Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

On Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, at 10:56 a.m., the National Park Service Press Team released the following statement via email from “an NPS spokesperson:”

“The National Park Service is hiring seasonal workers to continue enhancing the visitor experience as we embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation in workforce management. We are focused on ensuring that every visitor has the chance to explore and connect with the incredible, iconic spaces of our national parks.”

Local park managers confirmed this information.

On Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum titled “hiring freeze” applicable to federal civilian employees. The leading paragraph states “As part of this freeze, no Federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on January 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created except as otherwise provided for in this memorandum or other applicable law. Except as provided below, this freeze applies to all executive departments and agencies regardless of their sources of operational and programmatic funding.”

For the Outer Banks Group of National Parks, 60 to 70 vacant seasonal positions were swept into the freeze. The group includes the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and Wright Brothers National Memorial.

The Trump administration allowed the National Park Service to fill a total of 7,700 seasonal positions, higher than the three-year average of 6,350, according to a memorandum obtained by National Public Radio.

National Public Radio reported that on Feb. 14, the National Park Service laid off 1,000 staffers, most of whom were probationary employees.

The Outer Banks Group of National Parks has already lost six employees, according to the Association of Retired National Park Rangers.

READ ABOUT MORE NEWS HERE.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE COASTLAND TIMES TODAY!