The Brief

National parks across the U.S. are bearing down on an uncertain season, as federal layoffs and staffing shortages threaten many of the services they provide for their millions of annual visitors, from reservations to cleanup to education.

The National Park Service (NPS) laid off some 1,000 employees on Feb. 14, just weeks before the start of the busy season in many of the country's 63 national parks.

The layoffs, which targeted probationary workers, are part of a broader effort by President Trump and adviser Elon Musk to downsize the federal workforce. NPS officials have testified that the agency was already understaffed — the number of full-time employees dropped by about 15% between 2011 and 2022, forcing some visitor facilities to close or limit their hours.

A bit of welcome news came later that week when the Trump administration gave the NPS permission to fill temporary seasonal positions that had been paused due to the federal hiring freeze. The agency is allowed to fill a total of 7,700 positions — higher than the three-year average of 6,350 — according to a memo obtained by NPR.

"Now that's really good news," said Bill Wade, the executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers and a retired superintendent of Shenandoah National Park.

"However, it's not without problems, because at this sort of late date and the hiring timetable, I think there's going to be some difficulty getting some of those positions on board in the parks before the summer season hits."

Between the paperwork, background checks, training regimens and housing searches, experts worry many seasonal positions won't get filled — in general, let alone by summertime. Busy season varies between parks, though generally runs May through September in colder areas and can start as soon as March in warmer parts of the country.

The influx of seasonal workers can more than double the number of park staff in a typical year, Wade said. And their absence will surely be felt by visitors, since they perform such critical functions.

"They're typically the ones that do the fee collection at the entrance stations during that period of time," he added. "They work in the visitor centers and keep them open and staffed and give the ranger-led programs. They are often the custodians that keep the campgrounds clean and the restrooms clean and pick up the trash."

Kristen Brengel, the senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association — a nonprofit that advocates for the NPS — says these workers take care of visitors in subtle but critical ways, from asking hikers how much water they have to gently making sure people keep a safe distance from wildlife.

They also perform more overt acts of heroism, like performing CPR and rescuing overtaxed hikers from trails, an increasing concern after multiple summers of heat-related deaths in national parks. One study found that the risk of heat-related illness at Grand Canyon National Park — and public lands in general — will only increase as climate change worsens.

"This is just such a sad situation," Brengel said. "We hope the dedication that people have to working in the parks comes through and we can see parks staffed well this summer. But with all the chaos going on, it's just concerning."

With layoffs underway and seasonal workers delayed, some parks are already cutting back on services for now — and worrying about what will happen later.

A sign for an emergency phone in California's Joshua Tree National Park. Job cuts are prompting safety concerns, especially given the number of heat-related deaths in national parks in recent summers.

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Job cuts impact the visitor experience 

The NPS has not publicly confirmed the number or types of jobs lost at specific national parks, nor responded to NPR's requests for comment.

But individuals and organizations affiliated with some parks have spoken out in recent days, beginning to paint a picture of the losses.

Ann Simonelli, a spokesperson for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), told NPR over email that two out of 10 Appalachian Trail full-time staff members were impacted by the layoffs.

She said ATC — a nonprofit that works with the NPS and USDA's Forest Service to oversee the protection and management of the trail, with help from volunteers — is pausing all seasonal hiring "until we see what happens with the federal budget." That includes the crews that have been repairing the nearly 500 miles of the trail damaged by Hurricane Helene, work she said requires approval and oversight from agency partners.

Congress has to pass a funding bill by March 14 to avert a government shutdown.

Farther north, Friends of Acadia — the philanthropic partner of Acadia National Park in Maine — says job cuts and hiring delays have added new layers of uncertainty to the park's summer plans.

Eric Stiles, the organization's president and chief executive, told NPR that eight probationary park staffers were laid off: four fee collectors, two who worked on trails, an administrator who coordinated land management and a visual information specialist.

On top of that, he said fears of future rounds of layoffs, as well as the delay in seasonal staff, are cutting into the park's ability to prepare for its busy season since it doesn't know what its workforce will look like.

"I can't tell you what summer visitors at Acadia — what that experience is going to be like," he said. "I can't tell you if the campgrounds are going to be open. I can't tell you if the reservation system for Cadillac [Mountain] is going to be up and running. I can't tell you if trails are going to be closed, because if there's a dead tree overhanging a trail, you need highly skilled, certified folks that might be able to climb and drop a tree with a chainsaw."

Across the country, some fired parks staff members have weighed in on the consequences for park visitors, from loss of wildlife protection to unclean bathrooms to a lack of rangers who can keep hikers safe.

Nate Vince, who said he was Yosemite's only locksmith, wrote in a now-viral Instagram post that he was terminated on Valentine's Day — losing his housing along with his job — with what he said are potentially dangerous repercussions.

"Yosemite National Park [is] the size of Rhode Island and has more locks than a small city, and without a locksmith I'm deeply concerned for the safety and security of the park and people in it," Vince wrote. "This is not right!"

Vehicles wait in line at an entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park on Sunday. It's not clear how many park staff lost their jobs, but Arizona's governor has expressed concern about the economic impact of the layoffs.

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Some parks are already making adjustments 

Disruptions are already being felt at some park sites.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado posted on Facebook that as of this week, it is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, "due to a lack of staffing."

Saguaro National Park in Arizona says its visitor centers will be closed on Mondays until further notice. Yosemite National Park announced it is delaying reservation bookings at five of its popular campgrounds, affecting reservations in June and July.

Responding to reports of staffing shortages causing wait times twice as long as usual at the Grand Canyon last weekend, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs called it "a slap in the face for Arizonans and all who love to come here." (The Grand Canyon National Park referred comment to the NPS.)

"The Trump administration's removal of essential workers undermines our economy and ability to showcase one of the greatest natural wonders of the world," Hobbs tweeted.

National parks play a vital economic role throughout the country. Some 325 million visitors spent an estimated $26.4 billion in local "gateway regions" in 2023 alone, according to NPS. Those expenditures supported 415,000 jobs and created $55.6 billion in economic output in the national economy, it adds.

When asked about safety and economic concerns, J. Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson for the Department of the Interior, told NPR that the park service — which it houses — is hiring seasonal workers "to continue enhancing the visitor experience as we embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation in workforce management."

"We are focused on ensuring that every visitor has the chance to explore and connect with the incredible, iconic spaces of our national parks," she added. "As always, NPS will continue to provide critical services and deliver excellent customer service."

Visitors admire the "firefall effect" on El Capitan during sunset at Horsetail Fall in Yosemite National Park, California, last week. Busy season starts in May for Yosemite and many other parks.

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What park-lovers — and potential visitors — can do

The experts NPR spoke with all encouraged potential visitors not to cancel their park vacation plans just yet, but urged caution and flexibility given all of the uncertainties.

Brengel, with the National Parks Conservation Association, said people should try to take fewer risks as they venture outside.

"If you don't think you can do the hike, don't do it this year," she said. "Stay out of the direct sunlight, bring lots of water, make sure your footwear is good. ... Just really do your homework before you come in because there may be fewer people to help you once you get there."

Wade, the retired NPS superintendent now with the Association of National Park Rangers, recommends visitors keep checking on their reservations as their trip gets closer since services like guided tours could be suspended.

"They need to check ahead of time and they need to probably be a little bit patient with some of the impacts that they might see, like maybe restrooms not cleaned as as frequently, visitor center hours, trash pick-up, some of those things that they might see now or in the early part of the summer that they wouldn't normally see," he added.

The hope, he said, is that things will run more smoothly as more seasonal positions get filled in the weeks and months ahead. The big question, Wade added, is what happens at the end of the summer when those positions are terminated.

"We don't know what the ultimate outcome of staffing is going to be after the summer season or after those seasonals leave," Wade said. "There are rumors that downsizing is not over yet. ... And so it's a very unsettling time for people in the parks right now."

Wade said the most helpful thing concerned visitors can do is lobby their elected representatives to reverse the layoffs — which some Virginia lawmakers have already asked the Trump administration to do.

A 2024 Pew Research Center poll showed that the park service had the most favorable rating of any government agency at 76%, with strong support from a majority of both Democrats and Republicans.

"This is not a partisan matter. This is not a political matter," said Stiles, with Friends of Acadia. "This is really about the foundational experience of participating, learning from, recreating in the best America has to offer by way of our natural treasures and cultural treasures."

Stiles believes most Americans value and cherish the national parks system, which was the first in the world when it started in 1872 and has been crowned "America's best idea." And he said that while there is a conversation to be had about how to make it more efficient, that's not what is happening now.

"You don't treat America's best idea with a sledgehammer," he said.

Copyright 2025 NPR

We're in for another warm and sunny day in SoCal.

Daytime highs for the beaches will reach the mid-70s and up to the low 80s more inland. Downtown L.A. will see temperatures up to 83 degrees.

Temperatures for the valley communities and the Inland Empire will reach the mid-80s. The western San Fernando Valley will see temps in the upper 80s, up to 89 degrees for Woodland Hills.

In Coachella Valley, expect another day with highs in the 90s, up to 96 degrees.

Friday is expected to be the warmest day of the week.

Newly released data from the city show that Los Angeles police officers use minor traffic stops as a way to investigate Black and Latino people on suspicion of committing a more serious crime at a higher rate than their share of the citywide population.

The LAPD adopted a policy about so-called pretextual stops and began tracking the practice in 2022.

In a report released at the end of January, the city’s chief legislative analyst found that Black people were involved in nearly 31% of pretextual stops conducted by LAPD officers between spring 2022 and fall 2025. According to 2023 Census estimates, Black people make up 8% of the city’s population.

According to the report, "Hispanic/Latino" people, who make up just less than half the city’s population, were the subjects of 56% of pretextual stops.

That analysis, along with a separate report by LAPD, found that of the more than 760,000 people involved in traffic stops between spring of 2022 and fall of 2025, 9% to 10% of them were stopped pretextually.

Chauncee Smith, an associate director of the racial justice-focused nonprofit Catalyst California, said LAPD’s data is “under inclusive” since it relies on officers subjectively deciding when a stop is pretextual.

He said an analysis of data from Catalyst California, published in February, demonstrates that pretextual stops don’t result in evidence discovery enough to make up for the negative impacts of the practice.

“It's affecting the lives of many Black and Latinx Angelenos on an everyday basis,” Smith said, adding that pretextual stops often result in harassment, dehumanization and excessive ticketing or fining of communities of color.

Pretextual stops 

Police sometimes use violations of the vehicle code to stop drivers and investigate them for a more serious crime unrelated to the traffic stop, such as possessing drugs or firearms, according to Deepak Premkumar, a research fellow for the Public Policy Institute of California.

 ”Law enforcement officers see tons of violations, and we give them a lot of discretion to determine who they should stop and when,” Premkumar told LAist.

A plausible example of what a pretextual stop could look like is if police see a car matching the description of one that was involved in a crime in the area, then pull that car over for a broken taillight, Premkumar said.

The policy the LAPD adopted in 2022 outlines that officers:

• Can only conduct pretextual stops as long as they are “acting upon articulable information” that the person is close to a serious crime that’s worth investigating. 
• Should minimize stops for minor equipment violations, such as broken taillights, unless the violation “interferes with public safety.”
• State the reason for the stop, whether pretextual or not, while their body-worn cameras are filming.

Despite the adoption of the policy, Catalyst California’s analysis found that the proportion of all officer-initiated stops that are for minor traffic violations has “remained relatively constant since 2019.”

Racial disparities

The analysis from the city’s chief legislative analyst included a comparison of pretextual stop rates for different ethnic and racial groups in L.A. compared to their share of the citywide population.

The analysis found that "Hispanic/Latino" and Black people were overrepresented in data on pretextual stops compared to their share of the population.

L.A. Police Capt. Shannon White drafted the department’s report of the same data, which did not include an ethnic or racial breakdown of those involved in pretextual stops.

At a Los Angeles Police Commission Meeting in February, when she presented the department’s analysis, White said Census estimates for the city don’t necessarily align with “the actual breakdown of our suspects of crime,” who, theoretically, are the subjects of pretextual stops.

“When you look at the actual breakdown of our suspects of crime…what you will find is that they skew towards communities of color for various societal reasons,” White said.

According to the LAPD’s analysis, people in Central and South L.A. were subjects of pretextual at higher rates than in the Valley and West L.A.

Some commissioners at the meeting questioned that disparity.

“Something just doesn't add up,” Commission President Teresa Sánchez-Gordon said. “Is it racial profiling? Is that bias? Implicit, explicit bias that's in the report?”

Discovery rates

The police’s analysis found that searches during pretextual stops yielded contraband, such as firearms and other weapons or drugs, in about every 3 in 10 cases. “Narco-related” evidence is what’s most commonly found in the searches.

Catalyst California’s report looked more specifically at different kinds of searches and how likely they are to lead to evidence discovery.

The nonprofit found that since 2022, when officers used consent-only searches during stops for minor traffic violations, they discovered evidence 3% to 10% of the time. The rate was similarly low when the person stopped was on parole or probation.

According to Catalyst California’s analysis, the type of search most likely to lead to discovery of evidence is when there’s an existing search or arrest warrant for the person stopped.

“This was likely because they occurred in situations when there was a higher likelihood of a significant violation, beyond mere pretext,” the nonprofit's researchers wrote.

California schools lost more than $2.2 million in state funding over two years because some students did not have all the vaccinations required by state law, according to data obtained by EdSource from the California State Controller’s Office. 

The loss of average daily attendance funding was the result of state audits of more than 1,000 public schools, where more than 10% of kindergartners or seventh grade students were not fully vaccinated in 2023 and 2024. After the state investigated, schools in 72 of those districts lost some funding.

Los Angeles Unified, the state’s largest school district, with over 400,000 students, lost $324,055 in average daily attendance funding in 2023 and 2024, the two years reviewed by EdSource. The district had a budget of about $19 billion in both years.

The lost funds account for 22.1 days of attendance, including about three-quarters of a day, worth roughly $8,000, from a charter school, according to data from the State Controller’s Office.

San Francisco Unified, with about 50,000 students, was penalized about the same amount — $315,775. The district lost 26 days of daily attendance funding in those two years.

Oakland Unified lost $155,347 of attendance funding combined in 2023 and 2024 because it could not verify it was in full compliance with state vaccination requirements, according to documents provided by the district.

Even small school districts lost large chunks of state funding over the two years because of vaccination mandates. Snowline Joint Unified in San Bernardino County, which has about 8,000 students, lost 15.6 days of attendance funding worth $195,390. Ojai Unified in Ventura County, a school district of about 2,000 students, lost 14 days of funding, worth $166,993.

Because of the state’s complicated school funding system, the amounts schools receive and potentially can lose per student varies.

California law requires students to be immunized against 10 serious communicable diseases. Proof of immunization is required in kindergarten and seventh grade, as well as upon entering child care, transitional kindergarten, or when transferring schools from out of state. Schools lose attendance funding for the amount of time each year that each student is not fully vaccinated.

Districts must plan to improve

Last year, 428 schools were identified as having low vaccination rates and are being audited by the state. Los Angeles Unified, San Francisco Unified, Oakland Unified and Ojai Unified are among the districts that remain on the audit list.

Districts found to be out of compliance are required to develop a corrective action plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again, according to officials at the California Department of Education.

San Francisco Unified has taken steps to ensure the district complies with state vaccination law, said Laura Dudnick, director of communications.

The district has changed its enrollment process to require that immunization records and tuberculosis clearances be submitted in advance, so health workers can review them. During the application cycle for the upcoming school year, families are notified monthly of missing requirements, a move that is expected to reduce last-minute enrollment barriers and increase overall immunization compliance, Dudnick said.

“We take this responsibility seriously and appreciate the families who have worked with us to obtain required immunizations for their children,” she said. “We are working diligently to ensure students are immunized as required by law.”

Los Angeles Unified is hosting vaccination clinics and health fairs to provide immunizations and health services, and educating families on the importance of vaccinations, according to district officials. Health teams are also identifying barriers to vaccination and connecting families to resources.

“The health and safety of our students is our highest priority,” the district said in a statement sent to EdSource. “In response to the state vaccination audit, the district has deployed targeted outreach and support for the identified schools. We have maintained an overall district-wide immunization compliance rate of 98% since the audit.”

California offers exemptions for children in special education, home-based private schools and for medical reasons. But in 2015, the state Legislature added more oversight to medical exemptions, requiring the California Department of Public Health to review exemptions at schools with an immunization rate of less than 95%, or if a doctor has written more than five exemptions in a year.

Measles cases soaring

The 2015 decision came after a major measles outbreak at Disneyland. Now, measles cases are on the rise again, with 982 cases reported in the U.S. so far this year.

Measles cases in California have been racing upward as well, from four cases in 2023 to 25 in 2025. This year, there have already been 19 reported cases of measles in the state, according to the California Department of Public Health. Los Angeles County alone has had four measles cases reported since Jan. 30.

“The MMR vaccine is the safest and most reliable way to prevent measles and protect yourself, your family, and your community,” said Los Angeles County Health Officer Muntu Davis in a statement. “Measles spreads easily and can lead to serious complications, including pneumonia, brain swelling, and even death.”

Six comedic improvisers, dozens of fuzzy puppets and limitless possibilities.

That pretty much sums up Puppet Up! Uncensored, which combines the style of puppetry originated by Jim Henson with improvisational comedy games fueled by audience prompts.

The performers don’t shy away from adult themes, so it can lean a little raunchy, earning this particular cast of puppets the group title of “miskreants.”

The "miskreant" puppets from "Puppet Up!"

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The world lost Jim Henson in 1990, but many artists, including his own children, have kept both the craft and the business going. Son and accomplished puppeteer Brian Henson is chairman of the L.A.-based Jim Henson Company and creator of Puppet Up! Uncensored.

While no “Muppets” are included in the show, the production does include recreations of several original Jim Henson puppets from early in his career interspersed with others from previous Henson productions and some more recent creations made for Puppet Up! specifically.

“They're really old,” Henson said. “It's super fun to rebuild those puppets and actually perform those scenes in front of a live audience. That hasn't happened in 40, 50 years probably.”

Behind the scenes takes center stage

Puppet Up! is really two shows at once.

On top of being a mash-up of sketches, hosted by director and co-creator Patrick Bristow, the audience actually gets to see how it all happens.

The Henson style of puppetry, from design to performance, is tailored for the camera, but in Puppet Up! Uncensored, audience members see both a staged-for-screen performance on video projection, and all the puppeteers' work that’s usually hidden from view, including the performers’ faces when things go awry.

“It's really fun to let people see how we do it because it's clever and it's chaotic,” Henson said. “It also means our audience watches the show in a kind of very different way.”

Bringing it all out into view allows the audience to connect with performers who are usually behind the scenes. “ It sort of just gives it a double layer of entertainment value,” Henson said.

Puppets vs. artificial intelligence

The Muppet Show was brought back by Disney for a Disney+ special earlier this month in honor of the show’s 50th anniversary. Jim Henson’s Muppets actually turned 70 in 2025, and the appetite for the characters and the district Henson style of puppetry hasn’t waned. Audiences are hungry for details of a Miss Piggy movie, reportedly helmed by Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone.

(While Disney has owned the Muppets since 2004 and The Jim Henson Company now only consults on Muppet projects when it is asked to, Henson’s take on the recent special is that it was “really good” and he hopes it’s picked up as a series. All he knows about the Miss Piggy movie, he told LAist: “I don’t think it’s very far along.”)

What’s behind the lasting appeal of puppets and The Muppets specifically?

Henson argues puppetry may be the oldest art form if you think about the basic act of imbuing an object with personality — something parents do instinctively with young children.

“ I used to bring to life my daughter's pajamas,” he said. “That was the way to get her to put her pajamas on so that she would go to bed.”

But that doesn't mean it's ever been particularly mainstream. Even Jim Henson had to shop around the original Muppet Show before it found a spot on American primetime TV, but Henson said he’s felt a shift in just the past few months in response to artificial intelligence.

“The AI craze has created a backlash of, 'Please let me see human craftsmanship, human artistry, where I know that this is coming from a human's artistic mind,'” Henson said. “So I think right now there is just an enormous appreciation for artistry that is not computer-generated in any way. That will benefit all sorts of arts, but it certainly benefits puppetry for sure.”

Some puppet philosophy

Henson describes Puppet Up! as a celebration of the “absurdity of the human condition” and said performing with puppets can elicit a more open response from audiences.

“The audience watches puppets with the innocence of a child, even if they're 70 years old,” he said.

And that distance can allow an emotional access you might not get with actors alone.

“It makes it possible to laugh at themselves rather than be offended,” Henson said. “So particularly in a period of time like now, where everybody's scared of somebody hating them … we can sort of play out examples of that kind of friction with puppets. That's gonna give you objectivity and allow you to sort of reflect.”

"Puppet Up! Uncensored" is playing at The Montalbán from Friday through Sunday.