Because no matter what, at the end of the day, you can’t pay the rent in sunsets.

…not to mention a decrease in the applicant pool for what few jobs are left, and a decrease in retention. I know so many NPS alums who were passionate, brilliant, and so good at their jobs who left and won’t consider going back.

The only thing that comes of cutting budgets and hiring fewer employees is a decreased visitor experience, a decrease in the NPS’s ability to protect the resources they’re charged with protecting, and a decrease in staff morale.

Many seasonal employees cobble together work in the winter so they can spend the summer enabling you to fully experience the social, cultural, biological, and geological stories we’ve decided as a people are vital to our nation.

So when anyone out there thinks government employees are overpaid fat cats who are getting rich on the taxpayers’ dime, believe me: the NPS is not that. At all. Whatsoever.

Thing three point five: These folks believe that the resources they’ve sworn to protect are worth protecting. Most of them see this as a calling, as a vocation.

Thing three: Most of the NPS employees you meet in a park love what they do despite how hard the government works to make it difficult.

Thing two: NPS sites are woefully understaffed. Budgets have been slashed. Maintenance backlogs are staggering. The love and unpaid labor of volunteers make the whole system tick.