As a scientist based in Colorado, I spend much of my time outside — observing insect life cycles and witnessing firsthand the impacts of climate change on our public lands. I’ve worked in burned forests where insects are just beginning to return and in mountain meadows teeming with biodiversity. These landscapes are more than data points — they’re revered, irreplaceable spaces that Coloradans cherish.
That’s why I’m deeply alarmed by recent decisions and legislative efforts that threaten the health of our parks, the livelihoods of those who depend on them, and the very laws that have safeguarded public lands for more than a century.
In February, the National Park Service abruptly terminated over 1,000 employees nationwide and saw over 700 resignations, including essential staff at national recreation areas like Glen Canyon. This move was made with no clear plan to replace those positions. Glen Canyon — just downstream from Colorado’s headwaters — plays a vital role in regulating water storage and recreation access as well as restoring ecological integrity along the Colorado River, which supports nearly 40 million people across seven states.
After much public backlash, fired NPS staff will be reinstated, but long-term threats loom. Their roles could be transient and the Trump administration is considering a 30% payroll reduction at the NPS. Additionally, a proposed $1.2 billion cut could close 350 park sites–that’s more than 75% of the NPS and would be the largest proposed cut in its 109-year history.
These staff aren’t bureaucrats — they are park rangers, maintenance crews, wastewater technicians and archaeologists. They are the ones who keep trails open, protect ancient cultural sites from looting and erosion, respond to emergencies and manage the infrastructure that supports millions of annual visitors. Without them, basic services at parks, including restrooms, collapse.
The economic fallout is equally concerning. Gateway communities that border national parks and monuments — including towns throughout Colorado like Estes Park, Fruita and Cortez — depend on steady visitation and smooth park operations. In 2023 alone, Colorado national parks supported 11,000 jobs and contributed $864 million to the state economy. Undermining the workforce that drives this system isn’t just bad management — it’s bad economics.
At the same time, our national monuments are under attack. Two bills — House Resolution 521 and Senate Bill 220 introduced by Utah Republicans Rep. Celeste Maloy and Sen. Mike Lee — seek to gut the Antiquities Act of 1906, the law that gives presidents the authority to designate national monuments. This foundational tool has been used by presidents of both parties to protect lands of cultural, ecological and historical significance.
Here in Colorado, the Antiquities Act protected key parts of Chimney Rock and Browns Canyon National Monuments. Weakening this authority could jeopardize future conservation efforts across our state. Meanwhile, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum has ordered a sweeping review of national monuments with the express goal of opening them up to oil, gas and mineral extraction.
This isn’t what the public wants. According to the Conservation in the West poll conducted by Colorado College, 88% of Western voters support keeping national monument designations in place and 3 in 5 Westerners oppose increased drilling.
These lands aren’t just wilderness — they’re living libraries of Indigenous history, biodiversity, and deep time. They are places where communities reconnect with ancestral knowledge, where scientists study changing ecosystems, and where families make lifelong memories under dark skies and red rock cliffs. To reduce them to mineral deposits and industrial potential is to fundamentally misunderstand their value.
We have a long history in Colorado of defending our public lands from shortsighted exploitation. From the fight to protect the Thompson Divide to grassroots organizing around Rocky Flats, we have consistently shown up to say: Our lands are worth more than what can be extracted from them.
Today, that same urgency is needed again.
As a constituent, a scientist and a Coloradan, I’m asking our congressional leaders — Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Colorado’s House delegation — to act. Speak out against the mass termination of National Park Service employees and pay cuts. Demand the restoration of these critical public workers before the peak visitor season. And stand firmly against legislative or administrative efforts to weaken the Antiquities Act or reduce the protections on our national monuments.
We cannot afford to let our public lands be hollowed out by political whim or corporate interest. We owe it to future generations to protect these landscapes with the care, wisdom and reverence they deserve.
Madison Sankovitz, of Boulder, has a doctorate in entomology and is a postdoc at the Boulder Bee Lab at University of Colorado.
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