Dear Members of Congress and the Department of the Interior,

The current financial status of our national parks, alongside emerging issues regarding conservation and inclusivity, requires serious reexamination. The national parks need to remain untouched, and fully funded. When taking a look at the geographical beauty of the USA, the standouts are obviously the national parks of the country: huge geysers at Yellowstone, deep consuming valleys of the Grand Canyon, and immensely beautiful forests like the Sequoia.

Given the recent budget cuts to these natural wonders, it is difficult to justify reducing support for places created to preserve the natural beauty of our country. Cutting funding is an issue that reaches deeper than finances; it creates significant environmental and educational obstacles.

According to the National Park Service over 320 million people took a trip to these national parks during 2025, which is a number almost as large as the actual population of this country.

With the budget cuts made over the course of the past two years, over 1000 National Park Service employees were cut from their positions around February of 2025. These mass layoffs mean a lack of essential workers to maintain the beautiful spaces of these national parks, making these areas less accessible and preserved for future generations who want to experience a forest without a highway cutting directly through it. The natural landscapes of these areas cannot preserve themselves, and as these jobs vanish vital conservation efforts stall, and reparations for these areas can delay exponentially.  Moreover, a lack of funding creates threats to public safety, the maintenance of trails, and potential help for lost hikers. The natural beauty of these parks is reliant on the care provided by Park Service workers, and without it those wonders may be diminished or even lost entirely. In order to keep these areas in the best shape possible, specific roles are needed– and need to be filled by educated and environmentally conscious individuals who understand the gravity and the weight that these places carry, both historically and for the people of the future.

National parks are also for everyone. While funding and layoffs are kicking off a new era of struggle for these places, the treatment of both visitors and diversity itself is also becoming a hot topic. The Trump administration has been telling national parks to start removing items from gift shops discussing slavery and gender expression. These are efforts to de-emphasize both black and LGBTQ history. Nature does not discriminate based on any physical or mental characteristic. The removal of these indicators of diversity is not an action used to serve the park, but can be seen more as an act of uninclusion to minority groups and reflects larger political standpoints over the actual benefit of the national parks.

The Trump administration is also going to start charging foreign guests an $100 surcharge for visiting the nation’s most popular national parks, and cutting off free entrance for holidays such as Juneteenth. These actions are not in place to try and bring more financial prosperity to the parks.  The lack of funding already shows the disregard for the financial aspect of the natural preservation of these natural monuments. The treatment of these sites has swayed from its once historic reverence of important areas to now a commodity that can only be enjoyed by people of this country. This demonstrates the lack of care or respect for both nature, and the people trying to enjoy it. Actions such as these discourages people from visiting these wonders, and makes these parks less appreciated. Nature is meant to be explored, loved, and accepted– not to be cut off and given access to people under a huge paywall.

While national parks may soon be fading relics of the past to some, it’s important for people to realize the importance and beauty of such monumental places around the USA, and through providing more funding and support, can provide a huge push to the conservation and preservation of these national landscapes.

Sincerely,

Caroline Leonard