New Report: Trump’s Plan to Offload National Parks to States Would Devastate Local Economies and Cost Billions

Washington, D.C. – President Trump and congressional Republicans’ plan to transfer national parks to states would devastate local economies, overwhelm budgets, and break longstanding commitments to veterans and seniors who rely on public lands. A new report released today by Climate Power shows that states would inherit nearly $23 billion in maintenance backlog costs without the federal support, infrastructure, or grants necessary to handle them, while losing billions in tourism revenue as services degrade and fees rise.

“Trump and Republicans in Congress were already gutting funding for our national parks and firing the people who keep visitors safe, maintain trails and facilities, and provide emergency services. Now, they want to pass responsibility onto states that won’t have the resources to keep parks open or services running,” said Lori Lodes, Executive Director of Climate Power. “It would mean fewer jobs, higher costs for states, and broken promises to veterans and seniors who’ve earned the right to enjoy our parks. We have a responsibility to protect these lands for our children and grandchildren—not abandon them to budget cuts and neglect.”

“By transferring ‘sort of small-p parks’ to the states, the Trump Administration and its supporters aren’t giving states more power or saving taxpayer money,” said Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, blasting the Trump Administration for plans to offload national park units to states. “They’ll be cutting off your access to public lands and devastating state economies in the process, overwhelming state budgets and dismantling the systems that keep public lands running.

Heinrich continued, “We’re here today to continue to fight, and to let you know that President Trump and Mike Lee’s latest plan of reallocating national park units to state control will not help our states. It will hurt them. It will not increase your access to national parks. It will restrict it. And it proves once again that Donald Trump and his cronies are willing to take away access to national park sites, devastate local economies, threaten your families’ safety, and kill public service jobs, all to enrich their billionaire friends. Two weeks ago, we came together, across the political spectrum, to stop the sale of our public lands. And we’re here to say: Not one acre and not on our watch.”

The report reveals that states would lose critical federal support, including the Great American Outdoors Act’s $1.3 billion annual Legacy Restoration Fund, the National Park Service’s volunteer infrastructure providing over 6.5 million service hours annually, and access to emergency wildfire response capabilities.

The proposed transfer would also end federal benefits providing free and subsidized park access to 17 million veterans, active-duty military, and 10 million seniors. Unlike the current nationwide system, state park passes vary significantly in cost, coverage, and restrictions, and aren’t transferable between states. This shift would impose new financial burdens on those who earned these benefits through military service or age, replacing a simple, unified national program with a confusing patchwork of inconsistent state systems.

View the full report here and state fact sheets for: Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.