National Parks scramble to fill top leadership positions, but fix could create more vacancies

The National Park Service is scrambling to fill top-level leadership positions at posts throughout the country, launching a new initiative to fill dozens of vacant roles that some inside the agency fear will only create new openings at other sites. 

Dubbed “Operation Opportunity,” NPS is soliciting applications for openings at the superintendent, deputy superintendent and chief of facilities level at a variety of park locations. Due to an ongoing governmentwide hiring freeze, however, the positions are only open to internal applicants within the Interior Department. 

That will limit those qualified for the lateral moves to employees already working in similar roles, according to a source involved in the initiative, meaning anyone who takes one of the jobs would be very likely creating a similar vacancy elsewhere within NPS. The vacancies currently being filled have been deemed high priority positions and are categorized at or among the top ranks of the civil service. 

Among the open positions are the superintendents for the National Parks of Big Bend, Glacier Bay and White Sands, the deputy superintendent for Glacier and Indiana Dunes and the chief of facilities at Yosemite. The list includes top openings at a myriad of additional national historic and other NPS sites, such as Martin Luther King National Historic Park in Atlanta. 

The number of vacancies among the top ranks at parks is expected to grow once those who accepted “deferred resignations”—and are currently sitting on administrative leave through September—are officially off the rolls. 

The source familiar with the initiative voiced concern that due to the nature of the internal postings—Operation Opportunity is open only for “lateral reassignments"—the only people who would be qualified are those “who are at the level and already have the experience.” If they are accepted into the positions, their existing roles would then become vacant. Operation Opportunity originally launched in April, but agency leadership has “chaotically” asked HR to quickly post the dozens of park leadership positions. The urgency of the directive reflected a newfound pressure to fill the roles, the source said. 

An Interior spokesperson said Government Executive was seeking to "skew the creation of new job opportunities for the American people."

"The department is thrilled to be posting and filling new positions at our treasured national parks," the spokesperson said. "This administration is committed to expanding the workforce and investing in our beautiful parks - which are open and ready to visit!"

The agency is also dealing with staffing issues at the rank-and-file level. As of last month, the National Parks Conservation Association found NPS staffing was down 13% overall since President Trump took office. It also found that while Burgum pledged to hire as many as 7,700 seasonal employees for the peak summer season, NPS had onboarded just 3,300. That hiring was delayed as seasonal staff were initially subject to the hiring freeze. NPCA found there were around 100 total vacant superintendent positions. 

The source familiar with the initiative noted that seasonal hiring has been hampered by Trump administration policies.

“Positions which were super easy to fill last year have had bone dry applicant pools and tons of declinations because people are scared to take a federal job,” the source said, or because they “don’t want to work for this administration.” 

The agency is also expected to lay off around 1,500 employees if the Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to move forward with its planned reductions in force, though Burgum has insisted the cuts will not impact park operations and has demanded that no park can reduce its hours or services without headquarters approval. 

During congressional testimony earlier this month, Burgum reiterated to lawmakers that layoffs would not affect parks and said superintendent openings were being filled on a temporary basis. 

“We're trying to cut jobs that aren't in parks,” the secretary said to Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo. “And if there's a vacancy to superintendent [positions], we fill it with the deputy. So it's incorrect for you to say that we have—we have vacancies because when a superintendent takes early retirement, superintendents are at the end of their career.” 

Theresa Pierno, NPCA’s president, said Burgum was being dishonest in his testimony.

“Secretary Burgum’s narrative doesn’t match the reality unfolding in our parks,” Pierno said. “The Park Service is in a full-blown staffing crisis.