Why staffing cuts to nationwide parks may pose security considerations for summer season guests
Assateague Island, Maryland — The shoreline of Maryland’s Assateague Island is a well-known place for surfer Zack Tyndall.
A former firefighter paramedic, Tyndall typically helped beachgoers there — however now, because the mayor of close by Berlin, Maryland, he says security is not assured.
“I do not wish to see anyone drown,” Tyndall advised CBS Information. “We had saves the place we had been in a position to carry folks out, and we had some the place we weren’t in a position to, and that is my largest worry right here on the island.”
The 37-mile-long Assateague Island is shared by each Maryland and Virginia. Annually, thousands and thousands of individuals go to the Assateague Island Nationwide Seashore in Maryland, which is managed by the Nationwide Park Service. Nonetheless, this summer season, visiting households are additionally seeing shuttered lifeguard towers and indicators warning that no lifeguards are on responsibility.
CBS Information requested the Park Service concerning the staffing scenario on Assateague Island, however the company didn’t instantly reply to these questions – as a substitute, saying in an announcement that lifeguard shortages are a “nationwide concern even outdoors of our public lands. Many communities and cities throughout the nation are experiencing a lifeguard scarcity beneath very best ranges. Guests have at all times had entry to unguarded seashores and guarded seashores even after lifeguards go away for the day. We recognize the general public’s understanding and cooperation as we work to make sure a secure and pleasing expertise for all.”
The Trump administration laid off about 1,000 NPS workers in February as a part of its push, led by the White Home’s Division of Authorities Effectivity, to enact large-scale personnel and budgetary cuts throughout the federal authorities. President Trump additionally enacted a hiring freeze on federal everlasting civilian workers instantly after taking workplace, which has impacted the Park Service. That hiring freeze has since been prolonged to July 15.
“This was a coverage put into place by DOGE and the present Trump administration that led to a whole hiring freeze on all hiring throughout the Nationwide Park Service,” Ed Stierli, Mid-Atlantic area senior director of the Nationwide Parks Conservation Affiliation, an unbiased Park Service advocacy group, advised CBS Information.
In line with evaluation launched this week by the Conservation Affiliation, the Park Service has misplaced 24% of its everlasting workers since Mr. Trump took workplace in January. The evaluation additionally decided that about 4,500 seasonal positions have been crammed, together with lifeguards, effectively beneath the 7,700 seasonal positions NPS earlier this yr mentioned it was aiming to fill.
“The rationale there aren’t any lifeguards at Assateague is actually a symptom of the chaos and dysfunction that has been impacting this company because the starting of this administration,” Stierli mentioned.
A Trump administration official advised CBS Information that each one hearth, legislation enforcement and public going through NPS personnel are prioritized to stay in place.
Tyndall, in the meantime, is simply hoping for a secure summer season in Maryland.
“Daily that we do not have a lifeguard right here on the seaside is placing each one among these swimmers, each one among our native residents, all people that comes to go to Assateague Island, in jeopardy,” Tyndall mentioned.
And the scenario may worsen with the proposed funds for fiscal yr 2026, which requires the Inside Division to chop greater than $1 billion to the Nationwide Park Service, the biggest such reduce in its historical past.
