The Best Ways To Support Our National Park Rangers During A Government Shutdown

Starting on October 1, the U.S. government shut down over stalled budget negotiations. As a result, non-essential government workers have been furloughed, while others are being asked to work but without pay — like air traffic controllers, which has led to flight delays. Some of the jobs being cut also include more than 9,000 national park staff, which has led to some serious concerns about the safety of the country's national parks, as well as national park rangers.

While the everyday person may not be able to do all that much to get the government back up and running, that doesn't mean you can't find ways to help. If you're looking for ideas on how to support national park rangers during this shutdown, we have some suggestions: from calling for park closures to reconsidering your visit and even donating to ranger relief funds.

After all, the current government shutdown is making an already stressful situation much worse. Many national parks across the U.S. were already short-staffed before this happened due to an unexpected shake-up early into President Donald Trump's second term. In fact, the National Parks Conservation Association confirmed that permanent staff at national parks were down 24% since Trump took office. They also noted that seasonal hiring was down, and that there wasn't enough staff to fill the gaps for the work that needs to be done to keep the country's parks functioning well.

Dozens of former national park supervisors asked Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum to close the national parks in the face of a government shutdown. However, while a number of iconic U.S. landmarks have closed during the shutdown, many of them are still, at least, partially open. This could cause some potentially serious problems. "We're worried about damage to important and sometimes irreplaceable park features and facilities," Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers (ANPR), explained in a press release. "We're disappointed that visitors will be at risk and won't be able to get the experience they planned on."

Among others, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) recommends that parks be closed entirely — especially considering what happened during the last shutdown in 2018-2019, when a number of national parks saw significant damage. This includes big names like Joshua Tree National Park, where some of the famous trees were cut down, and Big Bend National Park, where a series of petroglyphs were vandalized. In comparison, during a previous shutdown in 2013 under Barack Obama, all national parks were closed to visitors.

If you want to do your part, the NPCA currently has a template available on their website where you can join others calling on Secretary Burgum to close the parks. While it might seem like taking rangers off the job by closing the parks isn't a good way to help them, they're currently not getting paid for their work anyway. This means they're essentially caught in a lose-lose situation of trying to protect the parks without much (if anything) to support them.

Keeping the national parks open, even partially, and with people continuing to visit, is also likely to result in overwhelming work and stress for park rangers. So, while it might be tempting to visit a national park right now — especially considering that there are no admission fees being collected at certain destinations that are still running — you might want to consider canceling any trips to help lessen the strain on NPS employees and the environment.

If you are still planning to visit a national park during the shutdown, don't make things any harder for the rangers that are currently there, or the ones that will be coming back after the shutdown. Just because a ranger isn't there to tell you not to do something doesn't mean you should go ahead and do it anyway. 

Instead, make sure you obey any and all signage about closed trails and sections of the park, and don't even think about lighting fires where you're not supposed to. Similarly, make sure you pack out all of your trash. And, of course, don't deface or vandalize anything. Oh, and while you're at it, don't complain to those rangers that you do see about, well ... anything.

One of the most direct and impactful ways to support park rangers during the shutdown is to donate to the Association of National Park Rangers (ANPR). First established in 1977, the ANPR identifies as a "service-wide organization to communicate for, about, and with Rangers; to identify, promote, and enhance our profession and its spirit; to support management and the perpetuation of the National Park Service and to provide a forum for social enrichment."

Although, at the time of writing, the website doesn't include information about the response to the shutdown, there is a Ranger Emergency Relief Fund currently running. This initiative helps collect and distribute monetary donations for rangers who have lost their jobs, as well as those who have been impacted by natural disasters.

And that's not the only charitable organization currently helping the parks. The National Park Foundation is an official nonprofit affiliated with the National Park Service that provides support to national parks and, by extension, park rangers. You can donate directly through their website, where they offer multiple ways to give — including one-time contributions and monthly sustainer programs. If you have a favorite national park, many of them also have official nonprofits associated with them. If you love the outdoors and want to help, now could be a good time to give.