At Yosemite National Park in California, one of the oldest and most popular U.S. natural preserves, the workforce is stretched so thin this season that nearly all staffers, even scientists, are required to take turns cleaning campground toilets, according to two people familiar with conditions there.
The staff hydrologist and an invasive species expert have also been posted at entry gates to process visitors, a job normally handled by lower-paid seasonal workers and junior staff, one of the sources said.
In Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, 500 miles (800 km) to the north, workers are so overextended that the loss of just one plow truck driver in the high-elevation park would make it impossible to clear ice and snow from roads before travelers return en masse in the coming weeks, said Kevin Heatley, who quit as park superintendent in May in frustration over staff shortages.
Firstly, it is an awful policy to cut these services, and it feels like the long game is worse, like destroy for profit or maybe even worse.
Secondly, I hope higher paid staff doing the lowliest jobs will think about what people normally doing these jobs make, and become advocates and allies for the least paid, doing the dirty work.