In August of 1916, President Woodrow Wilson established the National Park Service. It is responsible for protecting the native species that call parks their home, ensuring the site infrastructure is functioning and clean, preserving the nature in national parks for generations to come and much more. If you’ve ever seen the beauty of Indiana Dunes or any of the other 432 national park sites in the United States, you have the NPS employees to thank.

In February of 2025, President Donald Trump laid off roughly 1,000 NPS employees. The same employees who pick up trash, restore buildings,  educate residents near national park sites and protect endangered animals by giving them safe spaces free from logging or pollution. With fewer employees, there’s a higher risk of wildfires spreading out of control and of trails becoming overgrown. As a result, tourism to these parks will suffer and small businesses who depend on the parks will also be impacted.

These people are not expendable. They are an integral part of keeping our national parks operational and pristine, yet they are being cut for no reason other than short-term cost savings at the expense of our country’s natural and cultural heritage. It’s very clear that the priority is not our environment, instead, it’s money.

The fact that we mistreat nature to save money is honestly sad. Our environment is one-of-a-kind and worth more than any possible amount of money. Not just national parks, but the planet as a whole. The natural world is not a commodity, nor is it an expense that can be written off. It’s a living, breathing being that deserves our respect and our love.

We cannot keep being blindsided by greed and continue to neglect or environment. Only we, as humans, can preserve the Earth for the generations to come.

And it starts with keeping our beautiful national parks beautiful.

Our Take: Preserving nature for future generations is worth the money