I wouldn't get my undies too much in a bundle about this.
I was a USFS recreation manager and hired seasonals for many seasons.
We have been through hiring freezes in several previous administrations and not just Republican administrations:
- Carter - 3 separate hiring freezes in 1977, 1979 and 1980. Each lasting around 3 months
- Reagan - 1 freeze, from when he took office in 1/81 to 3/81, although it was retroactive back to November of 1980
- Clinton - Did not enact a freeze, but his "reinventing govt" intiative sought to reduce federal work roles by 250,000. Several agencies underwent RIF (reduction in force)
- Bush - 1 freeze, from January when he took office.
So federal recreation managers have been through this drill before and it is nothing new.
It will take a bit of time to sort through, but seasonals will be hired and parks and forests will be open. Many of the larger NPs and USFS campgrounds are run by concessionaires. These are NOT government employees and the concessionaires have longer term contracts for operation of campgrounds (sometimes 10 years or more)
But parks and forests do hire a lot of seasonals and yes, it is very stressful for the full time federal rec managers who will have to wait to make job offers until later in the spring. One of the big problems with hiring later in the spring is that the best seasonal employees have already found employment elsewhere (state parks, etc).
