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The National Park Service has lost a quarter of its permanent staff since January, and the White House has proposed slashing a third of NPS’s budget . Ultimately, Congress decided to claw back close to $300 million of already-approved funds for our parks. But the reduction is still notable, says Jon B. Jarvis, who served as the 18 th director of NPS.

“The thing to think about the budget and the park service is it’s an operational budget,” explains Jarvis. “The money pays staff to be in parks, to be there for the public, to help them have a good experience, to put out fires, to look out for wildlife, to tell the pu

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