Tell Congress: Save Our National Parks and Public Lands

Please Take Action to Protect Our Public Land Stewards

I urge you to take immediate action to safeguard our national parks, forests, refuges, monuments, and other public lands. One important piece of that is protecting and restoring the workforce and resources needed to keep these places and the millions of people who visit them safe and accessible. Public lands are shared by all Americans. The rangers, scientists, firefighters, and stewards who care for these places are essential to ensuring that our nation’s landscapes, wildlife, clean water, and historic and cultural connections remain intact for present and future generations. But running these agencies on minimal staff undermines their mission -- and plays directly into efforts to privatize or commercialize our public lands. We’ve already seen the impacts of this strategy: Reduced access from lack of trail maintenance, loss of critical tourism revenue for gateway communities, damaged wildlife habitats and historic sites, underfunded Indigenous partnerships and cultural programs, and delayed wildfire prevention and resource restoration. As climate change fuels larger, hotter, and more destructive wildfires, floods, extreme heat, and other disasters, our public lands agencies especially need experienced rangers, scientists, firefighters, maintenance crews, educators, and support staff more than ever. These staffing cuts reduce wildfire preparedness and mitigation efforts, delay critical maintenance projects that help protect communities and infrastructure, limit emergency response capacity, and leave visitors waiting longer for assistance during emergencies. At a time when severe wildfire seasons are becoming more frequent and dangerous, Congress should be strengthening our public lands workforce not allowing it to be dismantled. I urge you to oppose additional staffing and funding cuts to public land agencies, work to reverse harmful workforce reductions across the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,, and advocate to ensure these agencies have the resources they need to support public access, recreation, and tourism; protect cherished lands, clean water, wildlife, history, and cultural connections; prepare for climate-driven disasters; and safeguard our communities. Thank You.