It seems kind of small and insignificant, a bit buried on the page of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Current Conditions page, among announcements of “paddling hazard” and trail closures: “As of April 2, the following restrooms are closed until further notice.”
For some, this and the signs posted on the three closed restrooms will be the first direct impact they will feel of the deep cuts to the federal government imposed by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire federal contractor Elon Musk. Three probationary employees of the park who were let go—among the 1,000 employees of the Park Service laid off by the Trump Administration—along with a hiring freeze on summer season workers left the park, which had 2.8 million visitors in 2023, without enough staff to maintain all of the restrooms situated in its 51 square miles. Musk took to Fox News to claim it had uncovered a $1 billion survey about National Parks—“A billion dollars for a simple online survey: do you like the National Park?”—but offered no proof in DOGE’s online “wall of receipts,” and CBS News couldn’t find any evidence of it.
The park, located in Ohio just south of Cleveland, is currently celebrating the 50th anniversary of President Gerald Ford signing into law H.R. 7077, establishing the park as the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreational Area (it graduated to a national park in 25 years ago). “The establishment of this area paves the way for the preservation of thousands of acres of unspoiled land for the enjoyment of present and future generations,” Ford proclaimed.
Defunding USAID, which has few constituencies to fight for it, carried little political risk. But the National Park Service is the most popular federal agency with the public, and the Cuyahoga Valley park has enjoyed a half-century of bipartisan support.
But as of yesterday, it has three fewer restrooms. With DOGE on a binge to sell off public lands and slash services, who knows where the cuts will end? This could be the beginning of a trial period to see how far DOGE can go before the public pushes back. But anyone who, with a sense of urgency, has walked a mile or biked a few to get to a restroom knows the meaning of a stress test. Musk and DOGE may find out they’ve picked the wrong people to, well, piss off.
Jeff Hagan
Communications Director