National park workers see credit cards frozen with sudden limit

A watchdog organization is reporting a freeze.

Mar 6, 2025 - 17:39

National park workers see credit cards frozen with sudden limit

Just as many other government agencies, the National Park Service saw a large part of its workforce gutted as part of the Trump administration's moves to shrink the federal government.

Over 3,400 U.S. Forest Service and NPS probationary workers were suddenly terminated last Valentine's Day and while a small number responsible for cleanup and emergency response later had their jobs restored, the cuts have already started seeping into every aspect of the park-visiting experience.

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'Essentially useless': watchdog agency speaks of employee card freeze

Parks such as Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion, Rainier, Saguaro and Great Smoky Mountains have all reported struggling to keep key services running after losing multiple staff members in the last month.

On March 4, watchdog agency Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) also put out a statement saying that multiple NPS employees with government-issued cards on which they made work-related purchases suddenly saw their credit limit changed to $1.

"Under the new edicts, most government purchase cards cannot be used for expenses of more than one dollar, rendering them essentially useless," the PEER report reads. "Future purchase authority has been confined at the National Park Service to one person for each of the regions which consists of large administrative units that often cover an entire state or several states."

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The watchdog said that the change was instituted as part of Trump's executive order to prioritize "cost efficiency" on all government contracts and programs and places very large limits on spending that was previously authorized and a part of regular operations to keep the parks running.

'Taken by surprise and are themselves grasping for additional guidance'

Now, even the smallest of purchases such as materials for a visitors' center need to be approved by a department head that in many cases is in an office miles away. According to employees that the watchdog agency spoke to, the spending freeze for anyone with a government-issued credit card has been ordered to stay in place for 30 days from Feb. 26.

"It looks like the Trump administration is monkeywrenching government by needlessly disrupting even basic operations," Chandra Rosenthal, a PEER director for Rocky Mountain National Park, said in a statement. "The individual Interior agencies, such as the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management, have been taken by surprise and are themselves grasping for additional guidance."

With the ongoing cuts to services, many former and current NPS workers have been speaking out about both the emotional toll of being abruptly left unemployed and the impact to some of the country's most treasured public lands.

"I am absolutely heartbroken and completely devastated to have lost my dream job of an Education Park Ranger with the National Park Service this Valentine's Day," Brian Gibbs, a longtime ranger who last worked at Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa, wrote in a post that ended up going viral across multiple platforms. "Access to my government email was denied mid-afternoon and my position was ripped out from out under my feet after my shift was over at 3:45 p.m. on a cold snowy Friday."