Photo by Rob Joyce, Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter Director
Members of the House Natural Resources Committee gathered last week in Wyoming under the towering Grand Teton for a field hearing that highlighted the need to invest more in our crown jewels – the national parks.
While the committee did discuss the need for funding to address the ever-growing backlog of maintenance projects within our national parks, what was glossed over is the fact that Republicans are waging an all-out assault on our public lands, waters, and wildlife through mass firings of career civil servants who protect and conserve these treasures, deep budget cuts, and more efforts to drastically increase industrial development on our public lands and waters.
Instead, Republicans on the committee tried to divert attention from the ravages of the Trump administration.
The numbers tell the real story: one quarter of staff fired; $267 million cut from the National Park Service budget in the “big, ugly bill.” And efforts to remove decades-long protections for the last remaining wildlands that support elk, deer, bears, and numerous other wildlife species and provide access to the outdoors for millions of Americans.
In a press conference following the hearing, New Mexico Representative Teresa Leger Fernández reflected on what witnesses shared at the hearing, “From multiple people we heard ‘invest in the people,’ and that means investing in restoring the personnel. Because another thing that happens when you cut, is that you’re destroying morale. When we demonize our federal employees, people don’t want to work here anymore, and we want people to work in our great outdoors.”
Rob Joyce, Director for Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter was also in attendance. “These cuts hit Wyoming hard, where nearly half of our land is public and managed by the Park Service, Forest Service, BLM, and other federal agencies,” Joyce said. “It’s causing delays in planning processes, adding to the backlog of maintenance in our parks which impacts access, and is leading to low morale among federal employees”
Republicans tried to tout the hearing as showing support for the national parks through the Make America Beautiful Act – a bill that pumps millions into severely dilapidated parks. We support this effort, but Congress must act to ensure that park and public land staff are funded as well. The deep cuts in the budget bill followed decades of consistently underfunding the national park system, leaving it in this state. It’s like finally giving your children some food after decades of severe malnutrition, and calling yourself a hero.
We’re not buying it. Americans see the all-out destruction of our public lands that the Trump administration and its supporters in Congress are reaping on the places that make our country so special. Public lands are one of the last great equalizers – places where all people regardless of their background or bank accounts should be able to enjoy nature, rejuvenate and relax.