The Longest Government Shutdown in US History Has Ended. What’s Next for National Parks?

On Nov. 12, Congress reached a budget agreement to bring an end to the longest government shutdown in our nation’s history. After 43 long days, thousands of furloughed National Park Service employees have finally returned to work and dedicated rangers and other staff will finally get their long-overdue paychecks. But this funding bill offers our national parks and park staff only a short-term reprieve. In just a few weeks, park staff, visitors and the local businesses that rely on them could face another shutdown.

Despite clear warnings that keeping parks open without staff would put visitors and resources at risk, including urgent appeals from NPCA and our supporters, Interior Secretary Burgum ignored calls to close them. The administration told many parks to stay at least partially open despite 9,000 park staff being furloughed. This came on top of the loss of 4,000 staff since January and another 3,000 over the prior 15 years due to poor congressional funding. Some parks remained fully open with unsustainable resources provided by states and partner agencies, and through the use of entrance and recreational fees already slated for other purposes.

The shutdown-ending agreement

With the passage of this recent funding bill to bring an end to the shutdown, all 433 national park sites have fully reopened, and thousands of furloughed park employees have returned to work and will receive their backpay.

The bill maintains current federal funding levels through Jan. 30, 2026, for most federal agencies, including the Park Service. The bill also includes key provisions that prevent the administration from moving forward with plans for mass staff termination during the same time period.

But the clock is ticking, and Congress has roughly 10 weeks to reach a longer-term spending deal that can support the National Park Service and its dedicated staff.

Impacts to parks

Park Service staff are now returning to parks to face the daunting task of assessing and addressing the damage, a process that could take months. While the full extent of shutdown-related damage to parks is unknown, it is clear that several aspects of the shutdown jeopardized both park resources and visitor safety.

Confusion for the public

With limited staff, websites weren’t kept up to date with clear messages as to whether a park was open or not, and there was a lack of rangers to provide guidance for visitors who showed up. Some facilities were open at some parks but closed at others, and some park sites, such as historic homes, were locked entirely.

Threats to resource protection and visitor safety

With many restrooms closed, human waste was found outside facilities at some parks. At Bandelier National Monument, visitors were seen hiking off-trail in sensitive, closed off areas. At Rocky Mountain National Park, people hiked off-trail and ignored closures from early September through October for the elk mating season, which endangers both people and wildlife. At Fort Caroline National Memorial in Florida, visitors frequently were seen jumping the park gate, despite a sign denoting it was closed due to the shutdown. Without maintenance workers to regularly flush water lines at Pinnacles National Park, visitors encountered brown water at campground spigots.

Wildlife monitoring and other scientific studies were stalled, threatening long-term research and protection and monitoring of resources. Without staff to protect resources, looting and vandalism became major concerns. Search and rescue response times took longer. Also, annual prescribed burns and other vegetation clearing was stalled, undermining healthy wildlife habitat and visitor safety.

Park-specific issues

Some of the country’s largest or most popular parks experienced especially concerning issues during the shutdown:

• Yellowstone National Park: With high bear activity and without rangers to protect the public, visitors got out of their cars and dangerously close to photograph bears — incidents known as bear jams.

• Yosemite National Park: People were illegally BASE jumping, climbing without permits and camping in non-designated areas. People without permits were seen climbing the cables on Half Dome — a dangerous ascent that has claimed dozens of lives— with some jumping the line to get ahead of people, creating a dangerous situation. People were seen illegally operating drones, which can be harassing to wildlife.

• Gettysburg National Military Park: A stone wall was toppled near Devil’s Den within Gettysburg, and other areas of the park were spray-painted. Gettysburg Foundation put out a plea for visitors to be vigilant and set up a tip line for vandalism.

• Joshua Tree National Park: Trash was strewn along roadways, which was not only unsightly but a threat to the health of people and wildlife.

• Acadia National Park: Without traffic management during one of the park’s busiest times, crowded roadways created disorder and safety hazards and made it difficult to impossible for emergency personnel to respond to incidents. Improper parking also threatened vegetation.

• Arches National Park: Words and symbols were spray-painted on multiple sandstone formations in Devils Garden, one of the park’s most heavily visited sections. Toilet paper was scattered, and a dog was also seen on a nearby trail, which is prohibited on all trails in Arches.

We also estimate that parks lost roughly $41 million in uncollected entrance and recreation fees during the shutdown. Those funds are vital for park construction projects and repairs, educational programming and other visitor services, which will now face delays or — more likely — be cancelled entirely.

Meanwhile, park partners across the country who diverted scarce resources to help keep parks operational now have depleted budgets for vital projects and programs, unlikely to ever recover those funds. Park partners stepped up in a big way for many parks, but that never should have been necessary. Their funds are meant to supplement federal support, not replace it.

Parks lost roughly $41 million in uncollected entrance and recreation fees during the shutdown.

Even before the shutdown, the Park Service had already lost over 25% of its permanent workforce since January, severely straining its ability to care for our nation’s most treasured places. Park staff were being pulled from the field, visitor centers were closing or reducing hours, and critical maintenance and research were falling behind. Despite the mounting impacts to parks, court-ordered documents revealed Secretary Burgum’s plans to slash thousands of positions at the Department of the Interior, including hundreds more National Park Service staff.

NPCA’s latest poll shows only 16% of Americans support the Trump administration’s continued staffing cuts to the National Park Service, and only 12% back the massive $1 billion budget reduction proposed for the agency.

In contrast, a strong bipartisan majority of Americans oppose the administration’s proposed massive cuts to the Park Service’s budget, which could force the closure of at least 350 national parks sites across the country.

What’s next for parks

Uncertainty remains amid ongoing funding disagreements. The House Appropriations Committee’s funding bill rejected the administration’s most outrageous provisions, but it would still cut $176 million (more than 6%) from the Park Service’s operations budget, threatening the loss of thousands more park employees critical to park operations. It also contains dozens of policy provisions undermining park wildlife, clean air and water.

Meanwhile, the Senate Interior Appropriations Committee’s bill includes flat funding for the operation of the National Park System, rejecting dramatic cuts proposed by both the Trump administration and House of Representatives. It holds funding steady to support staffing, operations and public access across the Park System. The bill also includes key provisions, such as hiring urgently needed Park Service staff which would help restore the agency’s capacity to protect our parks. Other provisions aim to ensure more timely delivery of grants to park partners, prevent sudden cancellation of leases for park facilities, and require congressional notification of any plans for mass firings (known as Reductions in Force).

The Senate Appropriations Committee’s bill is the support our parks need and the path Congress should back. NPCA also urges Congress to extend the current provision in the short-term funding bill that prevents the Administration from implementing any large-scale staff layoffs that would further jeopardize our national parks through the end of the fiscal year. Park staff must also be rehired to ensure the National Park Service can fulfill its mission to preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of this and future generations.