As the national park system turns 110 years old today, the parks’ biggest advocates are asking Americans to do more than just celebrate.
Several organizations dedicated to public lands are using National Parks Week, which runs until Friday, Aug. 28, to highlight growing threats to the country’s parks. They’re encouraging Americans to contact their representatives in Congress and sign petitions for adequate funding of national parks and public lands.
Since Jan. 2025, the National Park Service has endured some of the biggest funding cuts in history. It has lost nearly 25% of its workforce under the Trump administration. Many parks and wilderness areas have been opened to mining and resource development. Just last week, Big Bend National Park lost some of its most critical habitat to border wall construction.
To save what historian Wallace Stegner called “America’s best idea,” the nation’s parks supporters must raise their voices and demand that Congress take action, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) said this week.
“Park lovers everywhere are joining us to speak up and call for an end to the devastating attacks that are wreaking havoc on the National Park Service,” the organization said this week.
A Historic Reversal of Land Protections
Over the last year and a half, attacks on public lands have become so common that it’s difficult to keep track of them. But the National Park Service (NPS) remains the most trusted agency in the federal government among most Americans, according to public polls.
As a result, more than two-thirds of Americans have rejected the drastic cuts to park budgets this administration has pursued, according to a national NPCA survey. And while Trump is behind many of those cuts (he’s the only president in U.S. history to have removed protections for more public lands than he has protected), Congress has aided President Trump in many cases.
It’s a major shift from decades of bipartisan support for public lands, so the NPCA is asking parks supporters to remind Congress that Americans want their parks protected.
What You Can Do for National Parks
There are several initiatives this week aimed at galvanizing support for public lands and — most importantly — telling Congress to protect them.
For starters, you can simply visit one of the country’s 63 national parks. The national parks are all free to enter today, and the NPS has planned several activities throughout the week, such as Watch Wildlife Wednesday and Junior Ranger Day on Sunday.
But groups like the NPCA are also planning demonstrations under the banner of a “Day of Action.” The organization is also asking for supporters to sign a petition urging Congress to protect the national parks.
What You Can Do for All Public Lands
While the national parks are certainly loved, they actually represent only 13% of all public land in the United States. And there are many examples of public lands that face even graver threats. Those include a planned rescission of the Roadless Rule, which would remove protections from 45 million acres of national forests, and a reduction in protections for national monuments like Grand Staircase–Escalante, Bears Ears, and Chaco Culture National Historic Park.
That’s why the NPS’s birthday celebration on Tuesday marks another big announcement: the launch of Save Public Lands. This national campaign — launched by a coalition of recreation organizations, legacy conservation groups, media companies, and public lands advocates — aims to get 1 million signatures on a letter demanding that Congress stop attempting to sell off public lands or give pieces of them to private developers. The petition will be delivered to lawmakers in Washington, D.C., and state capitals across the country before National Public Lands Day on Sept. 26.
Save Public Lands grew out of last summer’s grassroots response to Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee’s proposed public land sales. Hunters, anglers, climbers, hikers, conservationists, outdoor businesses, and Americans across the political spectrum mobilized against his efforts to sell federal public lands.
“We don’t all agree on everything or vote the same, but collectively the greater community of hundreds of millions of recreationists has had enough of the repeated attacks on our country’s greatest shared resource — our public lands and waters,” says Paul Hendricks, Executive Director of the Conservation Alliance.
“Today, we gather around three demands of elected officials. No more public land fire sales. No more giveaways to foreign companies and billionaires. No more backroom deals that take everyday people out of the process.”
