Could Trump’s hiring freeze hurt Sleeping Bear staff, operations?
And does social media suppression affect Lakeshore’s effort to educate public about Climate Change?
By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor
The Trump administration announced a hiring freeze of federal workers on Monday for numerous departments including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior, which includes National Park employees.
It remains to be seen how that might affect staff, and operations, at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which typically hires approximately 100 seasonal employees in May when it opens popular mainstays such as the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb and Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive in time for the summer tourism season.
According to Park superintendent Scott Tucker, those 100 seasonal jobs include fee collection, resource management, interpretation and law enforcement.
“We’re sitting in a holding pattern right now, not doing any contingency planning or speculating about what this is going to mean,” said Tucker. We’re waiting to see how OPM (the Office of Personnel Management) and the Department of the Interior (interpret) the executive order. Once they decide how they’ll implement, we’ll make our plans for how to staff the Park for the summer.”
Tucker referred specific questions about the hiring freeze to OPM in Washington, D.C.
If Sleeping Bear is unable to ramp up its seasonal hiring, it may not be able to open key elements of our National Park. In past years, shorthanded Lakeshore staff was forced to close, or delay the reopening of popular Park locations. A federal sequestration crisis and government shutdown in 2013 forced Sleeping Bear to close many of its amenities for weeks. The shutdown affected the local economy; tourists visiting the Park spend millions each year, and support thousands of local jobs.
Key attractions in the Park remained closed for nearly two weeks after the Aug. 2, 2015, megastorm, in part because staff efforts were diverted to clean up after the storm.
Climate Change on social media
The Trump administration has also drawn scathing criticism during its first week in power for allegedly suppressing National Park social media posts about topics it deems controversial. Twitter posts from the social media division of the Badlands National Park in South Dakota, which included the threat of Climate Change were removed from social media on Tuesday.
Nevertheless, Tucker affirmed that Sleeping Bear will continue to use social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) to promote park programming “including programs focused on climate change”.
What does the communication between Washington and individual Parks look like?
The Sleeping Bear superintendent said that the National Lakeshore received general guidance on Sunday to: “Update passwords to social media accounts; resume engaging the public through your regular social media accounts, and all parks should stick with their own history and resources, and not make comments on the (presidential) transition underway.”
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has held past seminars at Park headquarters in Empire to educate the public about Climate Change and its risks for this region. Sleeping Bear has also worked together with researcher Lukas Bell-Dereske, who has studied the effects of heavy precipitation — from more frequent rainstorms — on dune ecosystems.
Sleeping Bear Dunes has not shied away from discussing Climate Change on social media. Eight times since November 8 (election day), the Park has re-tweeted about Climate Change.
