National Parks and Forest Service Campgrounds

[wfrone]

Hi Everyone
We have been following the seasonal hiring practices for the national camping services. The canceling of all the seasonal hires for 2025 is definitely a serious issue for us. Almost all of the campgrounds that we visit are NOT taking reservations or posting opening dates.
We believe that is is because there is no staff for them. They are dependent almost entirely upon seasonal employees that have not been hired.

Does anyone have any encouraging information in this area?
Regards
Bill and Carole

[TruckinRound]

Al I know is that on Recreation.gov it’s still business as usual for the rolling 6 month reservation windows and lottos. This week they emailed reminders for my upcoming Yosemite reservations in May.

An absence of seasonal job listings is probably in anticipation of the government hitting. the debt limit and shutting down again. Hopefully congress can get it together in time or maybe DOGE will find enough cost savings to kick the can a bit further down the road.

[Gravelette]

There is nothing encouraging to say about this foolishness.

[StarkNaked]

I guess I'm not seeing any problems so far with recreation.gov.

I already have reservations for campgrounds in 4 National Parks. Waiting to see if I can add one more when the opening dates comes around.

Everything appears normal to me. I currently have about 10 reservations on recreation.gov coming up.

What are the campgrounds that you are having trouble making reservations?

[twogypsies]

Originally Posted by StarkNaked

What are the campgrounds that you are having trouble making reservations?

I'd also like to know what campgrounds you're talking about. Did they previously accept reservations?

[Tomahawk]

A few months ago, I saw an issue on Recreation.gov.
If something seems wrong, contact them.
In January, my favorite campground near Sequoia National Park was booked solid for the days that were available to reserve. I consider this usual and started looking at the other campgrounds nearby. I noticed none of them were allowing booking, even though they should have been (season should have started and booking window should have been open). I contacted Recreation.gov to ask why these other campgrounds were not taking reservations. I got an email back a few days later that said "the opening day of the season had not been determined by third party operator". I think that was complete BS. I think someone at Recreation.gov or the third party screwed up and forgot to set the season open date. The next day, the five campgrounds that had been not taking reservations, opened their booking windows. The windows opened such that dates that were now only 5 months in the future were also opened, which furthers my belief it was an error. I am taking credit (in my mind) for alerting them to their error. I ended up getting a spot at my favorite campground, when they changed the opening date for it to sometime in May. When I initially looked opening day was 6/7 but they changed it to some time in May and I was able to book 5/27 to 6/1.

[wfrone]

Hi


You may well have reservations, but not sure about the staff. ALL of the seasonal workers are not being currently rehired. Check it out. And the permanent staff have been offered buyouts. No numbers on how many have been accepted.


Farewell Bend, Oregon
Bull River, Idaho


Both of these are entirely operated by seasonal employees.


The national parks have rangers, but its hard to see how they will operate without the seasonal support staff. Ever see a ranger emptying trash, much less driving a garbage truck?


I hope this does not play out as we foresee.


Regards Bill

[hamm2018]

Several years ago, Ohio offered a buyout to state employees with at least 28 years of service time. The thought was to get rid of higher end salaries and replace with cheaper salaries for the same positions. The process was if you had 28-29 years of service the State would give you credit time to 30 years retirement.

For example, a captain with 29 years was making about $40/hr. They took the buyout, a replacement captain would start out at $30/hr., a difference of $400/week, right? Well, what they didn't take into account was replacing the captain, the lieutenant, and hiring a new officer to replace the promotions to lieutenant.

Probably looking at the same thing/thought process here. Some services will be limited during the process but remains to be seen what is affected.

[wfrone]

"Probably looking at the same thing/thought process here. Some services will be limited during the process but remains to be seen what is affected."

We should know more after the turn of the month.
Time runneth out.
Regards, and Best Wishes
Bill

[wfrone]

https://www.sfgate.com/california-pa...s-20163260.php

[Donskiman]

Getting the axe at the forest service. No idea how camping will be impacted.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/0...oyees-00204213

[wfrone]

Hi Forward Planners
Given the "meat ax" approach, with no regard for the preexisting staff levels, we expect most forest service campgrounds not to open, or will open with continuously deteriorating conditions. We also expect conditions at the national parks to collapse to the point where many will need to be closed for the remainder of the season. The park service has been short personal for years and this is going to encourage many senior park personnel to retire, further aggravating the situation.
We would love to be wrong, and will "eat crow" if we are, but we have already put our spring and summer travel plans on hold. Our 1 Cent opinion.
Regards
Bill and Carols

[Dieselboy]

If someone had a list of campgrounds that typically take reservations at this point of the year vs. those that aren't now, that would be great.

[TruckinRound]

As reported by sfgate, the sky will falling soon. Please cancel all Yosemite campsite reservations accordingly so they can go back into the available inventory. Help the less fortunate that get shut out each year after waking up early to sign into recreation.gov at 6:50am

Thanks for your cooperation.