Senate Proposal Threatens National Parks, Public Lands, and Wildlife

Senate Proposal Threatens National Parks, Public Lands, and Wildlife

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee majority recently released its section of the reconciliation bill, doubling down on deep cuts to the National Park Service and accelerating threats to public lands and natural resources across the West. The proposal slashes critical funding for park staffing at a time when national parks are already strained from years of underfunding and workforce reductions. Simultaneously, it promotes expanded oil and gas drilling and mandates the sale of millions of acres of public lands—without public input or environmental review.

The bill would eliminate all remaining Inflation Reduction Act funding for the National Park Service—roughly $267 million that was set aside to rebuild staffing capacity at park units nationwide. This funding was desperately needed to address a 16.5% staffing shortfall since 2023 caused by buyouts, early retirements, and persistent vacancies. Since 2010, the Park Service workforce has shrunk by 20%, leaving fewer staff to care for the more than 400 national park sites that host hundreds of millions of visitors each year.

Beyond the funding cuts, the bill would require the sale of up to 2.5 million acres of public lands across 11 western states, including Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Many of these lands border national parks or serve as critical wildlife habitat, public access points, and clean water sources. Over 120 national park sites are directly adjacent to Bureau of Land Management or U.S. Forest Service lands—lands that could now be sold off to the highest bidder, jeopardizing irreplaceable ecosystems and severing public access to nature.

The proposal also includes a provision that would authorize the controversial 210-mile Ambler industrial mining road through Gates of the Arctic National Preserve in northwest Alaska. This project would fragment America’s largest protected park landscape and threaten subsistence resources vital to Alaska Native communities, including caribou and salmon. The road has faced strong legal and public opposition due to its cultural, environmental, and ecological impacts.

Congress must reject these short-sighted measures and instead work to restore funding for national parks, uphold public land protections, and ensure that our shared natural heritage is preserved for future generations.