Summer Victories We’re Celebrating … and Striving For

Thank you, park lovers, for helping us achieve some important victories so far this summer. There’s more at stake, and NPCA is working hard to ensure more wins for national parks this year.

What we’re celebrating

A resounding ‘No’ to selling off public land

In a groundswell of support, millions of park advocates spoke up this past weekend to let their members of Congress know that our public lands are not for sale to the highest bidder. As a result, NPCA helped defeat the public lands sale provision from the Senate’s version of the reconciliation bill. Language in the One Big Beautiful Bill would have greenlighted the sale of about up to 3 million acres across 11 states with zero community input, no environmental review, and no rules on what would be developed.

No to Ambler Road, again

Also stripped from the bill was language that would have forced the Ambler industrial mining road in Alaska, which tireless advocates already had defeated twice before in 2024. Removed from the House version in May, Amber language was reintroduced during the Senate’s deliberations and removed again.

The 211-mile would have cut through Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, the country’s largest intact national park landscape, disrupted caribou migration routes and threatened the subsistence lifestyle of 65+ Alaska Native Tribes.

Okefenokee saved from mining, for now

As a member of the Okefenokee Protection Alliance, NPCA and our supporters played a key role in increasing public awareness and leading efforts to prevent mineral mining adjacent to Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia.

Okefenokee Swamp is the largest blackwater wetland ecosystem in North America, and the refuge comprises more than 90% of it. The proposed Twin Pines mining operations on Trail Ridge, located along the refuge’s eastern boundary, would have lowered the swamp’s water table, disrupted and lessened the habitat of threatened species, and increased the threat of catastrophic fires. After public outcry and lack of permitting by state and federal agencies, Twin Pines LLC sold the proposed mining site in June to The Conservation Fund, thus protecting Trail Ridge.

The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge was nominated for UNESCO World Heritage status in December 2024. With more than 25,000 acres still vulnerable to mining, the work isn’t over — but this victory stands as a model for conservation protection and the power of community.

What we’re fighting

More staffing cuts, drilling on public lands

Despite NPCA’s success in removing the sale of public lands and the Ambler road project from the One Big Beautiful Bill, the legislation’s latest version still rescinds previously committed funding for national park staffing in their moment of greatest need, to the tune of $267 million. The funding already had been approved by Congress through the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022.

That funding is critically needed, as recent actions by the current administration have resulted in a nearly 17% cut to national park personnel across the country, after parks experienced record-breaking visitation in 2024 and continue to see record-setting numbers. The bill threatens national parks’ cultural and historic resources, and local economies and recreational businesses as well.

“The Park Service is in a full-blown staffing crisis. Even national parks like Yosemite are struggling to provide basic visitor services with overwhelmed park staff. Thousands of essential positions remain vacant across the system, including roughly 100 superintendent roles. The agency is being stretched to the limit without the leadership or resources it needs to function. Any further reduction in force, as the administration is reportedly planning, would be devastating to the future of our national parks,” NPCA President and CEO Theresa Pierno said in a press release in June.

In addition, the Senate’s version of the reconciliation bill mandates more oil and gas leasing and drilling on public lands near places like Dinosaur National Monument — seen by many as a handout to the fossil fuel industry, without any guardrails for impacts to recreation access or environmental damages. NPCA continues to advocate for reform to energy development on public lands.

‘Alligator Alcatraz’ in the Everglades

State and federal governments have spent billions working to restore the Everglades ecosystem. Now, they want to spend billions more on an immigrant detention site, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” that could undermine Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve.

On environmental and humanitarian grounds, NPCA strongly opposes the center, made of tents and trailers that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration rushed to construct for detaining thousands of people. There was no meaningful consultation with groups working on Everglades restoration, local Tribal nations or the public before construction began.

The center is located on a tarmac where NPCA and diverse stakeholders joined famed Everglades advocate Marjory Stoneman Douglas in facing down a jetport threat in the 1960s. Their protest built vital momentum in bringing about the establishment of Big Cypress National Preserve.

“Development of this scale at this location would require massive changes to an ecologically delicate landscape, including running huge generators, trucking in massive amounts of food and water and trucking out waste. Endangered wildlife, iconic national parks and Florida’s fresh drinking water supply would be at risk,” Melissa Abdo, Ph.D., NPCA’s Sun Coast regional director, stated in a press release.

People detained and working at this facility, as well as those living in local villages, could also be at serious risk if the need arose to evacuate everyone quickly from a hurricane using the two-lane highway under construction, Abdo said.

NPCA’s Kyle Groetzinger, Eboni Preston, Alison Heis, Lam Ho, Caitlyn Burford and Angela Gonzales contributed to this report.