Rachel Dec, Dispatch - Home to more than 400 species of animals, 1,500 species of plants, and roughly 4 million annual visitors, the [Yosemite] park has stood, since President Abraham Lincoln first preserved it, as a radical idea: that some landscapes are too magnificent to belong to private individuals, and instead should be given to the nation.
Today, this legacy is at risk. Over the past six months, permanent staff at the National Park Service (NPS)—which is the agency that governs the park—have been cut by 24 percent. It’s the result of layoffs, buyouts, and a hiring freeze from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This year, of the 8,000 seasonal positions allotted by President Donald Trump’s budget, barely 4,500 were filled by July. At the same time, the government has moved aggressively to open more public land to mining, logging, and energy extraction.
On a desperately hot July Saturday, I came to Yosemite to see how these pressures were reshaping the park. Out on the trail, tourists could be heard grumbling about the four-hour queues at the park’s southern entrances, but few noticed the creeping overgrowth of invasive Himalayan blackberry along the trails. But there are a few tangible signs of decline: a sold-out bike rental shop, overflowing trash cans, volunteers answering basic questions outside the visitor center because of the long lines to speak to the rangers inside. Recent online reviews of the park’s campsites complain of “dilapidated bathrooms without soap or paper” and “pitiful” conditions. Artifacts relating to the park’s natural history were recently stolen as a result of low staffing, forcing every building in its Pioneer History Center to temporarily close.
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