As part of the Trump administration's government hiring freeze, hundreds of workers expecting to fill seasonal roles at the National Park Service saw their job offers rescinded earlier this month.   

Glacier National Park, like many national parks, hires hundreds of seasonal employees each summer to operate campgrounds, clean bathrooms, pick up garbage, clear trails and work as rangers. They are critical to the operation of the park, which saw 3.2 million visitors last year, the second most ever. 

“Your job offer has been rescinded at management request,” reads an email sent to seasonal workers, which was shared over Reddit. “Should the bureau be able to fill the position again, another announcement will be posted in due course.”  

The letters were followed by an email sent to most federal employees by the Office of Personnel Management urging them to consider a "deferred resignation." 

“If you choose to remain in your current position, we thank you for your renewed focus on serving the American people to the best of your abilities and look forward to working together as part of an improved federal workforce. At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position or agency but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place for such positions,” the email reads.  

Glacier Park officials did not respond to requests for comment on the status of seasonal employees, however the Hungry Horse News learned that the park was unable to hire seasonal staff as of this past week. Glacier officials would normally be hiring summer seasonals at this point in the year. 

The Hungry Horse News also confirmed that Glacier employees received the deferred resignation offer from the Office of Personnel Management.  

John Garder, senior director of Budget and Appropriations at the National Parks Conservation Association, a national parks advocacy group, said the hiring freeze impacts about 1,400 seasonal and permanent jobs nationwide, puts 1,700 probationary jobs — people who have worked less than a year -- under scrutiny and affects roughly 1,400 ranger positions.  

He noted that the hiring freeze directive was supposed to exempt seasonal employees, but at this point that hasn’t been the case. A link to the letter exempting seasonal employees appeared to have been taken down.  

Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association, warned that the uncertainty sown by the freeze and the short-lived pause on federal spending undertaken by the Trump administration would affect both parks and the neighboring communities.  

"In the near term, the hiring freeze means our national parks will struggle with insufficient staffing as parks across the country need to begin hiring critical seasonal staff for spring break and summer," Pierno said in a statement. "Ranger-led programs, resource protection, maintenance, trash pickup and visitor needs could be compromised. In the long term, buyouts could lead to a devastating loss of expertise and experience. And when national parks struggle, gateway communities and economies feel the effects too." 

Staffers for U.S. Sen. Steve Daines said he understood the role National Park Service workers played in the state. He would be working with the White House on the effort to curb federal spending, they said.  

“Sen. Daines believes our parks and park employees are an important part of our Montana way of life and is working the administration on this directive. Daines also plans to work with President Trump to examine all aspects of spending to ensure taxpayer dollars are going where they are intended,” an aide to the senator said in a statement to the Hungry Horse News. 

THE UNCERTAINTY has had a chilling effect on the National Park Service as a whole and other federal jobs, Garder noted.  

“The cumulative impact harms morale and threatens to reduce the ranks of an already understaffed Park Service,” he said.  

But the authors of the email sent to employees see it otherwise.  

“The federal workforce should be comprised of the best America has to offer. We will insist on excellence at every level — our performance standards will be updated to reward and promote those that exceed expectations and address in a fair and open way those who do not meet the high standards which the taxpayers of this country have a right to demand,” it reads. 

Steve Gniadek, a retired park biologist, was concerned about the current situation and spoke from his own experiences.  

“It’s got to be incredibly demoralizing to federal workers just trying to do their jobs,” he said Thursday. “They’re being treated like enemies and they’re not.”  

“How can they keep the gates open in Glacier if they have no seasonals?” he questioned.  

Past administrations have taken similar measures, he noted. 

He recalled hiring a biological technician to monitor wildlife along the Going-to-the-Sun Road as the road was under construction at the time. The technician worked for two weeks before the funding was pulled abruptly. Gniadek had to let them go.  

Workers today do not want to be in the same boat.  

“They don’t want to get into that position,” he said. 

Daily Inter Lake reporter Hailey Smalley contributed to this article.