The acting director of the National Park Service believes 2025 was a “ass-kicking year.” Advocates for what polls say is the most popular federal agency might use the same term, but with a far different meaning than Jessica Bowron intended in a year-end email to Park Service managers.
“The past 11 months have been devastating for the National Park Service,” said John Garder, senior director of budget and appropriations for the National Parks Conservation Association. The NPCA puts full-time Park Service employment at 12,600, down 24 percent since the start of the Trump administration.
“Under this administration, our national parks and the people who protect them have been pushed to the brink through mass staff cuts, hiring freezes and pressured resignations,” Garder said. “Park Rangers are doing the work of multiple people, visitor centers are closing, and morale has never been lower.”
