WASHINGTON —

Recent cuts to the National Park Service have been raising concern about how parks will be maintained and kept safe for visitors. Some parks have already made changes to the services they provide amid staff shortages. 

WUSA9 went to Rock Creek Park to learn more about the impact these cuts will have on our environment and park visitors.

“National parks here in the D.C. region, they’re a part of people’s everyday lives,” says Ed Stierli, the Mid-Atlantic Senior Regional Director for National Parks Conservation Association. Washington, D.C. is home to more than 30 national parks, all of which are maintained by the National Park Service. 

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Nearly 1,000 National Park employees have been laid off across the U.S. and according to Stierli, “The National Park Service as an agency was already understaffed and underfunded.” The impact of these cuts is already being felt here at home. 

“In a park like Rock Creek Park, or other areas around here, having less staff in a park means that people might do damage to some of the natural resources,” Stierli said. They might create things called social trails. They create trails [in] places where they shouldn’t be and that can damage, trees, plants, as well as have impacts on wildlife.” 

The environmental impacts don’t stop there. With fewer staff to maintain the parks and trails, pollution has become an even bigger issue. 

“It can have a really damaging and lasting consequences. One thing we see is an uptick in is pollution, whether it be trash, pollution or otherwise. That can lead to water pollution, whether it be in the Anacostia, [or] Potomac Rivers, that’s something we’re really concerned about,” Stierl saidi. 

Rock Creek Park’s 1,700-acre forest is already showing significant signs of distress. There aren’t enough baby trees growing to replace the older ones that are dying. The Rock Creek Conservancy has partnered with the National Park Service for years to help restore and maintain this beloved park, but Amanda Leiter of the Conservancy says those restoration efforts are now in jeopardy. 

We had counted on both funding from the Park Service and also Park Service staff to help us scale those pilot projects forest wide so that we could really restore the entirety of the Rock Creek Forest. But without a steady stream of funding and without the parks service staff those efforts are doomed to fail,”  Leiter said.

Our national parks bring in nearly $2 billion in economic spending from more than 54 million visitors each year. But with further budget cuts on the horizon, concerns about the long-term environmental health of our parks are growing. “Plants are not political. Plants don’t stop growing just because funding is under review,” says Leiter. 

If you plan on visiting one of our nations National Parks this year expect longer wait times to get into the park, fewer available facilities like visitor centers and bathrooms, and more negative impacts to native plants and animals.