Questioned by both Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill about the low staffing numbers, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has brushed off concerns, testifying in May that slightly less than half of permanent NPS employees work on the ground in the parks, while other staff work at regional offices or at DC headquarters.
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“I want more people in the parks,” Burgum said. “I want less overhead. There’s an opportunity to have more people working in our parks … and have less people working for the National Park Service.”
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But internal NPS data tells a different story, Brengel said, showing that around 80% of National Park Service staff work in the parks. And regional offices play an important supporting staff role, with scientists on staff to help maintain fragile parks ecosystems, as well as specialists who monitor geohazard safety issues like landslides.

Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska recently pressed Burgum to provide a full list of staff positions that have been cut at the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service since the Trump administration took over. The Interior Department has not provided the list, a Senate staffer said.
The regional offices within the park service are on edge, waiting to see how courts rule on a Trump administration reduction in force plan they fear could gut their ranks, a National Park Service employee in a Western state told CNN.

“If they greenlight the RIF plan, then it’s going to be a bloodbath,” the employee said.

In addition to probationary workers that were fired in February, early retirements are also culling the agency’s ranks, and the continued $1 spending limit on federal workers’ credit cards is making it extremely difficult to do field work in the parks, with a simple overnight trip needing to be requested 10 days in advance, the employee added.

The lack of superintendents and NPS supervisors creates more of a headache, they added.

“These times, when it’s all about fighting for scarce resources, you really need those upper-level people with clout working the system,” the employee said.

Hall, the retired NPS regional director, said losing rangers, maintenance professionals and park superintendents could profoundly alter American landmarks.

“What you’ve lost with all this attrition – you’ve lost all this knowledge that’s going to take years to build back up,” Hall said.

More than 200 firefighters are struggling to tackle an out-of-control wildfire on Crete — Greece’s largest island and a tourist hotspot — as authorities order mass evacuations.
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The fire broke out Wednesday afternoon near Ierapetra, a town on the island’s southeast coast, amid unusually high temperatures, 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9 Fahrenheit) above average, and gale-force winds of around 50 miles an hour.

The conditions are creating “new outbreaks, making firefighting work very difficult,” the Fire Department’s press spokesperson, Chief Vasilios Vathrakoyannis, said in a statement Thursday.
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More than 230 firefighters, along with 46 vehicles and 10 helicopters have been deployed to fight the blaze, according to fire officials.

The flames have spread rapidly, reaching homes as well as hotels and other tourist accommodations.

Authorities asked residents of four settlements to evacuate and move toward Ierapetra. About 1,500 people have been evacuated so far, according to the Greek public broadcaster ERT.

The Ierapetra municipality has converted an indoor training center facility into a makeshift camp, where hundreds of tourists and residents who abandoned their homes spent the night Wednesday.
The police, medical services and the coast guard have all been called to the area.

“We are entering the third and most difficult month of the fire season,” Vathrakoyannis said. July is typically the hottest month in Greece and is often accompanied by strong winds. “These conditions favor the spread of fires and increase their danger,” he said.
Wildfires have ripped through other European countries this week as the continent endures a brutal heat wave.

Tens of thousands were evacuated in Turkey as blazes ripped through the western Izmir and Manisa provinces and southern Hatay province, damaging nearly 200 homes.

Blazes also broke out in France and in Spain, where two people died.

Europe experiences wildfires every year, but they are becoming more intense and frequent due to human-caused climate change, which fuels heat and drought, both helping set the stage for fierce, destructive fires.

More than 200 firefighters are struggling to tackle an out-of-control wildfire on Crete — Greece’s largest island and a tourist hotspot — as authorities order mass evacuations.
<a href=https://tripscan.live>трипскан</a>
The fire broke out Wednesday afternoon near Ierapetra, a town on the island’s southeast coast, amid unusually high temperatures, 3 to 5 degrees Celsius (5.4 to 9 Fahrenheit) above average, and gale-force winds of around 50 miles an hour.

The conditions are creating “new outbreaks, making firefighting work very difficult,” the Fire Department’s press spokesperson, Chief Vasilios Vathrakoyannis, said in a statement Thursday.
https://tripscan.live
трипскан сайт
More than 230 firefighters, along with 46 vehicles and 10 helicopters have been deployed to fight the blaze, according to fire officials.

The flames have spread rapidly, reaching homes as well as hotels and other tourist accommodations.

Authorities asked residents of four settlements to evacuate and move toward Ierapetra. About 1,500 people have been evacuated so far, according to the Greek public broadcaster ERT.

The Ierapetra municipality has converted an indoor training center facility into a makeshift camp, where hundreds of tourists and residents who abandoned their homes spent the night Wednesday.
The police, medical services and the coast guard have all been called to the area.

“We are entering the third and most difficult month of the fire season,” Vathrakoyannis said. July is typically the hottest month in Greece and is often accompanied by strong winds. “These conditions favor the spread of fires and increase their danger,” he said.
Wildfires have ripped through other European countries this week as the continent endures a brutal heat wave.

Tens of thousands were evacuated in Turkey as blazes ripped through the western Izmir and Manisa provinces and southern Hatay province, damaging nearly 200 homes.

Blazes also broke out in France and in Spain, where two people died.

Europe experiences wildfires every year, but they are becoming more intense and frequent due to human-caused climate change, which fuels heat and drought, both helping set the stage for fierce, destructive fires.

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