ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Memorial Day weekend kicks off a busy few months for the country's national parks. Visitors descend on national treasures stretching from Acadia National Park in Maine all the way to Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii and lots of others in between.
GRAHAM AVERILL: People go during the summer. Any other time, these parks are more or less empty.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
That is Graham Averill. He covers the national parks for Outside Magazine. He says, this year, it is not just the weather that's changing. Park staffing levels are too.
AVERILL: People need to be prepared to not have the front-country help that they're used to having.
KELLY: That's because there are fewer people working for the National Park Service today than at the start of the Trump administration.
SHAPIRO: The National Parks Conservancy Association (ph) estimates that the Park Service has lost 13% of its workforce since January through deferred resignations, buyouts and early retirements. That's about 2,500 fewer employees. Averill says he's already seen the effects.
AVERILL: So I went to the Smokies recently for a hike. It's an area that I've been to many times, has a little ranger station that has a bathroom and a handful of trails that branch off from a campground. The campground was closed. It's not going to open this summer. The bathrooms were closed. They're not going to open this summer. The trails are still open, but there wasn't a ranger for me to talk to. There wasn't a bathroom for me to visit before my hike.
KELLY: Averill says no park will be totally closed this summer and people should still plan to go. They'll just need to adjust their expectations.
AVERILL: Maybe the visitor center isn't open for as many hours or maybe there's a longer line at the entrance station, right?
SHAPIRO: He also warns that food concession stands may be shut down, so visitors should plan to bring their own food and take their own trash out of the park.
KELLY: And yes, it could be hard to get a camping site inside a national park this year, but Averill says you still have options.
AVERILL: Most of our national parks are surrounded by either national forest land or Bureau of Land Management property, and so while you may not be able to find a campsite inside the national park, there's a good chance you can find one just outside the national park in a very similar landscape.
KELLY: So plan ahead. And if you do visit a national park this summer, Averill has this advice.
AVERILL: Kind of remember to be nice. The staff that you do see are going to be working their tails off. Be nice to them. Tell them thanks for being there.
SHAPIRO: Some helpful tips there from Graham Averill. He covers the national parks for Outside Magazine.
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