countless staff anxious about losing their jobs at any moment," said John Garder, NPCA's senior director of budget and appropriations. "They risk being let go simply because they haven’t been in their position for more than a year — regardless of their dedication to protecting our most treasured places and stories.” 

The staff that does remain will be in a tough position, said the NPS veteran.

"Really tough. That doesn’t even begin to discuss morale and long-term needs to manage with nearly a 50 percent drop in NPS if you believe doge [Department of Government Efficiency]," they said.