In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson founded the National Park Service as a small federal bureau in the Department of the Interior. Today, the NPS and its more than 20,000 staff care for over 85 million acres of parks across every US state and territory. These areas range from little-known battlefields and rivers to iconic ecosystems like Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon.
National parks have been under assault before, from natural disasters, conservation skeptics, and budget-slashing politicians. But never was it so drastic as President Trump’s attempts to lease park land to drilling companies under the excuse of public need.
To quote Teddy Roosevelt’s description of Yellowstone National Park, now inscribed above the park’s main entrance, national parks are “for the benefit and enjoyment of all people.” Depending on how you view it, that could also mean that there is an opportunity, or even a responsibility, for the federal government to use parks’ natural, scenic and recreational resources rather than leaving them untouched. After all, the argument goes, what good are they doing just sitting there?
Since his re-election, President Donald Trump has made no secret of his desire to “drill, baby, drill,” including selling land in and around national parks to drilling companies. In his first term, he attempted to go through with the lease of areas within a few miles of national parks – but not within the parks’ boundaries – for oil and gas drilling, but backed down after fierce public backlash. The protests weren’t along partisan lines, either. According to a study published by the Pew Research Center, 75% of Republicans and 80% of Democrats view the National Park Service favorably – a more positive result than any other federal agency the poll asked about.
Regardless of public opinion, President Trump is still trying to get his way in his second term. His “Big Beautiful Bill,” which passed in July of this year, contained a clause, since removed, that would allow for the sale of nearly 1.23 million acres of public lands. And while it may not be directly the monuments and parks themselves that Trump and his cabinet are looking to sell, the areas around them – integral to parks’ ecosystems and scenery – are more likely to be up for grabs within the next four years.
Thankfully, there are two major obstacles preventing the sale of this land. Firstly, given the nation’s love for national parks, representatives who back drilling in public lands risk jeopardizing their popularity. The same goes for big oil companies: just because the land is for lease doesn’t mean that boardrooms want it, or the bad press that would come with it. Secondly, any attempt to push a bill that allows the government to lease this land will be sorely fought every step of the way by advocacy groups like the National Parks Conservation Association. Yet, given Trump’s penchant for unilateral action, Congress and the courts are no sure guarantors of safety for our parks.
Even if the likes of Yosemite won’t soon be blighted with fracking rigs, the NPS is sure to suffer in the coming years. Trump and Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E have made significant moves towards dismantling or defunding federal agencies and bureaus, with the National Park Service among those openly on the chopping block. Since Trump’s re-election, roughly 12.5% of NPS employees left or were fired in the name of ‘Government Efficiency,’ marking a 20% decrease in parks staff since 2010. There are worries that this will leave parks under-staffed and vulnerable to the older threats of pollution and undermaintainance.
Ultimately, there’s no way to know how this will play out in the coming years. It may be that President Trump will be focused on other things, and allow his plans for the parks – whatever they may be – to sit, gathering dust, until his second term in office expires. It may be that they get stopped in the courts, or in the halls of congress, or that they are ratified but the lands for sale are left unused. But, for the first time, there is a distinct possibility that we will see oil companies encroach on our national parks – just as staffing cuts leave the NPS unable to protect them properly. That is a possibility that we must work to prevent.
