Last week, I pulled up to the north entrance of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The booth was empty, windows dark like the place had been abandoned overnight. A curling sheet of printer paper clung to the glass, a pixelated QR code promising you could pay online. There’s no cell service for miles.
The visitor center was locked. Loomis Museum sat dark. In two days wandering Lassen’s trails and backroads, I didn’t see a single ranger in that iconic flat hat. Not one.
And while the park’s premiere trail sat closed (due to staffing though they hid behind a seasonal closure). The bathrooms were spotless and the trash bins were empty.
Welcome to the new national park experience – a surface so carefully maintained you could mistake it for health. But look closer and you’ll see the hollow places. The staff who protect wildlife, interpret landscapes, and guard history are rapidly and quietly being stripped away, in ones and twos, through hiring freezes, reassignments, and cuts.
It is a con, built t…
