Despite the fearmongering of legacy media and Democrats, the nation’s parks will be just fine, even after President Donald Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) finish right-sizing the National Park Service (NPS) staff, Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum promises.
Sec. Burgum provided the assurance to the America public during an interview with Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier on Wednesday, discussing reports that that about a thousand NPS new-hires had their NPS job offers rescinded the previous Friday:
Bret Baier: “Can you assure people, I guess, that the parks are going to be okay with the numbers that you leave?”
Sec. Burgum: “Yes, absolutely. And again, as we work to reinvent government and right-size government to the right size, that's a mandate that the Americans are fully supportive of President Trump doing.”
In fact, while NPS may have reduced its workforce by a thousand, it has recently posted five times that number of job openings for seasonal employees to handle the workload when Americans’ use of national parks is greatest:
“But, at the same time I would say to anybody listening, we are just in the process right now of posting 5,000 summer jobs. If you want a fantastic job working the national park, go check the website.
“Whether you want to be a wildland firefighter, you want to start a career in the Parks Service, go apply for a job. Because, we want to make sure that we're giving a great experience for citizens in our national parks this summer.”
“On a personal level, of course I’ve got great empathy for anybody that loses a job, whether private sector or government - but, I think we have to realize that every American is better off if we actually stop having a two trillion-dollar-a-year deficit,” Sec. Burgum explained.
A downsizing of one thousand jobs represents an average of a little more than two employees for each of the roughly 430 sites managed by the National Park Service and approximately five percent of its estimated workforce of 20,000.
Burgum said DOGE has been scrutinizing his department to identify and weed out government waste, fraud and abuse since “Day One” and that he welcomes their efforts.