More than 700 National Park Service staff are quitting to take up the Trump administration's offer to resign now but be paid possibly through September, according to an agency memo.

The mass departure is just the latest staffing setback for the Park Service. In January the agency rescinded job offers to about 5,000 seasonal workers, and on Valentine's Day another 1,000 probationary workers were fired. In addition, the agency is tasked with coming up with a reduction-in-force plan, and a hiring freeze is preventing the Park Service from filling vacant jobs without receiving an exception.

While Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has reversed the seasonal worker situation by allowing 7,500 to be hired for the coming summer, how long it will take to get those workers on board was unclear. A Traveler inquiry to the Park Service on Monday was not immediately returned.

“The National Park Service is in crisis and things are only getting worse. In a matter of weeks, 9 percent of Park Service staff have been lost to mass firings and resignations. And this is on top of hundreds of vacant positions that can’t be filled due to the ongoing hiring freeze. These indiscriminate cuts are neither strategic nor efficient; they are devastating," Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, said Tuesday after the memo surfaced.

“Spring break is only days away, and staffing cuts could leave parks unable to handle emergencies, serve visitors or safeguard precious historic and natural treasures," she added. "If seasonal staff can’t be hired in time, smaller parks could be forced to close visitor centers and campgrounds or reduce park hours because there simply aren't enough people to staff them. Larger parks have already lost key staff including wastewater treatment operators, maintenance workers, dispatchers and fee collectors. And across the National Park System we anticipate a spike in maintenance needs, trash collection issues and so much more."

According to the memo sent to all Park Service supervisors, those who elected to participate in the deferred resignation plan can't work past March 7. While the program initially was promoted as a way for employees to resign now but be paid through September, the end of the fiscal year, if an employee's job was a temporary one set to expire on June 1, for example, they would only be paid through June 1, said the memo from Rita Moss, the Park Service's associate director for Workforce and Inclusion.

The memo gave no indication of the roles filled by those who decided to quit.

“These staffing cuts will put a major strain on an already understaffed and overwhelmed Park Service. And with hundreds of park staff taking the administration’s buyout offer, the Park Service will lose a wealth of expertise, experience and knowledge they will never get back," Brengen said. "These actions will set the National Park Service back years.

"Weakening the National Park System risks irreversible damage to America's greatest legacy. Parks are supposed to be where people can experience the best of America, but these cuts put all of that at risk. Enough is enough. The administration must halt this reckless downsizing before it guts our national parks beyond repair.”