What the government shutdown has cost America's public lands
Friday, October 31, 2025
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The federal government shutdown has unleashed chaos and uncertainty across the country—including on America’s public lands. Now, at the one-month mark with no end to the shutdown in sight, public lands are experiencing significant impacts, writes Center for Western Priorities Creative Content and Policy Manager Lilly Bock-Brownstein in a new Westwise blog post.
Despite pleas from hundreds of former National Park Service employees, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered national parks and other public lands to remain open but severely understaffed. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is taking extraordinary measures to ensure extractive industries can continue with business as usual on America’s public lands during the shutdown.
The Trump administration is also attempting to leverage the shutdown as an opportunity for a permanent workforce reduction at public lands agencies and to continue the systematic gutting of America’s public lands system, exacerbating the pressure that public lands agencies already face due to President Donald Trump and Secretary Burgum’s cuts to staffing and funding.
The decisions made during the government shutdown are a preview of the Trump administration’s broader agenda for public lands and its clear intent to dismantle and ultimately privatize America’s public lands. The shutdown will eventually end, but the attacks on public lands will persist as long as the Trump administration continues to prioritize the interests of extractive industries over the interests of the American people. Learn more at CWP's Westwise blog.
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 Attacks on our public lands are an attack on our freedom to enjoy them.”
—Jim Ramey, The Wilderness Society, Colorado Sun
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