Trump officials weigh major overhaul of National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife

The Trump administration is considering a major reorganization of the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to internal documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

Staff are meeting this week and next to discuss a "realignment" of the two agencies, the documents show. One meeting regarding the National Park Service will discuss "pending duty station changes," referring to the locations where staff report to work. But the documents do not specify whether certain offices would be closed or moved, or whether any employees would be fired.

The Interior Department, which oversees the agencies, did not respond to a request for comment.

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Public land advocates fear that the changes could further hurt agencies that have already seen major staffing cuts since Trump began efforts to shrink the federal government by hundreds of thousands of employees last year.

"I think from their perspective, it seems as though that they're trying to find efficiencies by consolidating staff within DOI that maybe served different functions across these agencies," said Ed Stierli, vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group. "But I think in reality, it just seems to be causing more confusion and chaos. "

While the administration has considered differing plans to overhaul the Park Service since last year, including one reported in September by the Washington Sun, plans to reorganize the Fish and Wildlife Service are more recent. Fish and Wildlife manages more than 500 National Wildlife Refuges across the country, spanning 93 million acres.

A Fish and Wildlife Service report published on Friday recommends the agency "reduce headquarters and regional office staffing and reallocate positions to refuge operations, prioritizing the people needed to manage habitat, maintain facilities, support public access and protect resources."

An internal communication to Fish and Wildlife Service staff on Friday, reviewed by The Post, states that the recommendations in the report "give us a path forward" and that "our next responsibility is to turn them into practical actions."

In March, the administration initiated a reorganization of the U.S. Forest Service, which includes relocating its headquarters from Washington to Salt Lake City and hundreds of employees with it. The plan would also close some research stations and regional offices as it transitions to state offices.

A judge has put that plan on hold , as well as a wider reorganization of the Agriculture Department that oversees it, amid legal challenges.

At the Park Service, the administration has withheld millions in funding and cut Park Service staff by about a quarter, sometimes leading to long lines, fewer tours and dirty bathrooms at parks.

"When you talk about changing duty stations for example, are they just trying to cripple this agency?" Stierli asked. "Why would you try and sow chaos into an agency that is already stretched well beyond capacity trying to fulfill its mission?"

Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers, which represents current and former Park Service employees, said that agency employees have had to live with the uncertainty and stress that major restructuring might be coming, possibly including layoffs, since the launch of the DOGE Service last year.

Based on the limited information about the current reorganization being considered, "it's too little to try to determine what the impact would be on the service or employees," Wade said.

It is unclear whether the current reorganization plans for the National Park Service had been significantly revised from earlier proposals. Layoff plans last year at the National Park Service, which have not been independently verified by The Post, were ultimately never carried out.

Stierli said that the administration appeared to "pump the brakes" on the plans two months ago, but it may now be feeling a new sense of urgency to restructure the agency with Democrats about to take control of Congress.

"Come January, you're going have a new Congress who's very eager to do oversight and pry into the National Park Service to look and see how staff are being organized, where is the budget for the Park Service going," Stierli said.

In spending bills, congressional Democrats could write in provisions demanding approval over any restructuring in agencies, or at least to be notified, he said.

"We're certainly hopeful that Congress uses this oversight power here, because I think what's highly unusual is there's been zero transparency," Stierli added. "When there is zero transparency, it creates this confusion."