The beauty attracts people from all over the world. Maybe too many people. And now, staffing is way down. Photo: Evan Quarnstrom
Yosemite National Park employees vented frustration about working conditions in a report by POLITICO’s E&E News, citing staff cuts, vacant positions amid rising visitation, pressure to mislead the public, and disagreement on park management policies. Federal officials, however, dispute nearly every claim, insisting operations are running smoothly in California’s emblematic granite valley.
According to data obtained by E&E News, the park is down at least 40 staff compared with last summer, even as visitation is projected to exceed the 4.1 million people who visited in 2024 – a post-pandemic record set under a new entry system that requires a reservation. Search and rescue operations were also up 40 percent from January to July compared with the same period last year.
This summer, Yosemite employed roughly 400 permanent staff and 330 seasonal workers. Nationally, about 16,000 park employees have accepted buyouts during the Trump administration’s staffing reductions, including 18 at Yosemite.
Amid growing discontent, employees at Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon national parks voted last month to unionize, with 95 percent supporting the move.
Six Yosemite employees spoke anonymously with E&E, saying they feel unable to voice concerns to supervisors due to pressure within the system.
“It just feels like we’re being taken advantage of,” a permanent Yosemite park employee said. “We are buffering the public because we care. But how long is that going to last? Because it’s not fair that we keep getting the hit to make it seem like everything’s OK.”
Former Yosemite Superintendent Cicely Muldoon, who retired in February after 40 years of service, echoed those frustrations.
“There’s a lot of folks who are doing the jobs that three people used to do,” Muldoon said. “Summers, in particular, our high season, really just crush people, because you have to be called out on overtime all the time. The search-and-rescue loads are intense. The traffic and parking, and Yosemite crowds are intense. People are always exhausted by the end.”
Among the specific grievances of park employees are fire management, reopening campsites staff say they can’t control, employees forced into roles outside their job descriptions, and public relations directives to misrepresent conditions to the public.
Some staff criticized acting Superintendent Ray McPadden for reopening campsites that had been closed for renovations despite limited resources to manage them. Others questioned his decision to extinguish a fire rather than let it burn naturally to reduce fuel for future blazes.
In some cases, park scientists were ordered to clean bathrooms to cover for understaffing, while leadership reportedly instructed staff to avoid discussing internal struggles with visitors.
The National Park Service rejected the claims. Yosemite officials declined an interview with E&E but issued a statement saying staffing levels “closely align with historic averages.” The park defended McPadden’s fire management strategy, said visitor feedback this year has been “overwhelmingly positive,” and insisted that claims of a struggling workforce “do not match reality on the ground.”
In February, park staff staged a protest of the Trump Administration’s staff cuts by hanging an upside-down flag from the iconic monolith of El Capitan – a symbol of distress. A former superintendent of Yosemite has called the hiring freeze “catastrophic.”
