Following the money trail—it’s heartbreaking, but you laid it out so clearly, Wes.
What’s happening to Forest Service and National Park Service employees is devastating—not just for them, but for the future of our public lands. It’s hard not to see the bigger picture: a deliberate setup for our parks to fail so states can “step in,” only to sell these irreplaceable lands to drilling, mining, and developers.
We’re doing everything we can—calling our legislators, sending emails, raising our voices. We won’t stop.
Thank you for keeping the spotlight on this—please keep it coming. We need the truth now more than ever.
Corey - this is exactly it. You hit the nail on the head. Anything to make federal government land management look like a failure justifies transfers to states or sell offs.
Oh, and I suppose I should explain what kind of damage occured to parks when staffing falls short:
"Overflowing sewage and indiscriminate human pooping could pollute fresh water sources for years. Wildlife is being habituated to consume human trash—something rangers go to great lengths to prevent, when they’re on the clock. Fragile habitats are being destroyed. Precious artifacts are being vandalized and looted. Maintenance that’s being missed right now is likely to compound costs once the shutdown is over. Jarvis uses Yellowstone National Park as an example. If snow isn’t being cleared from roofs there, it could build up to the point where those roofs collapse, potentially destroying the buildings, and their contents."
Uh man. As an outdoorsman this hurts. I love my public lands and the access we have here in the west. I pray that the dust will settle and there are enough of us that are members of BHA and other conservation groups. Thanks for education us Wes !
This is the first step. There will be oil rigs, logging, and mines inside National parks in less than two years. Reduce staff, reduce funding, reduce access, reduce protections, eliminate. Textbook conservatism. Intentionally use austerity measures to eliminate things you don’t like.
Thanks for writing this. So stupid to fire a bunch of hard working Americans. Pisses me right off. People are not going to be happy with all the trail and campground closures that result from this by the end of the summer.
Thank you for spelling this out for people and taking the time to CARE. This is what a lot of us live for the great outdoors, closer to nature brings us closer to our true self. I would be curious to see how we can gain more traction and funding to potentially fight ourselves maybe privately funded I have no idea, but I do know we need to fight with everything. We need a revolution and need to protect the wild as there is nothing protecting it.
I mean we have an incredibly efficient system setup already. A service that protects and shares our greatest natural treasures with hundreds of millions of visitors every year, and does that on a shoestring budget. We should advocate for the protection and funding of NPS, not any other system. But yeah, your vote matters. A bunch of nincompoops just elected a person hellbent on destroying our country, all for short term personal gain. Let's focus our efforts on fixing that.
I live in a neighborhood that abuts the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, so this is personal. The GGNRA is the second most visited park in the country.
I saw that the Presidio Trust, which is by law self-sustaining, has been ordered to axe personnel and send money back to the feds.
For those who do not know, the Presidio was a military base inside San Francisco that was decommissioned in the last round of "own the libs" in the 1990s. It was added to the GGNRA and was required to be self sufficient. It was then converted into mixed use office and residential. The Presidio Trust was setup to manage the Presidio. Today it is a gorgeous space with new offices, park space along San Francisco Bay, and is self sustaining. Well, it was self sustaining. The Trumpers want the office rents for themselves and they want to cut staff. "Owning the libs" never gets old. Efficiency is not the goal.
On another note, the Fish and Wildlife Service is also being cut. This means that National Wildlife Refuges will lose staff and will decrease services.
Wes, could you write about how these cuts are likely to impact activities like duck hunting in red states? No one cares that a bunch of hippies in California lost their jobs. Screw them.
Yeah, the thing with the Presidio is crazy. It essentially operates as a self-sustaining non-profit, so why mess with it?
Lotta threat to bird pops right now, including in USFWS staff cuts. I'm trying to dive into all this more fully, but it's obviously a lot, and I'm more than a little overwhelmed.
You mess with the Presidio because "own the libs". You get to own libs and snatch cash! What could be better? Ideally Nancy Pelosi gets all riled up and you get great publicity, too.
Thanks for the link to the bird article. It is boring but we need more of that. None of this will stop until things that code red start being impacted in measurable ways.
Total garbage. All organizations have waste. The crime is justifying it. After cuts the system re congeals and becomes better. Just like how a forest is reborn after a fire.
Tim Sheehy told the public that he was shot in combat while in the military, when in reality he accidentally shot himself after his gun went off in Glacier National Park in 2015 (firing a weapon is illegal in a national park). You can’t possibly believe a single word that guy says after such an egregious lie.
I'm reading widely to grasp as many angles on these issues as possible. I appreciate your overall perspective -- protect public lands and the people hired to protect them -- but your argument loses a lot of persuasiveness when you say things like:
"Furloughing 87 percent of NPS employees for 35 days cost taxpayers $11.7 billion. (Which we haven’t even paid for yet, so that amount is increasing every day.) Assuming everything else is equal, which it very much won’t be, eliminating 31 percent of the NPS workforce will cost us $4.1 billion every 35 days. Or $42.8 billion-a-year."
This $11.7 billion figure doesn't even remotely make sense to a critical thinker when compared to the $3.6 billion total annual NPS budget you cite. A little outside research confirms that the $11.7b you attribute to the 35 day shutdown is actually the total estimated deferred maintenence backlog at the NPS, so all your self-proclaimed "bad math" based on that figure doesn't do anything to further your argument or increase your credibility. It does the opposite.
The same applies to your recent article claiming that Wyoming lawmakers want to "sell off" GTNP: they don't, and as an attentive Wyomingite I'm confident that the elected officials in Laramie who LOVE Wyoming and operate with a budget surplus every year could do a much better job managing public lands in Wyoming than the heavily indebted government of beltway bandits and unelected bureaucrats in DC.
Contrary to the popular meme, conservatives aren't "right wing extremists" who want to pollute the water, tear up the landscape, and build strip malls subdivisions and golf courses blocking access to public lands. Maybe they don't think shutting down western civilization to decrease CO2 emissions is a good idea, and frankly they're right in light of what the rest of the world (notably China) is up to.
I'm trying to develop a sense of sympathy for the NPS and USFS but I think they've done a pretty crappy job here in NW Wyoming over the 22 years I've been climbing and skiing in these mountains. The primary roads are washboarded out 95% of the time, backroads are totally unmaintained aside from the massive berms and boulders used to block off public access to many of them, and all but the most popular trails would be overgrown and littered with deadfall if not for the efforts of private citizens to keep them functional. Wildfire fuels reduction is non-existent, free camping is becoming a thing of the past, etc. Two example spring to mind.
Locally, Alpine Trails and Pathways has been trying for years to get approval to let volunteers build about one mile of flatland multiuse trail out of town so hikers, dog walkers, bikers, and horses can bypass the busy, dusty, dangerous Greys River Road, but the USFS won't even consider the proposal.
Regionally, GTNP is currently throwing the book at an elite athlete who cut one switchback while attaining the FKT on the Grand Teton. Meanwhile, on the otherside of the same ridge every summer day dozens (if not hundreds) of hikers slip and slide their way up the most popular "unmaintained trail" in GTNP (aka dangerous goat path) to Delta Lake. GTNP is so concerned about protecting public safety and the resource that they're prosecuting one guy for using the old unmaintained trail into Garnet Canyon while doing literally nothing to eliminate erosion or improve safety on the most popular goat path in the Park.
A few years ago they let Arcteryx start operating as a booking agent to the GTNP backcountry, and only shut it down when the public outcry made them reconsider. A lot of folks are not impressed with their decisions or efforts in regards to our public lands.
Following the money trail—it’s heartbreaking, but you laid it out so clearly, Wes.
What’s happening to Forest Service and National Park Service employees is devastating—not just for them, but for the future of our public lands. It’s hard not to see the bigger picture: a deliberate setup for our parks to fail so states can “step in,” only to sell these irreplaceable lands to drilling, mining, and developers.
We’re doing everything we can—calling our legislators, sending emails, raising our voices. We won’t stop.
Thank you for keeping the spotlight on this—please keep it coming. We need the truth now more than ever.
Corey - this is exactly it. You hit the nail on the head. Anything to make federal government land management look like a failure justifies transfers to states or sell offs.
Oh, and I suppose I should explain what kind of damage occured to parks when staffing falls short:
"Overflowing sewage and indiscriminate human pooping could pollute fresh water sources for years. Wildlife is being habituated to consume human trash—something rangers go to great lengths to prevent, when they’re on the clock. Fragile habitats are being destroyed. Precious artifacts are being vandalized and looted. Maintenance that’s being missed right now is likely to compound costs once the shutdown is over. Jarvis uses Yellowstone National Park as an example. If snow isn’t being cleared from roofs there, it could build up to the point where those roofs collapse, potentially destroying the buildings, and their contents."
From here: https://www.outsideonline.com/culture/opinion/why-are-national-parks-still-open-nobody-knows/
Uh man. As an outdoorsman this hurts. I love my public lands and the access we have here in the west. I pray that the dust will settle and there are enough of us that are members of BHA and other conservation groups. Thanks for education us Wes !
Impeccable timing. I just checked your substack moments ago to see if you had posted a take on this yet. Will be linking in this week’s ultra minute
Thanks Ken. More to come.
This is the first step. There will be oil rigs, logging, and mines inside National parks in less than two years. Reduce staff, reduce funding, reduce access, reduce protections, eliminate. Textbook conservatism. Intentionally use austerity measures to eliminate things you don’t like.
Thanks for writing this. So stupid to fire a bunch of hard working Americans. Pisses me right off. People are not going to be happy with all the trail and campground closures that result from this by the end of the summer.
Thank you for spelling this out for people and taking the time to CARE. This is what a lot of us live for the great outdoors, closer to nature brings us closer to our true self. I would be curious to see how we can gain more traction and funding to potentially fight ourselves maybe privately funded I have no idea, but I do know we need to fight with everything. We need a revolution and need to protect the wild as there is nothing protecting it.
I mean we have an incredibly efficient system setup already. A service that protects and shares our greatest natural treasures with hundreds of millions of visitors every year, and does that on a shoestring budget. We should advocate for the protection and funding of NPS, not any other system. But yeah, your vote matters. A bunch of nincompoops just elected a person hellbent on destroying our country, all for short term personal gain. Let's focus our efforts on fixing that.
I live in a neighborhood that abuts the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, so this is personal. The GGNRA is the second most visited park in the country.
I saw that the Presidio Trust, which is by law self-sustaining, has been ordered to axe personnel and send money back to the feds.
For those who do not know, the Presidio was a military base inside San Francisco that was decommissioned in the last round of "own the libs" in the 1990s. It was added to the GGNRA and was required to be self sufficient. It was then converted into mixed use office and residential. The Presidio Trust was setup to manage the Presidio. Today it is a gorgeous space with new offices, park space along San Francisco Bay, and is self sustaining. Well, it was self sustaining. The Trumpers want the office rents for themselves and they want to cut staff. "Owning the libs" never gets old. Efficiency is not the goal.
On another note, the Fish and Wildlife Service is also being cut. This means that National Wildlife Refuges will lose staff and will decrease services.
Wes, could you write about how these cuts are likely to impact activities like duck hunting in red states? No one cares that a bunch of hippies in California lost their jobs. Screw them.
They will care when they cannot go duck hunting.
Yeah, the thing with the Presidio is crazy. It essentially operates as a self-sustaining non-profit, so why mess with it?
Lotta threat to bird pops right now, including in USFWS staff cuts. I'm trying to dive into all this more fully, but it's obviously a lot, and I'm more than a little overwhelmed.
Here's some more background around birds: https://wessiler.substack.com/p/the-population-most-threatened-by
You mess with the Presidio because "own the libs". You get to own libs and snatch cash! What could be better? Ideally Nancy Pelosi gets all riled up and you get great publicity, too.
Thanks for the link to the bird article. It is boring but we need more of that. None of this will stop until things that code red start being impacted in measurable ways.
Nope it’s about stealing public land
It’s extremely sad to me💪✌️
Total garbage. All organizations have waste. The crime is justifying it. After cuts the system re congeals and becomes better. Just like how a forest is reborn after a fire.
Montana has two Republican Senators who have been super silent as well.
They're not silent at all. Both Daines and Sheehy are actively working to sell off our public lands to billionaires.
Where would one read about specific news like this and combat these types of actions?
~ Concerned in Missoula
Montana Free Press is a great place to start: https://montanafreepress.org/
Unconscionable
Tim Sheehy told the public that he was shot in combat while in the military, when in reality he accidentally shot himself after his gun went off in Glacier National Park in 2015 (firing a weapon is illegal in a national park). You can’t possibly believe a single word that guy says after such an egregious lie.
This is awful. We have a model for use and protection. The wreckers are intent on wrecking everything except the things they care about.
I'm reading widely to grasp as many angles on these issues as possible. I appreciate your overall perspective -- protect public lands and the people hired to protect them -- but your argument loses a lot of persuasiveness when you say things like:
"Furloughing 87 percent of NPS employees for 35 days cost taxpayers $11.7 billion. (Which we haven’t even paid for yet, so that amount is increasing every day.) Assuming everything else is equal, which it very much won’t be, eliminating 31 percent of the NPS workforce will cost us $4.1 billion every 35 days. Or $42.8 billion-a-year."
This $11.7 billion figure doesn't even remotely make sense to a critical thinker when compared to the $3.6 billion total annual NPS budget you cite. A little outside research confirms that the $11.7b you attribute to the 35 day shutdown is actually the total estimated deferred maintenence backlog at the NPS, so all your self-proclaimed "bad math" based on that figure doesn't do anything to further your argument or increase your credibility. It does the opposite.
The same applies to your recent article claiming that Wyoming lawmakers want to "sell off" GTNP: they don't, and as an attentive Wyomingite I'm confident that the elected officials in Laramie who LOVE Wyoming and operate with a budget surplus every year could do a much better job managing public lands in Wyoming than the heavily indebted government of beltway bandits and unelected bureaucrats in DC.
Contrary to the popular meme, conservatives aren't "right wing extremists" who want to pollute the water, tear up the landscape, and build strip malls subdivisions and golf courses blocking access to public lands. Maybe they don't think shutting down western civilization to decrease CO2 emissions is a good idea, and frankly they're right in light of what the rest of the world (notably China) is up to.
I'm trying to develop a sense of sympathy for the NPS and USFS but I think they've done a pretty crappy job here in NW Wyoming over the 22 years I've been climbing and skiing in these mountains. The primary roads are washboarded out 95% of the time, backroads are totally unmaintained aside from the massive berms and boulders used to block off public access to many of them, and all but the most popular trails would be overgrown and littered with deadfall if not for the efforts of private citizens to keep them functional. Wildfire fuels reduction is non-existent, free camping is becoming a thing of the past, etc. Two example spring to mind.
Locally, Alpine Trails and Pathways has been trying for years to get approval to let volunteers build about one mile of flatland multiuse trail out of town so hikers, dog walkers, bikers, and horses can bypass the busy, dusty, dangerous Greys River Road, but the USFS won't even consider the proposal.
Regionally, GTNP is currently throwing the book at an elite athlete who cut one switchback while attaining the FKT on the Grand Teton. Meanwhile, on the otherside of the same ridge every summer day dozens (if not hundreds) of hikers slip and slide their way up the most popular "unmaintained trail" in GTNP (aka dangerous goat path) to Delta Lake. GTNP is so concerned about protecting public safety and the resource that they're prosecuting one guy for using the old unmaintained trail into Garnet Canyon while doing literally nothing to eliminate erosion or improve safety on the most popular goat path in the Park.
A few years ago they let Arcteryx start operating as a booking agent to the GTNP backcountry, and only shut it down when the public outcry made them reconsider. A lot of folks are not impressed with their decisions or efforts in regards to our public lands.
The bears will be well fed.
Which is a problem all its own!