President Donald Trump’s mass firing of federal workers hit Acadia National Park, a local nonprofit group said Tuesday.
Eight full-time staff at the national park that mostly lies on Maine’s Mount Desert Island were laid off Friday amid the Trump administration firing more than 10,000 federal workers across multiple agencies, according to Friends of Acadia, a nonprofit conservation group that raises money to support Maine’s only national park.
The eight staff collected fees at entrances and helped maintain more than 150 miles of trails, Friends of Acadia spokesperson Perrin Doniger said Tuesday. Acadia has previously reported having about 90 permanent employees along with 150 or so seasonal workers.
The layoffs affecting one of Maine’s top tourist attractions that has seen nearly or more than 4 million annual visitors in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic are one example of how Trump and his “government efficiency” czar Elon Musk are continuing to affect a vast array of federal agencies and workers as part of their rapid cost-cutting efforts.
A National Park Service spokesperson did not immediately provide comment Tuesday afternoon but said she was working on responding to a reporter’s request for more information.
Trump’s federal hiring freeze has also drawn concerns from Acadia supporters over whether it would affect seasonal positions. Acadia typically fills more than 100 seasonal positions each year to deal with the massive influx of visitors during the core tourism season. The park is perennially among the 10 most visited in the country.
Federal judges have paused numerous controversial orders Trump has issued since returning to the White House, but last week’s firings appear set for now. They reportedly affected about 1,000 National Park Service workers and 800 Bureau of Land Management employees in total.
Maine’s congressional delegation said they have struggled to obtain more information on the full scope of the changes and firings. Maine has more than 12,000 federal employees, with the vast majority working for the Navy under the U.S. Department of Defense.
U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat whose 2nd District includes Acadia, said Tuesday his office is “facing roadblocks getting the kind of up-to-date information about the impact on Maine that we would normally expect from the executive branch, but we are tracking it down.”
