From the Grand Canyon to Yosemite and the ancient trees of Alaska’s Tongass, President Donald Trump has pledged to make America’s federal nature reserves “beautiful again.” National parks are part of more than 600 million acres (243 million hectares) of US public lands that include forests, deserts, waterways and wildlife refuges — “some of the most ecologically intact and biodiverse lands in the country,” says Jenny Rowland-Shea, director of public lands policy at the Center for American Progress.
Critics argue those landscapes are threatened by steep budget cuts and environmental rollbacks that open them to resource extraction. In May 2025 the administration proposed cutting nearly $1 billion (€860 million) from the National Park Service budget, a reduction park advocates warn could force hundreds of sites to close or sharply scale back services. Rowland-Shea says weakening the Park Service under the guise of “government efficiency” has made parks “less safe, less clean, less accessible, and more crowded than ever before.”
Two months after announcing cuts, Trump signed an executive order to “improve” national parks that praised inspiring natural areas while criticizing “land-use restrictions” that, the order said, have “stripped hunters, fishers, hikers, and outdoorsmen of access to public lands that belong to them.” Conservationists fear the framing signals a broader shift to open more federally managed lands to mining, drilling and logging.
The national park network remains hugely popular. In 2024 the parks set a record with about 332 million visitors who spent roughly $29 billion in nearby communities. A November 2025 YouGov poll found 69% of Americans oppose the proposed National Park Service cuts. A bipartisan Senate budget bill rejected the cuts in January, though language that would have guaranteed parks remain public lands was removed — leaving advocates warning of vulnerability to potential sell-offs. “Protecting our national parks is a bipartisan issue,” said Theresa Pierno, then-president of the National Parks Conservation Association. “Nobody asked for reckless cuts to park staffing or the gutting of our shared heritage.”
More than 40% of US public lands have long been open to oil, gas, coal and mineral extraction; the federal mineral estate produces roughly 15% of domestic oil and 9% of gas. The Trump administration has sought to “unleash” more American energy on public lands by rolling back what it calls ideologically motivated environmental and climate regulations, including a proposal to end the 2024 Public Lands Rule that aimed to balance extraction with conservation.
Rowland-Shea says the administration’s actions are “largely aimed at weakening protections” and valuing lands by their extractive and market potential. In March 2025 the White House ordered a significant increase in domestic “mineral production” on federal lands and identified large swaths for fast-tracked mining leases for critical minerals such as copper, uranium and gold. The administration has opened millions of acres of public land and water to oil drilling and coal mining, and overturned a rule that had prohibited logging and road construction, framing the change as allowing “responsible” timber production and “fire prevention.”
Environmental researchers note the policy echoes moves from Trump’s first term. In 2017 millions of acres were removed from protected status and made available for logging and mining — including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments — and oil and gas leasing on public lands surged. Stephen Nash, an environmental researcher at the University of Richmond, warns that while major national parks may be relatively safe from large-scale extraction, the broader portfolio of public lands — national forests and wildlife preserves — faces severe degradation. “Those other public lands are even more crucial as habitat for our rapidly disappearing wildlife,” he says, noting many species will need these lands as they shift ranges in response to rising temperatures.
Protected areas also play roles beyond preservation: reintroduced American bison in parks like Yellowstone help restore ecosystems, and parks have been important venues for educating the public about climate impacts. But in February the administration forced park service staff to remove or censor exhibits that convey scientific information about climate change, mirroring earlier removals of the word “climate” from government websites. Instead, the administration emphasizes eliminating “impediments” to “responsible forest management” — a phrase conservationists say amounts to immediate exploitation. “The only natural resources they esteem are the ones they can extract and sell,” Nash said. Edited by: Jennifer Collins and Tamsin Walker