National Parks are Not Safe
From the Myths We Tell Ourselves
Important Author’s Note: If you’re a subscriber, you know I generally keep my posts light. But right now, my heart is heavy. With every passing day, I watch the rapid dissolution of the National Park Service—and other equally important federal agencies—with growing horror. I want to share some professional perspective, so thanks in advance for understanding.
I really hope to rekindle some light and levity for future posts, but I can’t make any promises on timing.
As summer returns, national parks will once again invite us to visit. Encounters with outsized marvels like those at Grand Canyon and Redwoods inspire awe. Curious formations like those at Arches and Bryce beckon us to trails. And recreational areas like Glen Canyon and Chattahoochee River provide the chance to relax and reconnect with loved ones. Time spent in parks like Everglades, Mesa Verde, and Dinosaur renew our innate connections with nature, culture, history, and each other.
For over a quarter century, I facilitated such experiences with countless visitors working as a ranger for the National Park Service (NPS). In the midst of an unprecedented siege on the NPS—and civil service in general—I recently left my position. But thanks to my lengthy career at the interface of parks and people, I’ve learned a lot about the myriad ways we interact with our beloved protected areas.
And I can tell you this: our relationship to these places is extraordinarily intimate and reciprocal. We actively shape—and are actively shaped by—these places in far more subtle and nuanced ways than we at first imagine.
And among the many ways parks and people exert mutual influence, the most potent might be the power of myth.
Parks & Parables
Set amidst the gentle plains of northeastern Wyoming, the soaring visage of Devils Tower is stark. Not surprisingly the monolith looms large in the oral histories of many local indigenous nations. Among the sacred narratives of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Shoshone and others, the tower is inextricably linked to tales about creation, ancestry, and divinity. Similar myths and legends tightly bind indigenous nations to ancestral lands in parks like American Samoa, Hawaii Volcanoes, and Glacier.
Stories from other cultures have also shaped the parks as we know them today. Congress first preserved what would eventually become Hot Springs National Park thanks largely to the fabled medicinal properties of the local waters. Mormon pioneers christened the area and features of what would eventually become Zion National Park in honor of biblical sagas. And improbable tales of overnight riches inspired thousands of hopeful miners to set off from what is today Klondike Gold Rush.
Storytelling is not an artifact of the past, but a practice of the present. Legendary tales continue to imprint themselves upon national parks. Bigfoot is said to roam the forests of Redwoods, as the Skunk Ape haunts the swamps of the Big Cypress. Through cinematic magic, Hollywood spins new yarns about secrets hidden at Independence Hall, Mount Rushmore, and the White House. And only recently, an eccentric poet lured countless hunters to comb parks along the Rocky Mountains to find a fantastic treasure.
National parks don’t just look mythical. They are vast repositories of countless legends that ground us in history and unite us in culture. And as modern muses, parks inspire the ongoing evolution of new folklore. These stories inform, entertain, and inspire. And usually, they’re harmless.
But some stories are truly dangerous. In fact, three common myths have existential implications given the present assault on our national parks.
Myth 1: The Fallacy of Universal Value
It’s difficult to imagine today’s national parks as anything but. A profound sense of wonder is stirred when we gaze over a fuming geyser basin, or the wide maw of a colorful canyon, or a snow-encrusted montane spire.
But the afterglow of awe sows a common misconception: that these places are somehow preordained for protection. Faulty thinking assumes outstanding scenery, diversity, importance, or symbolism is manifestly obvious and universally valued and—as such—they are always destined for safeguarding.
Protected areas are undoubtedly of inherent worth. They are valuable in and of themselves without regard to what they provide us. The myth, however, is that everyone agrees.
Historically, it is only the efforts of a committed few—working against prevailing norms and opinions—that bring parks into being. And far from a fait accompli, the opposition was usually fierce.
It was the scientists, writers, and artists of the Hayden Expedition that first implored Congress to withdraw the curiosities of the Yellowstone region from the routine disposition of land to the states. They lobbied instead to create a public “pleasure ground” safe from overdevelopment and private exploitation (as had already occurred at Niagara Falls.)
It was the work of Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Ernest Coe, and a small handful of influential South Florida conservationists that succeeded in establishing Everglades National Park—a significant victory given prevailing campaigns for large-scale drainage.
And in northern California, it was the prolonged efforts of a dedicated coalition of conservation organizations that ultimately secured the establishment of Redwoods National and State Parks against intense opposition from the logging industry.
History shows that—for a motivated few—the innate worth of these special places provided a protectionist mandate. And thanks largely to the long arc of time, many people now also appreciate the inherent value of today’s national parks. But they were nonetheless forged in the scorching flames of opposition, where proponents of short-term enterprise worked feverishly to torch the promise of long-term conservation.
Thus a broad appreciation of inherent worth should not be conflated with the myth of unanimity—or perpetual protection. It takes far more than a committed few to secure the promise of a national park in perpetuity.
Myth 2: The Fiction of Self-Reliance
The establishment of national parks long preceded the creation of a dedicated agency to administer them. More than forty years transpired between the establishment of Yellowstone and the formation of the National Park Service. During that time, the care of our first national parks—most notably Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Sequoia-Kings Canyon—was entrusted to soldiers of the U.S. Army.
The uniforms worn by present-day rangers are an homage to the sparse contingents of self-reliant soldiers who protected our parks long ago. But today, the long-term protection of parks requires an army far deeper than the front line.
The dedicated rangers we encounter in parks deserve our utmost respect and thanks. Despite a perennial shortfall of budget and personnel, they carry on day-to-day operations that provide outstanding experiences to over 300 million recreational visitors annually.
But national parks aren’t neighborhood playgrounds. The NPS manages 85 million acres of public land. These vast landscapes are challenging physically and intellectually in terrain and scientific complexity. Each is established by unique laws for a specific purpose. They are often embedded centerpieces of local economies, cultures, and identities. And as such, park are often political powder kegs.
Thus properly managing national parks according to law and policy requires specialized subject matter expertise across a variety of domains. The front-line personnel we encounter in parks rely upon technical expertise from a vast network of seldom-seen NPS professionals. The visits you—and your grandchildren—enjoy are made possible by the accumulated experience and efforts of generations of scientists, law enforcement officers, planners, fire fighters, archaeologists, budget and procurement staff, facilities managers, information specialists, and many, many more.
Our visits to parks are supported by the incredible work of front-line rangers. But without the larger NPS workforce, the long-term protection of parks may ultimately fail. And we’ve learned this lesson the hard way.
Myth 3: The Figment of Forever
As an agency, the NPS has operated for well over a century. And the national park idea has persisted for more than 150 years.
So the 400+ properties formally included in National Park System must be well-protected, right? Not necessarily.
People are surprised to learn that national park status is somewhat impermanent. As it turns out, the continued protection of—and access to—these special places hinges on both the condition of the area as well as the resources available to administer them in accordance with law and policy
Over the past century, over two dozen former NPS sites have been legislatively abolished and transferred to other organizations. Some, like Shoshone Cavern and Castle Pinckney National Monuments were ultimately deemed too difficult to access, too expensive to maintain, or of too limited historical value (and sometimes all three!)
But the biggest cautionary tale is that of Fossil Cycad National Monument. Established in 1922, the South Dakota site was intended to protect the largest known collection of fossilized cycad plants from the Cretaceous period. But the NPS was slow to assign staff to supervise and protect the monument, and within a few years vandals had stolen or destroyed all visible fossils from the area. With nothing left to protect, the monument was summarily abolished in 1957. And though less extreme, similar concerns warranted the abolition of the former Papago Saguaro National Monument, where lack of NPS presence aided the vandalism of cacti and ancient pictographs.
Fossil Cycad and Papago Saguaro aren’t just unfortunate anomalies in conservation. They are potent reminders that national parks can be lost.
Permanent protection cannot exist by edict alone. When such areas are desperately starved of personnel and funding, we suffer irrevocable loss of our collective heritage. And unparalleled efforts are afoot to decimate the financial and professional resources supporting our National Park System.
3 Truths and a Lie
In the wake of our myth-busting we recognize three simple facts:
The inherent worth of our national parks is not universally appreciated.
Our national parks cannot be properly protected in perpetuity without a broad network of technical expertise, administrative support, and institutional knowledge.
Our national parks are not immutable—they can be forever lost if sufficiently compromised or starved of necessary resources.
In light of these truths, the reckless actions of the current administration are justifiably very alarming. Actions taken over just the past few months are an existential threat to our National Park System, including:
The administration coerced an estimated 10% of the NPS workforce to leave service through prolonged harassment, overt threats, and indiscriminate firings. An untold number of additional positions have now been “consolidated” under the Department of the Interior, removing them from the NPS organizational structure. And an additional 1,500 NPS employees—many scientists and cultural preservationists—are expected to be overtly fired in a coming Reduction-in-Force targeting regional and national support offices.
Despite the abrupt loss of thousands of NPS employees, the Secretary of the Interior ordered all parks to remain “fully open and accessible.” This untenable mandate puts parks under significant strain, as the agency is unable to fill vacant positions due to an ongoing hiring freeze. And whenever lifted, park managers still must contend with an imposed limitation on hiring only 1 employee for every 4 vacancies.
Despite a strict return-to-office mandate, the administration inexplicably proposes terminating the leases of 30 NPS visitor centers, museums, and administrative offices—some of which house hundreds of employees.
Without consultation or public engagement, the administration forced or proposed substantive, unilateral changes to existing NPS units, such as Denali, Big Bend, Stonewall, Alcatraz, and numerous historic monuments and memorials.
And in a dire harbinger of things to come, the White House proposed a 2026 budget that would enact the largest cut to NPS funding in the 109-year history of the agency. And in an unprecedented act, the plan proposes removing a majority of sites in the National Park System for transfer to state ownership.
These actions are neither strategic nor sound. They are egregious, extreme, and unprecedented. And they are founded on a barrage of invented fables, fairytales, and fiction.
National parks and our broader network of federal public lands (wildlife refuges, marine sanctuaries, rangelands, and forests) are facing irreparable harm by an insidious campaign of mythmaking. False portrayals of indolent federal employees, unfounded claims of widespread government waste, and the denial of demonstrable scientific truths are offered as justification to forcibly wrench public lands from the hands of our present and future generations.
But time and again, we’ve learned we are intimately connected to—nay, dependent upon—these spaces. They are undoubtedly worth protecting for their own sake. But in a very real way, they are also a centerpiece of our national health, economy, culture, identity, and quality of life.
So among the many harmful myths currently being told of our national parks, recognize this one, dangerous, bald-faced lie: that sacrificing our most treasured spaces for short-term gain will somehow make American great again.
🌲🌲🌲🌲 S.O.S. 🌲🌲🌲🌲
Normally, this is where I would ask you to please support this Substack. But my little passion project seems pretty insignificant at this moment. So instead, please consider taking action to support the people and places of the National Park System. Here are some ideas:
🌲National Parks Conservation Association: In this environment, strong partners are more important than ever. For over 100 years, NPCA has been a leading advocacy organization for our National Park System. Learn more about their work and please consider making a donation to support their efforts.
🌲Cooperating Associations and Non-Profit Partners: Numerous support organizations (such as Eastern National, the Western National Parks Association, and The Alliance for Florida’s National Parks) provide direct assistance to individual park units. Become familiar with the cooperating association at your local or favorite national park and consider making a purchase or donation. A negotiated percentage of all proceeds go directly to park staff to support operations.
🌲Contact Your Representatives: Tell your elected officials you expect to see your parks fully funded, staffed, and protected. Not sure how to going about doing so? Here’s a helpful start, courtesy of the NPCA.
🌲Just Share a Kind Word: For the past few months, federal workers have been endlessly maligned, harassed, and treated unfairly by the callous, ham-handed goons of the present administration. Whether they work for the National Park Service, or the Social Security Administration, the Department of State, NASA, etc., extend some kind words to any federal workers in your sphere. Let them know you appreciate them and their work.