But what I saw -- and wrote about in The Hill -- is that the very promise of our parks is under attack.

Right now, the Trump administration is using the government shutdown to weaken the National Park Service, defund public lands agencies, and lay the groundwork for privatizing public lands. 

The impacts are already visible: 

• For staff: Rangers are being furloughed or laid off, and those remaining are covering impossible workloads, from emergency response to visitor management, with fewer resources and less support.
• For visitors: Many campgrounds and visitor centers are shuttered, trails are unmaintained, and safety responses are slower or nonexistent. Families are being turned away or left without guidance.
• For youth: programs that connect students and kids to national parks, such as Junior Rangers and Conservation Corps, are being cancelled at parks around the country due to lack of staff and agency funding.  
• For our public lands: Overflowing trash, vandalism, damaged ecosystems, and illegal activity are on the rise -- all while the oversight and enforcement needed to protect these places are being gutted.

Let's make sure our public lands remain public, protected, and for everyone.

The truth is clear: our parks were never meant to be profit centers. They are places of history, healing, and belonging -- and they belong to all of us.

In fact, we should strive to make them more accessible to marginalized communities, children, veterans, and people from all walks of life.

In Solidarity,

Jackie Ostfeld
Director
Outdoors for All Campaign
 

P.S. Want to learn more about the Outdoors for All campaign and our work to expand universal access to nature? See our work and get involved here.