The great pains of protecting the Great Plains

Trump’s administration has created a reality of staff shortages, government defunding, and threatened conservation efforts within national parks that has had rippling effects throughout the country.

Executive orders given by the U.S. Secretary of Interior,  Doug Burgum, and the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, announced on April 3 that national parks shall remain in operation over the summer despite staff cuts, as well as open up national forests to 60% of logging.

Many national parks are currently struggling with shortened staff, so the notion to keep parks open has led to an increased concern not only for park maintenance as well as park safety.

“Park staff do a lot,” said Texas Tech senior, Daniel Ozlowski, who is majoring in natural resource management with a minor in conservation. “They are the ones responsible for general building maintenance. They're the ones who are at the ticket desk… They're the ones working on trails, making sure they are safe to travel, making sure campsites are in good condition…”

Ozlowski went on to explain how the  mass layoffs within the national park workforce have additionally affected the job market for future graduates and students wishing to pursue a career within the field.

“A lot of the job prospects that I would have just from an undergraduate degree alone in this field, not looking at grad school, would be working for the Park Service or Forest Service,” he said. “I would have been looking at either a lab technician position or forest or park service. And forest and park service were actively laying off and research funding is getting cut, so both those [jobs] dried up seemingly overnight.”

Dr. Matthew Barnes, an associate professor within Texas Tech’s Department of Natural Resources Management, explained how deforestation is very common within national parks, but the way in which those resources are being used may be harmful to the environment.

“I tell my class this, the best way to conserve water would be to stop using it, right,” he said. “But that would mean no more drinking, cooking, bathing, plumbing, and it's clearly not a realistic policy strategy. And so it's always going to be about striking that balance between use and conservation or use for one purpose, use for another purpose.”

Texas, Waco representative, Pat Curry, introduced bill 4938 March 13, initially calling for the abolishment of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, claiming that their functions would “transfer to the General Land Office, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Public Safety.” This concerned conservationists as Texas averages about less than 5% of public land.

Texas houses 16 national parks, the most notable of which being Big Bend National Park. Senate Bill 1059 introduces the Big Bend National Park Boundary Adjustment Act, which would add 6,100 acreage to the park's border.

According to KWTX, Curry then shut down his original bill, explaining the bill itself intended to focus on the hunting, breeding of wild deer as well as focus on controlling chronic wasting disease within deer populations, rather than disturbing Texas parks and public land.

Barnes explained that when people are exposed to nature, they tend to care more about conservation and develop a deeper appreciation for the environment.

“Public parks, national parks are [peoples] opportunity to be able to see [nature] to be able to experience [the] outdoors and so maintaining those parks and keeping the parks open is really-it's a justice issue,” he said.“It's a human health issue. There's so much more than just the park itself at stake.”