Yosemite National Park workers are getting hammered by hiring freezes, and the busy summer months are just around the corner. Photo: Bailey Zindel//Unsplash
Yosemite National Park is running into enormous hurdles because of a hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration. According to reports, hundreds of seasonal job offers have been clawed back and layoffs are looming.
Spring and summer are some of the busiest months at the park, but those still employed are concerned with the lack of staff. The former Superintendent of Yosemite, Don Neubacher, told the SFGate that the situation is “catastrophic.”
On busy summer days, the world-famous park can see upwards of 20,000 visitors. It’s not just the tourist dollars staff is worried about, though. Yosemite is protected by legislation, conservation efforts, and ecological restoration jobs, but its future could be bleak.
Fee takers and park rangers, who are, for the most part, seasonal, were hit hard by the hiring freeze. Although it wasn’t supposed to apply to them — the U. S. Office of Personnel Management did identify exceptions for seasonal employees — nothing has been done as of this writing to correct the error.
In the first weeks of February, Yosemite hired a handful of dispatchers, but many of the essential roles at the the park are still vacant. In the first week of February, after the mistake had been communicated, Park Service employees received yet another email rescinding job offers. This round included law enforcement rangers, wildland firefighters, and EMTs — all jobs related to public safety, which were supposed to be exempt from the initial hiring freeze.
Of course, there have been legal challenges, to which the Department of the Interior responded to by confirming the freeze while saying they would look further at the staffing issues it will create.
To add to the problems, a plan for a reservations system intended to manage the number of visitors in the park has been sidelined for the time being. In its inception, the goal of the program was to curb overcrowding, which is damaging to the park’s resources.
When the Department of Interior was contacted about the concerns, it sent SFGate an emailed statement.
“The Department of the Interior is implementing President Donald J. Trump’s Hiring Freeze Executive Order across the federal civilian workforce,” the statement read. “The order allows for exemptions for certain positions, including those related to public safety. The Department is working to hire key positions that will continue to protect public and tribal lands, infrastructure, and communities from the impacts of wildfires through hazardous fuels management, wildfire preparedness, and close collaboration with interagency partners.”
