Interior Secretary Doug Burgum promised that more than 5,000 park rangers would be hired this year to staff the national parks for the busy summer season.
So far, that commitment to beef up staffing at the National Park Service hasn’t been realized.
About 3,300 seasonal and temporary staff are currently employed at the service, according to data obtained by the National Parks Conservation Association and viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News.
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That’s about 40 percent less than the number of seasonal and temporary staff employed during the Biden administration in fiscal year 2023, the most recent public data for actual NPS employment.
