This week, as American families plan summer vacations and communities like ours around National Parks fear impending damage and closures caused by callous DOGE firings of more than 1000 NPS staff, the Trump Administration issued new Soviet-style directives demanding remaining staff cover for the firings and cease the long tradition of reporting visitation data.
Our Montana State Parks are also being targeted. Permanent personnel are being let go and they only plan to hire a ridiculously small number of summer workers.
I thought we had a surplus, so how does the administration explain these drastic cuts in force?
We booked coveted campsites at YNP a year ago for this summer. My siblings were planning on visiting us in the Bitterroot Valley and then heading over for a wonderful camping trip. It would have recreated a trip our family took in 1988. Anyway. They're not coming and my husband and I plan to keep one site because it's easy for us to bug out and go home if the conditions are awful.
I am a northern neighbour in Alberta, Canada. Our provincial government is changing provincial park and wildlife regulations seemingly at the behest of Safari Club International. please, keep sharing news that isn't covered in the mainstream.
We just went through a period of years where the right was bleating about "inflation" to indicate that Buden's policies were creating a problem that economist finally admitted was NOT a classic example of inflation. I read your statement as a statement about the current situation ("already"), not something that was going to happen in the future. There will likely be all sorts of things that happen as the result of the tariffs imposed on April 3, but as of April 6, we have not "already" seen them. Expectations that we will be facing impacts by the time summer rolls araound will probably factor into people's planning, for sure, even if we don't know what those impacts will be.
Overtourism and underfunding have been impacting our national parks for years. Who knows about tourism numbers — hard to imagine foreign tourist numbers, and the dollars they bring, won’t be going down. But the quality of our national parks and the quality of the experience visiting them is obviously going to be significantly degraded. Wouldn’t be surprised if this administration started selling naming rights to our national parks.
After the Hands Off protests seen all over the US I’m so hopeful! We had our biggest crowd so far in Billings today! We have to keep going and fighting until this regimen is gone!
This piece gave me chills. The quiet erasure of public information—visitation data, closures, even basic transparency—isn’t just bureaucracy gone wrong. It’s the symptom of an authoritarian mindset that treats truth like a liability. National Parks are sacred spaces, especially in hard times. What’s happening now isn’t just mismanagement; it’s desecration.
You can feel the playbook: fire the pros, silence the press, keep the appearances intact, and hope nobody notices until it’s too late. But people are noticing. And pieces like this are the reason why.
Thanks for holding the line, Ryan. This is resistance journalism at its best.
The trump/musk/vance regime's hiding of information and outright deletion of parts of our history are sinister. That said, I'm buoyed up a bit having been with about a thousand other Hands Off protesters at the Capitol in Helena today. We will get through this. Ryan, it seems your "Get Your Montana Back!" has now widened to "Get Your United States Back!" And lots of ANTI-Daines, Sheehy, Zinke, and Downing posters out there today too.
THIS is my #1 concern going forward with this heinous group of fascist oligarchs. 640 million acres of OUR LAND and they want to privatize it. Our heritage, our children and grandchildren's heritage. I'm about to go to Grand Canyon National Park (1st time, probably the only time) and will report back on what I see.
Our Montana State Parks are also being targeted. Permanent personnel are being let go and they only plan to hire a ridiculously small number of summer workers.
I thought we had a surplus, so how does the administration explain these drastic cuts in force?
We booked coveted campsites at YNP a year ago for this summer. My siblings were planning on visiting us in the Bitterroot Valley and then heading over for a wonderful camping trip. It would have recreated a trip our family took in 1988. Anyway. They're not coming and my husband and I plan to keep one site because it's easy for us to bug out and go home if the conditions are awful.
I am a northern neighbour in Alberta, Canada. Our provincial government is changing provincial park and wildlife regulations seemingly at the behest of Safari Club International. please, keep sharing news that isn't covered in the mainstream.
We just went through a period of years where the right was bleating about "inflation" to indicate that Buden's policies were creating a problem that economist finally admitted was NOT a classic example of inflation. I read your statement as a statement about the current situation ("already"), not something that was going to happen in the future. There will likely be all sorts of things that happen as the result of the tariffs imposed on April 3, but as of April 6, we have not "already" seen them. Expectations that we will be facing impacts by the time summer rolls araound will probably factor into people's planning, for sure, even if we don't know what those impacts will be.
Overtourism and underfunding have been impacting our national parks for years. Who knows about tourism numbers — hard to imagine foreign tourist numbers, and the dollars they bring, won’t be going down. But the quality of our national parks and the quality of the experience visiting them is obviously going to be significantly degraded. Wouldn’t be surprised if this administration started selling naming rights to our national parks.
After the Hands Off protests seen all over the US I’m so hopeful! We had our biggest crowd so far in Billings today! We have to keep going and fighting until this regimen is gone!
"Inflation, which was already excessively high…" What are you saying here? What's the time frame?
Every economist with a plug nickel says inflation about to spike again thanks to Trump tariffs.
This piece gave me chills. The quiet erasure of public information—visitation data, closures, even basic transparency—isn’t just bureaucracy gone wrong. It’s the symptom of an authoritarian mindset that treats truth like a liability. National Parks are sacred spaces, especially in hard times. What’s happening now isn’t just mismanagement; it’s desecration.
You can feel the playbook: fire the pros, silence the press, keep the appearances intact, and hope nobody notices until it’s too late. But people are noticing. And pieces like this are the reason why.
Thanks for holding the line, Ryan. This is resistance journalism at its best.
I loved how you responded to this article. Truth like a liability-brilliant! And yes, our parks are sacred places. Thank you,
The trump/musk/vance regime's hiding of information and outright deletion of parts of our history are sinister. That said, I'm buoyed up a bit having been with about a thousand other Hands Off protesters at the Capitol in Helena today. We will get through this. Ryan, it seems your "Get Your Montana Back!" has now widened to "Get Your United States Back!" And lots of ANTI-Daines, Sheehy, Zinke, and Downing posters out there today too.
THIS is my #1 concern going forward with this heinous group of fascist oligarchs. 640 million acres of OUR LAND and they want to privatize it. Our heritage, our children and grandchildren's heritage. I'm about to go to Grand Canyon National Park (1st time, probably the only time) and will report back on what I see.