Screw the National Parks
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2025 12:51 pm
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a nonexistent agency not created by Congress—is now effectively running the National Park Service after a secretarial order handed sweeping authority to a DOGE appointee, Tyler Hassen, a former oil executive.
This isn’t just mismanagement. This is the corporate occupation of federal land stewardship. The order gives Hassen:
The ability to fire staff, move funds, and rewrite policy without oversight
No requirement to report to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum
Full discretion over grants, contracts, and operations across hundreds of parks and programs
Park leadership is collapsing:
Over 100 superintendent vacancies
2,500 employees have resigned or taken buyouts
More than 1,000 were fired on Valentine’s Day
Meanwhile, Musk’s DOGE is consolidating control like it’s trying to make a reality show out of Yellowstone and The Purge.
The legality? Still unclear. But it reeks of authoritarian creep masked in buzzwords like efficiency, optimization, and streamlining.
This isn’t just mismanagement. This is the corporate occupation of federal land stewardship. The order gives Hassen:
The ability to fire staff, move funds, and rewrite policy without oversight
No requirement to report to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum
Full discretion over grants, contracts, and operations across hundreds of parks and programs
Park leadership is collapsing:
Over 100 superintendent vacancies
2,500 employees have resigned or taken buyouts
More than 1,000 were fired on Valentine’s Day
Meanwhile, Musk’s DOGE is consolidating control like it’s trying to make a reality show out of Yellowstone and The Purge.
The legality? Still unclear. But it reeks of authoritarian creep masked in buzzwords like efficiency, optimization, and streamlining.