Cuyahoga Valley National Park loses 3 jobs, seasonal hiring impacted by federal moves

Posted by author February 19, 2025 Jobs

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The sweeping job cuts across federal agencies has hit the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Three probationary employees in Greater Akron were let go late Friday as part of the effort by President Donald Trump to trim the federal workforce and reduce spending.

Although their jobs were probationary on paper, Deb Yandala, president and CEO of the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park that works to support the park, said these were seasoned employees whose jobs were in the process of becoming permanent.

“We are really disappointed,” she said. “These were really talented folks. This is definitely a loss for the national park.”

The positions eliminated included a biologist, a maintenance worker and a parks planner who had been working on future plans for the former Brandywine Golf Course and new trails in the national park.

These job losses locally are concerning, Yandala said, considering the number of visitors the Cuyahoga Valley National Park has and the number of acres it encompasses from Akron to Cleveland.

With some 33,000 acres stretching 20 miles along the banks of the Cuyahoga River, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park had a $12 million budget in 2024 and some 91 full-time employees and another 43 temporary employees on the books before the cuts.

An estimated 2.8 million visitors visited the park in 2023 (the last year numbers were readily available) with an estimated $225 million economic impact on the region.

Yandala said the loss of three positions in a park that is already a “bare bones” operations is troublesome, but she fears the number may grow.

“This is more cuts to a bare bones operation,” she said.

As of now, the park’s seasonal workers are also impacted.

As part of the cuts and review of budgets throughout the federal level, the hiring of seasonal employees at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park is frozen.

“I’m concerned that it is already too late to fill these positions,” Yandala said.

Park officials locally referred a request for comment to national park officials in Washington who did not return a request for comment.

A position at the James A. Garfield Historic Site in Mentor was also eliminated on Friday, with potential seasonal cuts at the First Ladies National Historic Site in Canton.

Yandala said these seasonal hires do everything from assisting in law enforcement in the parks to trail maintenance to manning the visitor’s center.

Most of these hires typically take place in January, she said, so things are really up in the air as the park’s busy season in the spring, summer and fall are about to begin.

Yandala said her organization has hundreds of volunteers who assist with improvements and help guide visitors, but that can never replace what the full-time and seasonal workers do for the park, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary.

There’s little chance, she said, visitors will encounter closed parking lots this summer.

But without the seasonal workers, Yandala said, hours of the park’s main visitors center may be reduced, along with a reduction in things like restroom cleanings, trash pick ups and even removal of branches and trees from trails after storms.

“We will make do,” she said. “It’s just sad.”