The Trump Administration’s Effect on National Parks

Ollie McSweeny, Treasurer of The State Times

Since January 2025, the Trump administration has dismantled protections and lessened conservation protections on over 86 million acres of public lands in the United States. Protections have been removed from land in Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Nevada, Minnesota, and North Dakota.

These areas are now at risk for damaging mining projects. This past June, Trump also ceased protections on the last three Pacific Ocean national monuments, so now over 300 million acres are available for commercial fishing. This has sparked outrage amongst wildlife conservationist communities and national park lovers alike. There have been massive funding cuts to the National Park Service staff as well.

The Grand Canyon, one of the nations most beloved National Parks, has recently been opened up for uranium mining. The Grand Canyon started forming approximately 5 to 6 million years ago. The United States started conserving the Grand Canyon in 1893, and it has been under federal protection for the last 133 years. That is over half of the amount of time the United States has been established as a country. Uranium mining could threaten the surrounding area’s water supply, on top of the general damage it would cause to a beloved and ancient national monument.

Some Parks that have been and will be affected are as follows; Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah; Big Bend National Park in Texas; Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming; Yosemite National Park in California; Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in the Atlantic Ocean.