Ian Brickey, ian.brickey@sierraclub.org
PORT ANGELES, WA -- Today, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is beginning a tour of national park sites – including some in the Pacific Northwest. It comes as the Trump administration continues one of the most serious attacks on American public lands in recent memory.
Burgum is scheduled to visit Olympic National Park today during a visit to Washington State. It is Burgum’s second field tour in a week, after visiting an LNG processing facility in Louisiana earlier this month.
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has sought to vastly increase extractive industries on public lands. A Day One executive order declaring an “energy emergency” has been followed by actions to reduce protections on public landscapes, boost logging quotas on a majority of national forests, prioritize mining projects on public lands, and cap environmental reviews of industrial projects at four weeks.
Under Burgum’s leadership, the Department of the Interior has been roiled by staffing changes orchestrated by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE fired around 1,000 National Park Service employees as part of its chaotic mass firings, but these efforts have been challenged in federal courts, which have ordered the rehiring of some staff. Burgum has also outsourced the day-to-day management of the department to DOGE staffer and former energy executive Tyler Hassen. In his budget request, Donald Trump proposed cutting the National Park Service’s budget by more than $1 billion. Despite the firings and budget cuts, Burgum has issued secretarial orders requiring national park units to remain open, setting the stage for possible issues as visitation to the parks increases during summer months.
Sierra Club spokespeople and local activists are available for interviews.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.