U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, and 21 of her Senate colleagues are calling on newly confirmed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to address critical staffing shortages at the National Park Service.
In a letter sent to Burgum, the senators outlined concerns over the impact of recent staffing cuts and hiring freezes, warning that the situation could severely affect national parks across the country, including those in Hawaii.
Hawaii is home to eight NPS-managed sites, including Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which is known for its active volcanoes, Kilauea and Mauna Loa. The park has drawn more than a million visitors annually from 1972 to 2023, except for four years, including one affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“President Trump’s attacks on federal agencies and millions of federal workers across the country, including those who staff our national parks, endanger critical programs Americans rely on,” Hirono told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an email. “Hawaii’s national parks are enjoyed by people from all over the world, and park staff play crucial roles in ensuring visitor safety, educating people about our local ecosystems, protecting valuable natural resources and biodiversity, and more.
“The threats posed by Trump not only impact the livelihoods of National Park Service employees, they also risk the parks as well. Shuttering agency doors, gutting funding, and scaling back federal personnel does not help our communities, and I’ll do everything in my power to ensure our federal workers receive the support they deserve.”
The letter highlights a series of workforce reductions following President Donald Trump’s federal hiring freeze, which led to the cancellation of thousands of seasonal job offers. Additionally, the administration’s buyout offers and deferred-resignation plans have raised fears of further staff losses. These decisions, the senators argue, could leave national parks drastically understaffed during peak visitation months, when additional personnel are essential to maintaining services and ensuring visitor safety.
Elizabeth Fien, president and CEO of Friends of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, a nonprofit that assists the NPS in preserving and interpreting the park’s natural and cultural resources, said several positions that were in the hiring process were rescinded.
“These rangers do more with less, and they’re the most dedicated group in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park today I’ve ever seen. The morale in our park is very low. This has been devastating,” Fien said.
She shared that her organization had an employee on its payroll assisting the park with the opening of the new Pahoe land, working on trail-cutting, visitor information and public meetings. The employee, a Native Hawaiian, had been guided through the federal hiring process and successfully secured a position with the park service.
“He was just onboarding and then they rescinded his job. He was already hired on the receipt of his job. It was devastating. It was two Thursdays ago,” Fien said Tuesday.
Fien received a message from her employee at 7:38 a.m. Jan. 23, informing her that his job offer had been revoked. He expressed confusion over the situation and sought her advice.
She noted that other positions had also been rescinded, including a trail supervisor and an engineer, leaving critical roles unfilled.
“There was a trail supervisor position that was hired, and it was rescinded, so there’s no trail supervisor. We’ve been without an engineer for a couple of months, and then they had an engineer hired. The job was rescinded, too,” she said. “We have all these construction projects going on. We need to have an engineer on-site. We have visitation. We have an eruption going on right now, and all of us are hands on deck. We all volunteer.”
Fien said the hiring freeze is having an immediate and significant impact, emphasizing that staffing shortages are especially concerning during volcanic eruptions when park services are crucial for visitor safety and maintaining infrastructure.
As of 2023, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park had 79 full-time permanent staff members. Fien said the park was already struggling with staffing shortages amid high visitation numbers.
“We have some of the highest visitations to the roof. … The park was already severely short-staffed before this all happened. … It’s terrifying, I’ve never seen this level of fear and sadness here,” Fien said.
Hirono and her colleagues stressed the need to reinstate seasonal employment offers that were revoked.
“We urge you to immediately reissue seasonal employment offers for the National Park Service, officially rescind damaging and short-sighted deferred resignation and early retirement offers, and to instead work to safeguard, grow, and shape the National Park Service workforce to meet the needs of our national parks and their visitors,” the senators wrote.
The National Park Service depends on over 6,000 seasonal workers to handle the increased number of visitors during the summer. Without these employees, the letter highlights potential consequences, including the closure of visitor centers, dirty bathrooms, campground closures, reductions or cancellations of guided tours, slower emergency response times and a lack of essential services such as safety advice, trail recommendations and interpretation.
The senators also raised concerns about the long-term impact of staffing cuts, pointing out that the NPS has already lost 15% of its workforce over the past decade due to budget constraints, even as park visitation has increased by the same percentage.
They cautioned that if additional employees accept early retirement or resign due to uncertainty over job security, “park staffing will be in chaos. Not only does this threaten the full suite of visitor services, but could close entire parks altogether.”
Beyond the effects on park operations, the lawmakers underscored the economic consequences of reduced staffing. National parks generate billions of dollars for surrounding communities, supporting businesses such as hotels, restaurants and outdoor-recreation outfitters.
According to the letter, in 2023 an estimated 325 million park visitors spent $26.4 billion in gateway communities, supporting 415,000 jobs and contributing $55.6 billion in total economic output.
“Gutting staffing at national park units will devastate local ‘gateway’ communities where parks generate significant economic activity,” the senators wrote, warning that local economies “don’t deserve to have their livelihoods destroyed for political gain.”
The lawmakers urged Burgum to work quickly to restore and protect the NPS workforce to ensure national parks remain accessible and properly maintained.
“Americans showing up to national parks this summer and for years to come don’t deserve to have their vacations ruined by a completely preventable — and completely irresponsible — staffing shortage,” they stated. “We urge your cooperation in protecting national parks for the enjoyment of everyone by ensuring National Park Service staffing meets the needs of the 433 national park units in all 50 states.”
