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DOGE Now in Control of the National Park Service: What We Know [1]
['Lacey Pfalz', 'Noreen Kompanik']
Date: 2025-05
The National Park Service is now being managed by unelected DOGE official Tyler Hassen after Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed away much of his own authority to Hassen in a secretarial order dated April 17, 2025.
Hassen is, according to the order, now the Interior Department’s Assistant Secretary — Policy, Management and Budget (AS-PMB), which critics note is a role that requires Congressional approval via the Constitution. Due process has been ignored in this case.
Despite that, Burgum has ceded much of his control over budget management and oversight over 400 national parks and historic sites, treaties with over 500 Native American tribes as well as management of over 500 million acres of federal lands.
Hassen, in his new role, can even create policies and transfer funds, in addition to continuing the gutting of the NPS workforce, which has already been reduced by 12.5 percent since Trump took office, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, prompting nationwide protests, including at the national parks themselves.
There are reports that the NPS is going to increase staff reduction to 30 percent.
According to SFGATE, Hassen is a former oil executive who used to work for Basin Energy.
The reason for the change? The order says Hassen will enter his new role “in order to achieve effectiveness, accountability and cost savings for the American taxpayer.”
Under the new order, Burgum does not have the power to veto any of Hassen’s decisions, which critics say is essentially giving away his role as Secretary to an unelected official of an unofficial government organization (DOGE requires Congressional approval to be an official governmental department, which has not happened).
Conservationists, national parks supporters and skeptics are making their dissent heard.
“This order shows what it looks like when leaders abdicate their jobs and let unqualified outsiders fire thousands of civil servants who are working on behalf of all Americans and their public lands,” said Jennifer Rokala, executive director of Center for Western Priorities, a conservation advocacy organization, in a statement.
“Since Elon Musk is now effectively in charge of America’s public lands, it’s up to Congress and the American people to stand up and demand oversight,” said Rokala. “DOGE’s unelected bureaucrats in Washington have no idea how to staff a park, a wildlife refuge, or a campground. They have no idea how to manage a forest or prepare for fires in the wildland-urban interface. But Doug Burgum just gave DOGE free rein over all of that.”
The U.S. National Parks are universally beloved, with many international travelers visiting from overseas to immerse themselves in the first protected lands in the world. They generated $55.6 billion for the economy in 2023 and welcome hundreds of millions of visitors each year.
The National Parks Conservation Association reported earlier this month that the Bureau of Land Management approved Australian mining company Dateline Resources to establish a mine in Mojave National Preserve after it had been accused of speculatory mining without approval in the park.
The NPS fined the company $200,000 for unauthorized mining activity and ecological damage, which led to the Bureau’s later statement of approval for the company’s actions. Yet the Bureau of Land Management does not oversee the national parks and cannot authorize such activities.
“Mojave National Preserve is a national park, and the Trump administration is blatantly ignoring its protected status,” said Chance Wilcox, NPCA’s California Desert Program Manager. “The Bureau of Land Management can’t authorize this foreign owned mine in a national park. This makes no sense any way you read it.”
“The National Park Service has clearly documented that this Australian-owned mine is responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages to Mojave and is conducting speculative mining without authorization,” said Wilcox. “The Trump administration’s misguided effort to give an Australian mine a free pass to our national park system, while saddling American taxpayers with the clean-up costs, is an outright betrayal of our parks.”
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