President Ulysses S. Grant established Yellowstone as the first national park on March 1, 1872. Ever since, twenty-seven American presidents have supported, nurtured and developed national parks, that is, until now, with this president, Donald Trump.
Over the course of the past 153 years, presidents have grown the number of parks to today’s 423. They include large parklands, national monuments, historic sites, battlegrounds, seashores and recreation areas. Last year over 325 million people visited these sites. But this year visitors to national parks experienced closed campsites, canceled summer camps and school science programs, and visitor centers either closed or with limited hours. These Trump-era cutbacks occurred before the recent government shutdown and began the disassembling of a system of national parks that was the pride of America and the envy of the world.
In the 10 months since President Trump began his second term, the National Park System has experienced astounding reductions in personnel, staggering cuts to operations and infrastructure budgets, widespread eliminations of environmental protections, and baffling erasures of historical facts.
First proposed by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, national park budgets have been slashed with further cuts planned. Implemented by Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, this action has led to thousands of public servants being fired and day-to-day operations vastly curtailed. Taking it to the next step, Trump’s Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, who oversees national parks, now has a plan that could eliminate the budget and staffing four up to 350 park sites across the country. If Burgum’s plan is enacted in Pennsylvania, smaller parks, such as the Johnstown Flood National Memorial, Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, or Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site in Berks and Chester counties could be shuttered.
National parks located in the commonwealth are also burdened with huge backlogs of deferred maintenance to infrastructure. Gettysburg National Military Park’s backlog is already $92 million and will grow because the Trump administration suspended or canceled almost all new construction projects. Gettysburg’s roads need safety related upgrades and its historic buildings require repairs to meet code standards. Unless addressed, sections of one of America’s iconic historic sites may fall into dereliction.
The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in northeastern Pennsylvania is a natural gem that attracts over four million visitors a year. People come to hike, fish, kayak or view picturesque waterfalls. Visitors also spend an estimated $164 million at businesses in the Pocono Mountains region. This economic dynamic is true for parks and their gateway communities across the nation. President Trump apparently does not grasp that if parks, such as Delaware Water Gap, are diminished through deep budget cuts, thousands of small businesses will suffer and tens of thousands of workers, mostly in the private sector, will be jobless.
The President’s House Site at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia memorializes nine people who were enslaved there while George Washington was president in the first years of the United States. Their names are Austin, Christopher Sheels, Giles, Hercules, Joe, Moll, Oney Judge, Paris and Richmond. The house site reflects this important detail and describes it truthfully. Yet, this president has ordered that the story be altered to conform to a sanitized — and dishonest — description of history. By erasing this factual presentation at Independence Park, a venerated place that represents the founding ideals of the nation, Trump is revealing a vivid disrespect not only for African-Americans, but for all of us.
Slashed funding, fired employees, endangered properties, lost revenue, environmental rollbacks, whitewashed history: this will be the public lands legacy of President Donald Trump.
The damage to national parks that Trump and his loyalists have already exacted is so profound that it will take years for these sites to recover. We citizens, though, can do something now to help save them. Pennsylvanians can write, call or text their members of Congress, including Sens. Fetterman and McCormick, to demand that they step up and repel this president’s egregious assault on parks. Meanwhile, we can visit a nearby national park site, seek out a ranger or guide, and assure them that we will do our part to defend and protect America’s parks.
This is a contributed opinion column. A finalist for the 2023 Theodore Roosevelt Genius Prize for the Promotion of Conservation, John Plonski served as executive deputy secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources from 1995-2004. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author, and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. Do you have a perspective to share? Learn more about how we handle guest opinion submissions at themorningcall.com/opinions.
