In early May, President Donald Trump’s administration advanced a sweeping proposal to slash the National Park Service budget for fiscal year 2026. Just weeks later, Yellowstone National Park reported its busiest May on record, highlighting a growing tension between public interest in national parks and the shrinking resources needed to support them.
According to newly released NPS data, Yellowstone saw 566,363 visitors in May 2025, an 8 percent increase from the same month last year. The surge marks a 20 percent jump from May 2021, when the park hosted 473,799 visitors during what was then a record-setting year with more than 4.8 million total visits. So far in 2025, Yellowstone has already seen 762,672 visitors, reflecting a steady upward trend.
This record-breaking attendance comes at a precarious moment for the Park Service. Despite hosting a record 331 million visits across all national parks in 2024, the National Parks Conservation Association estimates the agency has lost 13 percent of its workforce since January, with many critical positions remaining unfilled.
While national parks across the country grapple with staffing shortages and deferred maintenance, Yellowstone appears, at least for now, to have avoided the immediate fallout from the initial round of layoffs implemented in February. In an email statement, YNP spokesperson Linda Veress confirmed that the park is fully staffed and open for the season. “We are expecting another busy summer and are ready to host visitors as we have in years past,” she wrote.
In May 2025, Yellowstone National Park saw 566,363 visitors, an 8 percent increase from the same month last year. The surge marks a 20 percent jump from May 2021.
According to Veress, Yellowstone had a total of 769 staff members going into the 2025 summer season. While that’s up 21 employees from last year, the ratio of seasonal and permanent workers has shifted. The number of seasonal employees increased this year from 356 to 387, while the number of permanent employees decreased from 392 to 382. Veress declined to comment on whether or not Yellowstone has felt any impact from the 2025 federal layoffs.
In April, Mountain Journal reported on restrictions to external communications related to national park visitation data.
The broader outlook for the Park Service, and subsequently Yellowstone, is far more uncertain. The Trump administration’s proposed 2026 budget includes a $1.2 billion cut to the NPS, the largest in its 109-year history.
According to the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of the National Park System, the proposed reductions include $900 million from daily operations, $73 million from park construction, $158 million from the Historic Preservation Fund, and $77 million from recreation and preservation.
The National Parks Conservation Association estimates the National Park Service has lost 13 percent of its workforce since January.
Both the NPCA and the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, a watchdog and advocacy of current, former and retired NPS employees, have warned that the cuts could severely impact visitor services, historic site preservation, and the overall ability of parks to meet growing public demand.
“This is the most extreme, unrealistic and destructive National Park Service budget a President has ever proposed in the agency’s 109-year history,” NPCA President and CEO Theresa Pierno said in a press release last month. “It’s nothing less than an all-out assault on America’s national parks.”
As Yellowstone braces for another busy summer, it stands as a powerful symbol of the American public’s enduring value of national parks, just as the agency tasked with protecting them faces its most significant fiscal challenge in over a century.
