Advocates and Acadia visitors marked the National Park Service’s birthday by thanking park employees and calling attention to vacancies, funding cuts, and workforce reductions.

Carrie Jones and Shaun Farrar

Aug 25, 2026

The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Thrive Juice Bar & Kitchen.

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ACADIA NATIONAL PARK—In just two hours, Todd Martin had collected scores of green postcards, each postcard thanking employees of the National Park Service for their work.

As its Northeast senior program manager, Martin was a part of the National Parks Conservation Association’s (NPCA) nationwide Day of Action, stationed outside of the Hulls Cove Visitor Center to raise awareness of the National Park Service’s staffing levels as well as having people write out postcards to rangers, thanking them for what they do.

“Thank you,” one postcard read, “for keeping this park alive and beautiful.”

It was signed with a heart.

Another postcard in the massive stack that Martin had compiled in just a couple hours read, “Thank you for your service to NPS and our country. You are so appreciated!”

August 25 is the National Park Service’s 110th birthday, but for Martin, former Superintendent Sheridan Steele, and others, it is also a day to thank park staff for all the work that they do as well as advocate for more staffing and funding for the federal agency.

In 1916, the National Park Service began with an imperative to “preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.”

Martin, Steele, and others worry that with staffing shortages and decreased funding that mission is becoming harder and harder to achieve.

“The staffing for the National Park Service was short before DOGE took control and now we’re down 25%,” Steele said, Tuesday, outside the park’s Hulls Cove visitor center as Martin manned a table and unaffiliated demonstrators gathered in a grouping by a rock wall.

“It’s a huge problem,” Steele said. “Employees can’t talk about it. Their hands are tied.”

Steele, however, can.

“We can speak,” he said as more people approached the table, took a pen, and started filling the blank space on a postcard with thanks.

Steele is part of a Coalition to Protect National Parks, one of 5,000 employees, he said, who want to talk truth to power.

“We’re raising awareness about our staffing crisis,” Martin said.

Friends of Acadia’s (FOA) Government Affairs Manager Veronica Torres had stopped by to see how the advocacy was going.

FOA is a nonprofit whose mission includes “preserving, protecting, and promoting stewardship of Acadia’s outstanding natural beauty, ecological vitality, and distinctive cultural resources.”

“It’s a celebratory day,” Torres said of the National Park Service’s birthday, “but it’s also important to get visitors aware that parks are understaffed.”

Steele also spoke to a need for more funding.

In the 2026 fiscal budget, President Trump’s administration funded the National Park Service at $2.1 billion. Most of that was for park operations. The year before, the administration had proposed $3.6 billion.

A January 2025 hiring freeze kept many civilian positions that were vacant from being filled. According to the NCPA, the workforce of the entirety of the National Park Service has been cut by one-quarter.

“Since January 2025, the National Park Service has lost nearly 25% of its permanent workforce, driven primarily by mass terminations, early retirements, and deferred resignations,” NCPA shared in a press release.

“We’re so appreciative to the hardworking park rangers here at Acadia who are doing incredible work when they are so short staffed and funded,” Steele said.

There are 60 vacancies in year round staff at Acadia National Park, Steele said. For seasonal employees, they’ve only been able to hire two-thirds of what they need.

He said that Maine’s Congressional delegation has done great work and understands the challenges that Acadia National Park is facing.

”I’ve got colleagues at parks all across the country,” Martin said, Tuesday.

According to NPCA’s press release, “The Day of Action comprises 30 events in 20 parks.”

According to the National Park’s website, “Over the hundred plus years, we’ve grown into more than 400 national parks and many programs that reach communities around the country—and even the world!”

President Trump issued a statement encouraging residents to enjoy free admission to a national park, August 25.

“America’s vast and wondrous national parks stand at the heart of our story, preserving the lands our ancestors cherished and the unmatched splendor of a continent like no other,” the statement begins.

National Park Week runs from Aug. 22 through Aug. 30.

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LINKS TO LEARN MORE

National Park Service

Acadia National Park

Coalition to Protect National Parks

National Parks Conservation Association

All photos: Shaun Farrar/Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story.

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