The Trump administration is restoring jobs for dozens of National Park Service employees fired amid government-wide reductions and hiring nearly 3,000 additional seasonal workers, following an uproar over an aggressive plan to downsize the agency.
At least 50 jobs are being restored to help maintain and clean parks, educate visitors, and collect admission fees, according to two people familiar with the agency's plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The moves come as the park service said in a new memo that it will hire up to 7,700 seasonal positions this year, up from about 5,000 promised earlier this week and higher than the three-year average of 6,350 seasonal workers. The park service has about 20,000 employees.
Lawmakers and advocacy groups have criticized the widespread layoffs as unnecessary and a threat to public safety and the parks themselves.
"These roles are critical to protecting America's treasured natural assets, maintaining public safety and promoting exceptional standards," said a letter signed by Virginia's two Democrat senators and six Democrat House members.
"If these directives are not reversed, we fear it will significantly undermine the Park Service's ability to protect both visitors and park resources, particularly as we approach peak visitation season," they wrote to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
Concern about the layoffs was bipartisan. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she's worried that Acadia National Park will "not be able to hire the seasonal employees required to collect entrance fees and perform other essential tasks such as maintaining trails and providing first responder services to visitors."
Seasonal workers are routinely added during warm-weather months to serve more than 325 million visitors who descend on the nation's 433 parks, historic sites, and other attractions yearly. Park advocates say the permanent staff cuts will leave hundreds of national parks — including some of the most well-known and most heavily visited sites — understaffed and facing tough decisions about operating hours, public safety, and resource protection.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department declined to comment Friday. No one at the park service responded to an email from The Associated Press.
While the plan to hire more seasonal workers is welcome, "it will take a while to get to the number of seasonals hired to avoid some of the impacts we've talked about," said Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers and a former superintendent of Virginia's Shenandoah National Park.
Job offers to thousands of seasonal workers were rescinded in recent days, and not all of them will be rehired, Wade and other advocates said. Some permanent employees who were laid off were in human resources and would have been involved in hiring and training seasonal employees.
"I'm celebrating, because eventually they will be hired. But I'm leery to say everything's been fixed,'' Wade said Friday, noting that the layoffs and confusion over seasonal employment came after an unknown number of park workers agreed to leave the agency in deferred resignations offered by the Trump administration.
"There's no real staffing plan. It's chaotic, and there's no leadership from the secretary of the interior,'' said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
Burgum "needs to step up and make sure these parks are operating at full capacity this spring and summer,'' Whitehouse said. Problems are likely at parks that are popular in the spring, such as Zion National Park in Utah, park advocates said.
"National parks are something that all Americans cherish, and the people making the decisions are disconnected from that reality," Whitehouse said, referring to billionaire Elon Musk and a team of aides who have overseen an effort to fire thousands of federal workers.
President Donald Trump has not nominated a park service director, a position that requires Senate confirmation. Jessica Bowron, the agency's comptroller, has been named acting director.