A lack of park rangers puts more visitors in harm’s way, said Jeff Ruch, PEER’s Pacific director.
“People are going deeper into places where they shouldn’t be and getting into trouble,” said Ruch, noting that park search-and-rescue calls have more than tripled between 2015 and 2021. “And the ability to respond to those demands has greatly lessened.”
At the same time, the number of criminal acts in national parks are spiking.
“The amount of serious crime that was reported in national parks to the Department of Justice had almost gone up by four times over the last decade,” Ruch said. “Yet, the number of law enforcement personnel has shrunk.”
