The Nationwide Park Service logged a document 331.9 million visits in 2024, besting a visitation excessive set in 2016. However don’t anticipate to listen to about that from the company because it endures layoffs and facility closures.
A memo despatched to park managers earlier this month famous that the Nationwide Park Service wouldn’t be selling the 2024 visitation document and any media inquiries must be directed to the company’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
“Parks can publish remaining information on their web site … however mustn’t problem a press launch or different proactive communications, together with social media posts,” reads the March 5 memo.
The order applies to all nationwide parks, together with Rocky Mountain Nationwide Park, which performed a starring position within the company’s record-setting yr. Rocky Mountain Nationwide Park stays one of the vital trafficked nationwide parks within the nation, rating because the fifth busiest with 4.15 million visits. That’s down barely from 2023 and barely under the park’s 10-year common. Colorado’s 13 park properties reported 7.33 million visits in 2024, down barely from 2023.
The newest visitation report launched final week displaying a 2% enhance over 2023 lands because the Trump administration fires no less than 1,000 staff with the Nationwide Park Service and hundreds extra with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Administration. The administration’s cuts embrace halting spending for the businesses and canceling leases for buildings utilized by land managers. (The record of attainable cancellations for leased Nationwide Park Service buildings included the headquarters of the Pure Sources Stewardship and Science Directorate in Fort Collins.)
“The Nationwide Park Service simply reported the very best visitation in its historical past, because the administration conducts huge firings and threatens to shut customer facilities and public security services,” Kristen Brengel, the top of public affairs for the Nationwide Parks Conservation Affiliation mentioned in an announcement. “It’s a slap within the face to the a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of people that explored our parks final yr and wish to preserve going again. People love their nationwide parks; these cuts do not need public help.”
