Dear friend,

The mass firings taking place across the federal government this month have had a horrific effect on the agencies that manage and protect our public lands. 

At Zion National Park in Utah, traffic lined up more than a half mile at the entrance during President's Day weekend, Axios reported. Overflowing toilets, injured hikers stranded in the backcountry, and closed visitor centers are some of the other nightmare scenarios likely looming for the nation's parks and historic sites if these cuts aren't reversed.

Sierra magazine looks at how these layoffs threaten our National Park Service and the lands we recreate on.

Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have taken a chainsaw to the federal government, and the people who work on the nation's public lands—scientists, rangers, educators—have not been immune from the measures. These cuts do not serve the American people and are threatening the health of our national parks.

Make no mistake, this is part of the Trump administration's attempts to expand drilling on our nation's most precious ecosystems. Project 2025 calls for the Department of the Interior, which runs both the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, to pivot from conservation to energy extraction.

In 2018, the National Parks Conservation Association found that 68 parks or sites "could be harmed" by the first Trump administration's proposal to expand offshore drilling. Given that the second Trump administration has hewed to the same line about expanding domestic oil and gas production, drilling in or around national parks remains a very real possibility.

Protecting our National Park Service employees and safeguarding these protected lands from extraction go hand in hand. The scientists, educators, rangers, and countless others work day in and day out to ensure that our national parks and sites remain protected for future generations.

Learn more about the importance of our federal employees, these protected lands, and how you can help.

In Solidarity,
Sierra Club