The U.S. Nationwide Park Service had a record-setting 331.9 million visits in 2024, in keeping with knowledge posted publicly on its web site.
However the company has been instructed, by an inner memo this week, to not publicize the info, The New York Occasions reported. And it’s nonetheless faces staffing shortages because it heads into the summer season months.
“Parks can publish closing knowledge on their web site after whether it is that’s the park’s customary course of… however mustn’t difficulty a press launch or different proactive communications, together with social media posts,” the memo states.
The NPS web site says guests in 2024 had been up 2% from 2023. The earlier document was set in 2016 with simply shy of 331 million visits.
Essentially the most visited parks had been: Nice Smoky Mountains Nationwide park in North Caroline and Tennessee (12.1 million visits); Zion Nationwide Park in Utah (4.9 million visits); and Grand Canyon Nationwide Park in Arizona (4.9 million visits).
The choice to order “no public announcement of the info” was “attention-grabbing contemplating the injury the administration has inflicted on our parks and park employees up to now few weeks,” Kristen Brengel, senior vp of Authorities Affairs on the Nationwide Parks Conservation Affiliation (NPCA), instructed Skift.
The recognition of nationwide parks is “sometimes celebrated by administrations” and the discharge of visitation knowledge has been “accompanied by fanfare from each the Park Service and the Division of the Inside,” Brengel mentioned.
Staffing Cuts Affect
Parks are dealing with vital staffing cuts and resignations, with lots of of Nationwide Park Service staff opting to take the Trump administration’s buyout provide. Those that resign wouldn’t be anticipated to work, and will take up different jobs or trip throughout the interval, in keeping with the U.S. Workplace for Personnel Administration.
Seasonal employees at U.S. nationwide parks and historic websites had their 2025 work affords rescinded after information of Trump’s federal hiring freeze.
A possible employee shortfall may hinder the power of the most well-liked parks to handle peak season crowds.
Whereas the Nationwide Park Service initially rescinded at the very least 1,000 job affords for seasonal positions, it mentioned in an announcement final week that it might rent seasonal employees, after an exemption for seasonal positions was introduced.
In accordance the NPCA, the administration is exempting as much as 7,700 seasonal Park Service jobs from the hiring freeze, however with no timeline for reinstatement.
One other problem dealing with the Park Service is the administration’s plan to terminate Park Service leases and shutter workplaces throughout the nation that perform as customer facilities, legislation enforcement workplaces, museums and hubs for vital park companies.
The Nationwide Park Service didn’t reply to a request for a remark.
