The National Park Service will lose almost 40 percent of its annual funding and surrender an undetermined amount of federally-run parks to state control—if the White House’s plans for 2026 come to fruition.
On Friday, President Donald Trump released his t for 2026, a 44-page document submitted to U.S. Congress that outlines how the government will allocate federal dollars next year.
Included in the document are dramatic upheavals to the Park Service. Currently the NPS operates 63 National Parks and 433 NPS sites, which include national historic sites, national monuments, battlefields, memorials, parkways, rivers, and reserves. In total, the NPS oversees 85 million acres of federal land.
“The National Park Service responsibilities include a large number of sites that are not ‘National Parks,’ in the traditionally understood sense, many of which receive small numbers of mostly local visitors and are better categorized and managed as State-level parks,” the document states. “The Budget would continue supporting many national treasures, but there is an urgent need to streamline staffing and transfer certain properties to State-level management to ensure the long-term health and sustainment of the National Park System.”
The document did not specify which sites would be transferred to state control.
The NPS cuts in the president’s budget total $1.2 billion, and include $900 million removed from the NPS operating budget, $77 million in National Recreation and Preservation grants, $73 million in construction costs. Also set to be cut is $158 million from the NPS Historic Preservation Fund.
“Many historic preservation projects have matching funds from State, local, and private sources, rendering the Historic Preservation Fund highly duplicative,” the document states.
For 2025, the NPS is receiving $3.1 billion in federal funding, a 6 percent decrease from 2024. Trimming $1.2 billion represents a 38 percent cut of the NPS budget and approximately five hundredths of a percent of the annual federal budget.
ԹϺ reached out to the Interior Department for comment. “We do not comment on personnel matters but please know the Department of the Interior is doing the work necessary to ensure that every visitor has the chance to explore and connect with the incredible, iconic spaces of our national parks,” a department spokesperson said. “We hope that people plan their trips ahead and we look forward to a successful summer filled with memorable and meaningful experiences for all.”
The news prompted spirited replies from nonprofit groups and foundations that work alongside the National Park Service.
“This is the most extreme, unrealistic and destructive National Park Service budget a President has ever proposed in the agency’s 109-year history,” said Theresa Pierno, the National Park Conservation Association’s president and CEO, said in a release. “It’s nothing less than an all-out assault on America’s national parks.”
Emily Thompson, executive director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, called the plan “disastrous.”
“Many states don’t have the resources to maintain these parks and the federal government walking away from their responsibility would result in closed parks, safety risks, trails that are not maintained, and far fewer park rangers,” . “This will be disastrous for not just visitors and resources, but local economies who depend on park tourism as economic drivers. Congress should reject this proposal outright.”
The budget request comes after the White House has already made major cuts to the NPS workforce. In February, the federal government terminated 1,000 full-time NPS employees, and in the weeks afterward offered buyouts to 750 others.