The Department of the Interior (DOI) plans to lay off at least 272 additional National Park Service employees, according to a court filing published Monday. The document, filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, outlines the DOI’s broader plans, which include the proposed elimination of 2,050 positions across the agency’s 89 units.
Among those potentially affected are more than 450 employees from the Bureau of Land Management and nearly 150 staff members from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The planned layoffs detailed in the filing may only be the beginning, warned Kati Schmidt, communications director for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). The numbers come from a court document related to U.S. District Judge Susan Illston’s decision to grant unions representing federal workers a temporary restraining order. This order is part of a lawsuit aimed at halting the Trump administration’s attempt to lay off 4,000 federal employees amidst the ongoing government shutdown.
However, Schmidt cautioned that the information in the court filing might not represent all staff at risk, including those who are not represented by the unions involved in the suit. “The overall number of planned staff reductions is likely much larger,” she said.
She added that it remains unclear how many park employees are not represented by the unions involved in this case or how many other unions representing park staff may yet be uninvolved. As a result, the exact number of additional workers who could be affected by these layoffs remains unknown.
Since President Donald Trump’s second term began in January, the National Park Service has already lost an estimated 24% of its permanent staff, according to the NPCA.
“This court filing confirms our worst fears,” NPCA President and CEO Theresa Pierno said in a statement posted on the group’s website. “No matter the size, any additional cuts to the Park Service will be devastating.”
In an email to KQED, a DOI spokesperson confirmed that the planned layoffs “predate” the government shutdown.
NPCA’s Schmidt noted that the court order halting shutdown-related layoffs also currently prevents the DOI’s planned layoffs from proceeding until the shutdown ends or a higher court intervenes.
In late August, federal park workers at Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks unionized under the National Federation of Federal Employees—one of the unions whose members are protected under the restraining order.
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2025/10/21/new-trump-layoffs-could-put-hundreds-more-national-park-service-employees-on-the-chopping-block/
