1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

The administration's plan to terminate National Park Service leases and shut down 34 offices across the country poses a grave threat to our cherished national parks and irreplaceable cultural artifacts. These facilities serve crucial functions, housing park staff, visitor centers, law enforcement offices, museums, and climate-controlled storage for millions of priceless artifacts. Shuttering them will cripple the Park Service's ability to operate parks safely, provide educational resources to visitors, and safeguard our national treasures. Canceling the lease for the Fairbanks Alaska Public Lands Information Center, for instance, would deprive millions of annual visitors to Alaska's parks of essential trip-planning assistance and resource education. The Robert Johnson Building in Tallahassee, Florida, houses over eight million artifacts from parks across the Southeast, which would be left vulnerable without proper climate-controlled storage. This dismantling of the National Park Service infrastructure undermines its core mission and jeopardizes the conservation of our natural and cultural heritage for future generations. We urge the administration to reconsider this reckless plan and instead prioritize the protection and preservation of our national parks and their invaluable resources.