National Park Service Suppresses 2024 Visitation Data To Avoid Embarrassing Trump

"There is no external communications rollout for 2024 visitation data," orders NPS, as mass firings come alongside record visits

The National Park Service today ordered staff to avoid sharing news that 2024 saw all-time record visitation to parks nationwide, in contrast to all previous practice. Why? “It’s to avoid embarrassing Trump while he’s busy firing rangers,” according to to one NPS employee.

“Visitation figures and trends guide how the National Park Service manages parks to ensure the best experience possible for park visitors,” explains NPS in an email to park staff sent earlier today. “Visitation data from 2024 will go live on NPS.gov on March 5, 2025. There is no external communications rollout for 2024 visitation data."

Emphasis theirs.

Internal guidance distributed to park managers orders them to avoid “external communications,” and “proactive communications,” around visitation numbers.

The order comes just weeks after the Trump administration fired 1,000 full-time NPS employees as part of mass reductions in force across the federal government, and threw the hiring period for essential seasonal positions across NPS and the U.S. Forest Service into chaos.

“And that includes firefighters,” emphasizes the NPS employee who shared this information with me, and who asked to remain anonymous.

NPS employees directly support park visitors, the majority of whom visit during summer months. As was painfully demonstrated during the protracted 35-day government shutdown that ran from December, 2018 into January, 2019—as parks remained open while staff levels were reduced by 87 percent—reductions in park staffing put the lives of visitors at risk, and lead to billions of dollars in damage to both park infrastructure and fragile ecosystems.

Since 1904, NPS has tracked annual visitation across most of its units (some are extremely remote, lack entrance booths or, like the National Mall, are just open for people to wander through). In recent years, visitation has grown to record levels—a cause for both celebration and concern. Even before Trump entered office, NPS staffing was already down 20 percent since just 2010.

Until January 20, NPS staffing stood at about 20,000 full-time employees, who are augmented seasonally by 6,000 to 7,500 additional hires. In 2024, those employees welcomed 331.9 million visitors, an increase of 6.36 million since 2023, and over a million more than the previous record, set in 2016.

In 2023, the annual budget for the entire park system was $3.6 billion, only $3 billion of which comes from taxpayers. That supported total economic activity of $55.6 billion, much of it spent in rural communities entirely reliant on park visitation. Every dollar spent by taxpayers on national parks nets $18.50 for the economy.

It’s typical NPS practice to support the collection of this data with press releases, economic impact numbers, and other data. Something it’s done since 1904 when 120,290 people visited six national parks. This year, while that information has been published by the Park Service, it’s not being distributed, and staff are being ordered not to pursue, “proactive communication.”

As an interesting aside, searching for the NPS press release announcing 2023 visitation produced a page topped with a warning message that reads: “You are viewing ARCHIVED content published online before January 20, 2025. Please note that this content is NOT UPDATED, and links may not work. For current information, visit https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/news/index.htm.”

Now, the National Parks Conservation Association reports that at least 700 park staff accepted the resignation package offered by Elon Musk’s “Fork in the Road” email, 1,000 were fired on February 14, and many thousands more are expected to be lost to agency reductions in force plans ordered for next week. All of this is already throwing parks into chaos, and summer’s fire and tourist seasons haven’t even begun.

So why avoid announcing numbers for last year? I asked a prominent ranger at a major national park just that this evening. “It’s to avoid embarrassing Trump while he’s busy firing rangers,” they told me.

Art: Asahel Curtis, 1928

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