1. United States
2. N.C.
3. Letter

As your constituent, I’m writing to you today to express how appalled I am by the cuts to National Park Service staff. National Park Service staff are the heartbeat of national parks, and they are essential to the functional operation of the special places that millions of Americans visit every year and cherish deeply. Those park visitors drive local economies and support hundreds of thousands of jobs. Many of our family’s fondest memories are in National Parks, and each year we try to visit as many National Parks and National Historic Sites as we can. Through visiting these beautiful, historic locations, my kids (and my husband and I) have been growing each year in our love for both nature and the history of our nation. But now, more than a thousand National Park Service staff have lost their jobs just as visitors are planning their spring break and summer vacations to national parks. These jobs must be immediately restored for the sake of our national parks and our local economies. From guiding hikes to backcountry rescues, trail maintenance to cleaning toilets, and protecting irreplaceable resources at the same time, park staff are already being asked to do more with less. And now, their ranks are being devastated at multiple levels, with very real and frightening implications for the care of parks, the experience of visitors and the integrity of economies that depend on safe, functional and inspiring park experiences. Not to mention the danger of national parks being without qualified staff to deal with medical emergencies, etc. Any cuts to National Park Service staffing could forever change our national parks and impact countless families across the nation, and the recent moves by the administration are nothing short of devastating. At this rate, visitors will start being severely impacted in just a few weeks when parks welcome families during spring break - right when these beautiful sites become the busiest. As your constituent, I urge and implore you to speak up on the importance of national parks and work to mitigate the threat of these federal worker directives on national parks.