The wildfire that destroyed a historic lodge on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon this month was the latest blow to the struggling National Park Service after months of staffing and funding cuts under the Trump administration.
Since President Donald Trump took office, the Park Service has lost more than 4,000 full-time employees to layoffs and buyouts, reducing the agency’s permanent staff by 24 percent — from 16,655 in January to around 12,600 in June — according to Interior Department data obtained by the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group with more than 1.6 million members.
The group said the number of seasonal workers is around 5,400, short of the 7,700 that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said would be hired for this year’s busy season.
