With an oilman appointed as Secretary of Interior, can Yosemite survive Trump’s environmental policies?
Will there be overcrowding and chaos in Yosemite due to the suspension of the permanent day-use reservation system scheduled to be implemented this year during the heavy use months?
There could be, with the increasing popularity of our national parks, day-use entry without regulation could result in overwhelming numbers of visitors causing near-chaos in Yosemite this summer.
Recent actions by the Trump administration to block the implementation of the 2025 day-use reservation system, reduce the numbers of permanent employees and eliminate seasonal rangers hired annually to control impacts of heavy visitation during this year’s heavy use periods are appalling.
Fortunately, Trump has retracted his proposal to eliminate seasonal national park staff, and for now, seasonal rangers will be scheduled to be back on the job during this heavy-use summer season.
Without seasonal rangers to provide public safety and to handle garbage collection and restroom maintenance, park conditions would soon become intolerable. Fortunately, he has paused the hiring freeze on his earlier no seasonal ranger proposal.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that on most issues, Trump’s policies and proposals are in a constant state of flux; what he says today may not be what he does tomorrow, and this seems especially true when it comes to environmental issues.
His radical revulsion of sound environmental policy is so extreme that it cannot withstand public review and objections and, as a result, has to be modified or eliminated. His initial extreme policy of not hiring seasonal rangers to control summer crowds in Yosemite is an example of that.
I have to question how Donald Trump can have this much authority over the administration of our national parks. His proposals, if enacted, would have disastrous impacts on millions of people and families visiting our national parks.
Unless there is widespread public outrage over Trump’s policies and their catastrophic impacts on America’s beloved national parks, resource degradation and near chaos is what we’re going to get.
With the lack of day-use regulation and the proposed severe reduction in park personnel, will gateway leaders be delighted that, at last, unregulated access will be what they have been fighting to maintain for years?
The impacts of unregulated entry and the consequences of severe overcrowding in and around local gateway communities may have impacts inimical to their efforts for even greater monetary gain, as well as to the serious impacts it will have in Yosemite. Whether it will or not remains to be seen.
Concerns over the impacts of excess numbers of private vehicles is an important issue, and environmentalists have been working endlessly for years to reduce vehicle numbers to reduce traffic jams and congestion.
But, too many vehicles is not the only issue. There are often far too many people in Yosemite, too, and piling unlimited numbers of people accessing entry on private and public buses is not going to mitigate Yosemite’s serious overcrowding issues that have been increasingly problematic for decades.
There have to be restrictions on this mode of entry as well. With Trump and his oil man, Doug Burgum, as Secretary of the Interior, I doubt there will be any chance of that.
Without regulations limiting the rapidly increasing non-private vehicle entry, Yosemite will continue to be impacted by overwhelming numbers of people.
Donald Trump frequently comments on issues of national importance, frequently unsupported by facts, but when it comes to issues relating to protecting our natural resources, he becomes especially viral and inaccurate.
How is it possible that this lawless leader, constantly proclaiming that crime in our country is a major problem, and must be reduced at all costs, when his own administrative activities frequently, if not mostly, disregard existing law?
His comments on being tough on crime are both ridiculous and oxymoronic to the max. He and his lawless administration are testimony to that.
Trump’s original plan to not hire seasonal rangers for the busy summer season has been redacted and replaced with current plans, for the moment, to return to numbers similar to or above those of recent years. It would be good news if those numbers are realized.
But in light of his recent directives, possibly proposed by Elon Musk, to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to direct agencies across the government to turn over plans for further widespread layoffs of federal employees by March 13, returning staff numbers to those of recent years will be problematic at best. Will Yosemite’s summer rangers be a part of that madness?
Guess we’ll see.
Call your representative and express your concerns about the impacts that Trump’s policies will have on our national parks. His currently proposed policies on all issues of national importance, including the environment, are as ephemeral as a mayfly, so it’s impossible to know what will occur months from now, especially since his recent directives to OPB and OMB to further slash the federal workforce by March 13.
His policy to further reduce the federal workforce will wreak havoc on our parks and result in both reduced resource protections and an unattainable quality that national park visitors hope to experience.
Only strong, widespread public outcry against this administration’s park policies might result in a reconsideration of present proposals that will have a significant undesirable impact on Yosemite and its visitors.
John Modin is a resident of El Dorado Hills.
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