Two national parks offices in Texas are slated to close as part of a plan by President Donald Trump to cut government spending.
The facilities are among 34 National Park Service offices across the country the administration is seeking to shutter, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonpartisan advocacy organization.
Under the plan, leases will be terminated in August for Lake Meredith National Recreation Area’s headquarters in the Texas Panhandle and San Antonio Missions National Historical Park’s law enforcement facility, the group says.
A spokesman for the association said it is not clear whether any employees would be laid off. Nationwide, offices facing closure are home to scientists, archaeologists, superintendents and others who manaage parks operations.
The planned closures come less than a month after 1,000 park service employees were dismissed, including at least nine in Texas, as Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency seeks to shrink the size of the federal government.
“The people voted for major government reform, and that’s what the people are going to get,” Musk said last month at the White House. “That’s what democracy is all about.”
But park advocates said they are bracing for chaos, including long lines and overflowing trash, following the firings. In a written statement, Theresa Pierno, the association’s president and CEO, called the closures “reckless and short-sighted” and said the administration is trying to dismantle the national parks system.
“These closures will cripple the Park Service’s ability to operate parks safely and will mean millions of irreplaceable artifacts will be left vulnerable or worse, lost,” she said. “Quite simply and astonishingly, this is dismantling the National Park Service as we know it, ranger by ranger and brick by brick.”
The National Park Service did not respond to two requests for comment Thursday from The Dallas Morning News.
In Texas, the Lake Meredith office serves as the park’s headquarters and administrative home. About 30 miles northeast of Amarillo, Lake Meredith features 200-foot canyons framing the water and secluded coves.
Park Superintendent Eric Smith told The News he has not been notified of a final decision to close the office, which is in the town of Fritch. The park could still operate without the building, he added.
In San Antonio, the Missions facility houses the park’s first responders and public safety officers, maintenance, IT, and equipment and artifact storage. The park — the only UNESCO World Heritage Site in Texas — preserves Spanish frontier missions built in the 1700s to colonize the land and convert indigenous people to Christianity. A park representative referred all questions to the National Park Service.
The 34 park sites were included on a list of more than 400 federal properties the government is looking to give up or sell. Three federal buildings in downtown Dallas were also named: the Maceo Smith Federal Building, Santa Fe Federal Building and Terminal Annex Federal Building. A day after the list was published online, it disappeared.
The U.S. General Services Administration said the list would be republished in the “near future” after the agency is able to “evaluate this initial input and determine how we can make it easier for stakeholders to understand the nuances of the assets listed.” It said it will do “what’s best for the needs of the federal government and taxpayer.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
