The National Park Service abruptly rescinded job offers Thursday for seasonal positions at national parks across the country after President Donald Trump announced a government-wide hiring freeze Monday, according to multiple people familiar with the matter and emails obtained by The Washington Post.

The job cancellations come despite the fact that seasonal positions are supposed to be exempt from the hiring freeze, according to a White House memorandum. The move is prompting concerns from conservationists that national parks could be short-staffed during the summer season, when more than 100 million Americans and international tourists typically visit, according to 2023 federal data.

While it is unclear how many positions are affected, the Park Service usually hires around 7,500 summer employees. Common seasonal roles include park rangers, trail workers, visitor service assistants and maintenance workers.

“Your job offer has been rescinded at management request,” said emails from the National Park Service, copies of which were obtained by The Post. “Should the bureau be able to fill the position again, another announcement will be posted in due course.”

The emails did not provide a reason for the move. In contrast, the Justice Department cited the federal hiring freeze when revoking offers to young lawyers in a prestigious honors program this week.

Spokespeople for the Park Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One woman who received an email about a rescinded offer said she had signed paperwork in November to work at California’s Sequoia National Park. It was a dream job, said the woman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of harming her employment prospects.

“I’ve basically made my entire life about conservation and going to work for a land-management agency,” she said. “So it is kind of unfortunate that I’ve spent the last couple of years working toward a job that, through no fault of my own, was rescinded from me.”

In a Monday memorandum, the White House’s Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget said that certain positions would be exempt from the hiring freeze. Those positions included “seasonal employees and short-term temporary employees necessary to meet traditionally recurring seasonal workloads, provided that the agency informs its OMB Resource Management Office in writing in advance of its hiring plans,” the memo said.

It is unclear whether the job offers for seasonal roles could be reinstated once the Park Service has informed an OMB Resource Management Office of its hiring plans. Spokespeople for OPM did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In recent years, staffing levels at the Park Service have steadily declined, even as park visitation has significantly increased, according to federal data. Several parks set visitation records in 2023.

“This hiring freeze means our national parks could really struggle with insufficient staffing,” said Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group.

“Visitors from around the world come to our national parks expecting a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but instead could be met with overflowing trash, uncleaned bathrooms, and fewer rangers to provide guidance,” Brengel added. “These are not the memories we want people to take away from their experience at our parks.”

In a Thursday post on Reddit, one user shared a screenshot of an email about a revoked job offer for a custodial position at Yosemite National Park in California. The user, who did not respond to a request for comment, voiced hope that seasonal workers would eventually become exempt from the hiring freeze.

“While I’m freaking out, I’m still holding out hope this will be reversed soon,” the person wrote.

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https://washingtonpost.com/documents/1f4598a8-d9b0-4418-a8ba-655de40f6544.pdf