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

The Trump administration's actions to fire over 1,000 National Park Service employees and push for further downsizing threaten to undermine the operations and accessibility of America's treasured national parks. With a record 331 million visits last year, clearly the national parks are immensely popular and valued by the public. Cutting staff and potentially closing visitor centers, campgrounds, and other facilities during peak season will severely diminish the park experience for millions of Americans. It will also impair essential services like search and rescue operations, putting visitor safety at risk. I urge you to reject these misguided workforce reduction plans that will damage our national parks system. Instead, we need to ensure the National Park Service remains fully staffed and funded to properly maintain these iconic landscapes and accommodate the growing numbers of visitors seeking to experience their natural wonders. Protecting our national parks for current and future generations should be a paramount priority.