JACKSON, Wyo. — As the situation surrounding the Trump Administration’s hiring freeze continues to evolve, its potential impact on National Park Service (NPS) employees is raising concerns. Locally, Grand Teton National Park (GTNP) is in a position to greatly feel the impacts of a reduced workforce.
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump signed a federal hiring freeze on civil servants that reportedly eliminated at least hundreds of jobs from NPS seasonal employees.
Buckrail spoke with Sue Consolo-Murphy, executive council member of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks who retired from Grand Teton NP/John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway as the Chief of Science and Resource Management five years ago after 16 years. Sue Consolo-Murphy says the seasonal workforce is critical to maintaining visitor services and the protection of not only visitors but of the resources in the Park.
Consolo-Murphy tells Buckrail that when she was at GTNP, there were about three times as many seasonal employees than year-round employees. She points out that the Jenny Lake District rangers only have about five permanent people on the team and would normally hire 12 to 15 seasonal employees to help with backcountry safety and rescues. Similarly, trail crews that do maintenance on hundreds of miles of trails (which are seeing increased use every year) only have a couple of full-time project leaders with 40+ seasonal employees.
The wildlife brigade only has one permanent biologist, but the rest of the team is made up of seasonal and volunteers.
“Park safety takes direction and reminders of safety, protocol and leadership,” Consolo-Murphy tells Buckrail. “That workload just isn’t going to get absorbed by the relatively small year-round staff.”
But Consolo-Murphy stresses that it’s not just safety that will be compromised by a reduction in seasonal staffing; everything from safety down to basic sanitation will be compromised, as most maintenance workers in GTNP are seasonal. And overflowing trash could lead to increased conflict with bears.
To top it all off, Consolo-Murphy points out that one of the biggest threats to GTNP, aquatic invasive species, depends on seasonal workers to prevent the spread to Jackson and Jenny Lakes, where they could compromise the infrastructure of the Jackson Lake Dam and native fish populations.
“We’re concerned about the Park, about all of the parks,” Consolo-Murphy says. “The civil servants do jobs that deserve everyone’s support. They want to do a good job for America.”
Consolo-Murphy tells Buckrail that to her understanding, the seasonal offers that were rescinded did include staff in GTNP. GTNP did not respond for a request to comment.
