Despite receiving a record number of visitors last year and funneling $55.6 billion in revenue into the national economy in 2023, U.S. national parks have been facing unprecedented budget cuts. Since January 2025, there’s been a 24 percent loss of National Park Service permanent staffing, a threat to sell 1.23 million acres of public lands (which public opinion helped thwart for now), and a $267 million loss in funding under the budget reconciliation bill passed in July, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Thousands of activists marched across national park sites this past spring brandishing signs and chants such as “hands off our parks” and “defund war not nature” to protest the proposed cuts and show support for conserving the natural havens.
Now, travel company Intrepid is joining the chorus. The B Corp has launched two limited-edition Active-ism trips in U.S. national parks that combine outdoor adventure with activist-led discussions. Designed in partnership with environmentalist Pattie Gonia and led by influential environmentalists, each trip offers insights into the issues, raising awareness and arming travelers with an advocacy toolkit. The initiative is part of Intrepid’s United by Nature campaign, which includes a $50,000 donation to the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).
A five-day Zion & the Grand Canyon trip will be the first on offer, starting this November with public lands champion Alex Haraus as the guide. A second departure will hit the trail in April 2026, led by Wawa Gatheru, founder of Black Girl Environmentalist, an organization dedicated to increasing representation and inclusion of Black women within the climate justice movement. On each trip, adventurers will walk the rim of the canyon, explore Monument Valley with a Navajo guide, and trace the vertiginous trails that carve across Zion National Park’s pink sandstone cliffs.
Then in June 2026, Leah Thomas, author of The Intersectional Environmentalist, and climate educator Michael Mezzatesta will host two six-day Yellowstone & the Grand Tetons journeys. The wildlife tracking expeditions are focused on spotting Yellowstone’s iconic bison, elk, and wolves.
“I want travelers to be able to walk away with more information on how they can get involved and join the fight in supporting our national park system,” says Gatheru. Alongside conversations about park history and conservation, some of the discussions taking place during the trips will provide actionable ways to support parks, including social media strategies to spread awareness and reaching out to local representatives. Intrepid is also collecting on-the-ground insights into the impact of staffing losses on park operations and delivering that data to the NPCA.
“We have trips that visit 18 different national parks, and we needed to do something to raise attention and to stand up where our public lands can’t,” says Leigh Barnes, president of the Americas at Intrepid. There are concerns that national park budget cuts could affect visitor experience and safety, including longer lines, reduced hours, lack of facility management, and slower emergency response, which could be felt even more next year. But the most concerning long-term effects may be on natural resources and wildlife. Understaffing concerns extend to an NPS unit called the Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate, which provides technical and administrative support for the management of natural resources.
As parks scramble to fill in the staffing gaps under Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s order to stay open at all costs, vital conservation work is suffering, according to John Garder, senior director of budget and appropriations for NPCA. That work includes management of invasive species, water and air quality monitoring, at-risk wildlife protection, and climate impact reports. This is happening at a time when biodiversity loss and climate change have never been more pressing—or felt more acutely in national parks.
“We are literally seeing scientists in Yosemite maintaining the bathrooms, and what that means is that the science isn’t getting done,” says Garder. The influence of public opinion on the public lands ruling in July 2025 was heartening, but much still hangs in the balance, including how the 2026 fiscal budget will affect national parks, which could lose a further $1.2 billion in funding. “All but $12 million of that budget was reserved for staff,” says Garder. “The loss would be historic and extremely damaging.”
Additionally, a mandate from the Department of the Interior is asking national parks visitors to report any information that “disparages Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times), and does not focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
Garder says, “It’s making park interpreters scared for their jobs, scared they might say the wrong thing.”
This directive proves especially problematic at National Historic Sites tied to the civil rights movement and others that generate discussion and awareness of the United States’ long history of racial tension and displacement of Indigenous peoples in national parks. “We have to talk about that complicated history in order to think about what the future of our national park system can look like, and how our national parks can be accessible and inclusive to all of us,” says Gatheru.
Imagining an inclusive, flourishing national park system—which was created for all Americans and visitors to enjoy—may feel like a radical act at this critical juncture. From roaring, glacier-fed rivers tumbling past snowy peaks in Alaska to the wind- and rain-sculpted canyons of the American Southwest, the exultant landscapes of U.S. national parks represent a great conservation legacy. The more visitors can be informed, the more people can advocate for their continued protection. As Garder says, “A lot of damage has been done, but it can still be reversed.”
