Trump administration firings at Alaska parks and forests could harm tourism, industry representatives say

The Trump administration’s purge of the federal workforce has reduced staff at popular forests and parks in Alaska, raising concerns in the state’s tourism industry that services will be cut back this summer, harming tour operators and communities.

It’s unclear how the federal firings at sites like Denali National Park and Preserve will ultimately play out, tourism representatives say.

But they’re concerned the losses will lead to cutbacks in emergency responses, guided tours, educational programs and visitor center hours. They say trash could pile up, and access to roads, campsites, bathrooms and trails could be reduced if fewer staff are available to maintain them, among other problems.

While they have high hopes for another strong summer, tourism representatives fear that the availability of fewer services will hurt the visitor experience and cause lasting damage if future travelers begin to look elsewhere, they say.

“We’re very concerned about what level, if any at all, visitor services are going to be available,” said Jillian Simpson, president of the Alaska Travel Industry Association, which has urged Alaska’s congressional delegation to address the hiring concerns.

In a little over a month’s time, the newly installed Trump administration has moved to slash the federal government. It has implemented a hiring freeze and offered deferred resignations to employees. It has launched mass firings of probationary employees who are often new in their position but may be longtime federal workers in a new role.

Alaska, with its outsized proportion of public lands and 15,000 federal employees, could see large cuts.

Tourism representatives say that plans by the Trump administration for additional firings adds to the confusion just as parks and other visitor destinations in Alaska are usually looking to hire and train summer workers.

Adding questions is a federal judge’s ruling on Thursday that the mass firing of probationary workers is likely illegal.

“I mean, the first cruise ship arrives in a month and a half, and so there’s not really much time to figure it out,” Simpson said.

Impacts across Alaska

One nonprofit said on Thursday that the firing of probationary staff at Denali National Park and Preserve, which gets more than 500,000 visitors annually, has forced it to shut down youth camps in the park this summer. The terminations included the park’s education program manager, leaving no one available to hire staff to support the camping programs.

In Juneau, tourism representatives say virtually all the employees at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, part of the Tongass National Forest, have been terminated. That’s raising questions about reduced operating hours and services at a site that draws 700,000 visitors annually.

And in Anchorage, the city’s destination marketing organization and tour operators have fielded calls from potential tourists hoping to learn what the job reductions could mean for national parks in Alaska this summer.

Spokespeople with Denali National Park and the Tongass forest, two of the state’s most popular destinations, referred questions about staffing levels and service reductions to headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The questions went unanswered.

In an email, an unnamed spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, said the Forest Service nationally has “made the difficult decision to release” about 2,000 probationary employees who aren’t firefighters.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins “fully supports the president’s directive to improve government, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA’s many services to the American people,” the spokesperson said. “We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of the American people’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar spent goes to serve the people, not the bureaucracy.”

A spokesperson with the National Park Service, who also didn’t identify themselves by name, said in an email that the agency is hiring seasonal workers to “continue enhancing the visitor experience as we embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation in workforce management.”

Tourism representatives in Alaska said a reduction in services could have harmful ripple effects on local communities.

‘Community-wide’ impacts at Mendenhall Glacier

Alix Pierce, visitor industry director for Juneau, said 1.6 million cruise guests support a $500 million tourism industry in the city.

Reduced hours at the Mendenhall Glacier center, if that happens this summer, could hurt the economy, she said. It could also force thousands of tourists to other parts of town that aren’t ready for huge crowds.

“We don’t really know how tourists and commercial activity operating outside of the Mendenhall Glacier will be affected,” she said. “But we do know that any impacts to service will be felt community-wide, because it’s our biggest attraction and it absorbs a lot of visitor volume for us.”

Shawn Eisele is the head of Discovery Southeast in Juneau, an educational nonprofit that runs the bookstore and gift shop in the visitor center. It uses the proceeds to support nature and science programs in schools.

If the store is open for only limited hours, the authors, artists and other vendors will lose sales.

“And half of our budget comes from bookstore directly,” he said. “So if the bookstore isn’t open, that’s a direct economic impact for us. It’s pretty serious.”

As far as Eisele knows, only one or two workers remain employed at the visitor center, and he’s aware of many other employees at the Juneau Ranger District for the Tongass who have been fired, he said. Many are longtime federal workers with deep experience, he said.

How services will be maintained in the district is uncertain, he said.

“You can’t have a million people without bathrooms available for them, or someone to manage their interaction with bears, or someone to take out the garbage, or someone to respond to emergency situations,” he said.

Reduced services at Denali National Park

Chris Noel, mayor of the Denali Borough, said Denali National Park and Preserve will be open for tourists this summer. But staff there are looking at reducing services, such as maintenance for roads and bathrooms and staffing at the visitor center.

About 15 year-round employees at the park have been fired or accepted the deferred-resignation offer from the Trump administration, he said.

That leaves more than 100 employees, he said.

But many workers are in probationary status and there’s fear they could still lose their jobs, he said. There’s also concern the park this summer won’t build up the large seasonal workforce it usually hires, he said.

The borough gets “90% of our tax revenue from hotel accommodations tax,” he said.

“So we really rely on that outdoor recreation economy and we want it to remain strong, and these cuts to the federal workforce really challenge the management of our national parks,” he said.

Jodi Rodwell, head of the Denali Education Center, said the staffing shortage at Denali National Park forced the nonprofit to cancel three weeklong camping programs there. Dozens of youths, mostly local, were expected to take part in the 25-year-old program this summer.

The recent termination of the park’s education program manager means no one is available to hire the summer employees who typically support the program, she said.

“There’s too much uncertainty as to whether the park will be able to have summer staff in place in time, so we can’t plan,” she said.

Rangers and other park staff provide safety for the children campers, plus education, equipment and other support.

“(The fired education program manager) worked tirelessly with us to ensure the success, safety, and enjoyment of our youth programs in the park that reach school-aged children from grades 1 – 12,” Rodwell said in a statement. “We are crushed that she has been indiscriminately let go.”

Jack Bonney, a spokesman for Visit Anchorage, said the destination marketing organization and tourism operators have received inquiries from potential visitors seeking to understand how the cuts might affect services at Alaska’s national parks and other destinations.

That makes educating travelers about the issue, and about destinations in Anchorage and Alaska, very important, he said.

“It kind of injects a little bit of hesitancy into people’s travel decision-making,” he said. “So if you’re not sure whether something is going to be open or closed, or you’re not familiar enough with Anchorage to know, it may be, ‘Oh this is the year I pause. Maybe I wait a little while and see how this shakes out,’” he said.

“And that can be really concerning, especially at a time of year where traditionally people are planning their vacations,” he said.

Alaska delegation says they’re working on concerns

Members of Alaska’s congressional delegation said they understand the importance of maintaining access to public lands.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a telephonic town hall last week that the federal firings could have a chilling effect on tourism, among other concerns. She said she’s working to ensure that seasonal National Park Service employees and wildland firefighters can be hired.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan’s office said in a statement provided by spokesperson Amanda Coyne that he’s been a “staunch fighter of our tourism sector and has had a number of initiatives that have passed the Congress to support Alaska tourism.”

“Senator Sullivan and his team are pursuing information about the cuts, weighing in with the Trump administration on positions that are important for Alaska’s economy and small businesses, and highlighting instances where the elimination of such positions actually runs counter to President Trump’s day one executive order to unleash Alaska’s economy,” his office said.

U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III wants to “see taxpayer dollars spent responsibly and he is focused on efficiency in our federal government, not cutting vital services,” said spokesperson Silver Prout. “We are closely monitoring how staffing changes may impact Alaska and will continue working to ensure that public land management remains focused on serving Alaskans and those who visit our great state.”

Gov. Mike Dunleavy, in a recent post on X, acknowledged that it was a difficult time for federal workers and encouraged them to apply for work at the state.

“There are certainly opportunities at the state system,” he said.