1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

The recent mass firing of 1,000 National Park Service employees is deeply concerning and detrimental to our nation's treasured national parks. These dedicated workers are essential to maintaining and protecting our parks, ensuring a quality experience for the over 325 million annual visitors. Without adequate staffing, parks face shorter hours, longer lines, trail and facility closures, and inability to properly manage visitors – putting delicate ecosystems and cultural sites at risk of damage and overuse. Park rangers provide invaluable services like guided tours, wildlife monitoring, safety oversight, and emergency response that simply cannot be fulfilled with reduced personnel. This substantial loss of staff with decades of institutional knowledge is an unacceptable blow mere months before the busy summer season commences. Attempting to replace these permanent, experienced positions with temporary seasonal hires is an ineffective band-aid that fails to address the core issue. National parks already faced a 20% staffing shortage compared to 2010 levels even before these severe cuts. America's parks and public lands deserve to be prioritized and properly resourced to uphold our conservation legacies for present and future generations. I urge you to take action to reverse these detrimental firings and fully restore funding to rebuild our decimated national park workforce. Our parks are invaluable assets that warrant full staffing and support.