From Sleeping Bear to North Country Trail, advocates fear worst from Trump cuts

• Separate freezes on federal grant funding and government hires may threaten national public lands, trails in Michigan
• Seasonal hiring at major tourist destinations is on pause, and North Country Trail operators are preparing for possible funding losses
• Critics fear the worst, while others argue outdoor recreation has little to worry about in ongoing scrutiny of federal budget

Michigan national park officials can’t prepare to hire summer workers, and planned maintenance projects for an iconic hiking trail system may be on hold because of new spending and hiring freezes under President Donald Trump.

Observers say moves by the administration could limit summer services at national forests and lakeshores like Sleeping Bear Dunes, which typically hires between 100 and 125 seasonal workers for a park that attracts more than 1 million visitors to the Lake Michigan beach area around Empire.

And it could mean a 25% funding loss starting this spring for the nonprofit group in charge of maintaining the sprawling and multistate North Country Trail, which includes 1,180 miles in Michigan from the Porcupine Mountains in the Upper Peninsula to the Michigan-Ohio border. 

Both developments come amid a broad effort by Trump and his administration to scale back federal spending and shrink the federal workforce.

"We are merely looking at parts of the big bureaucracy where there has been tremendous waste and fraud and abuse," Trump recently told reporters. 

Trump could still lift the hiring freeze and his funding freeze is not final: A federal judge on Monday reiterated an order for the administration to restore existing funds while court challenges are pending. 

Critics argue the unilateral pause on government funds was outside the scope of presidential purview and could have devastating effects. Some federal lawmakers are also pushing for the administration to ease up on hiring restrictions before summer vacationers flock to federal lands. 

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Republican state Sen. Ed McBroom, whose Upper Peninsula district includes wide swaths of federally-owned land, said he’s not too worried about long-term funding freezes on outdoor recreation, noting it’s “far too early to push any panic buttons.” 

He’s encouraged by the Trump administration’s interest in rooting out unnecessary federal spending and doesn’t think the effort will ultimately extend to agencies that provide legitimate services to people, like national parks and trails. 

“You can see by what’s been targeted…we’re talking about some really serious money-wasting projects. We’re not talking about running our national parks,” McBroom said. “I really don’t think that the North Country Trail program is a hotbed of government waste and largesse.”  

Seasonal help in limbo

At national parks in Michigan and across the country, job offers for the summer of 2025 had already been extended to several thousand would-be park workers  – including seasonal and full-time workers – before they were rescinded by the Trump administration last month.

That could spell trouble beyond Sleeping Bear. Other national parks, lakeshores and forests affected by the hiring freeze include Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Isle Royale National Park, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, Huron-Manistee National Forest and Hiawatha National Forest.

Park officials have been given no guidance as to whether the job offers for full-time and seasonal workers will be reinstated.

“It’s chaos,” said Warner Vanderheuel, a union representative for the National Federation of Federal Employees, a battalion chief firefighter in Huron-Manistee National Forest. “They do hiring in phases starting between now and March but we’re not sure we’re allowed to tell them to come.

“No one can give straight answers because no one knows.”

Scott Tucker, superintendent at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, did not return a request for comment.

Former National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis told the National Parks Traveler that national park visitors could find “a lot of dirty toilets and a lot of visitors unsatisfied with their experience,” if the job freeze isn’t lifted. 

“If you don't have folks on the ground out there, we certainly saw this during the last shutdown [in 2018-19] when they didn't staff the parks, and we saw vandalism, intentional damage,” he said. 

A group of 22 Democratic and independent senators sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum warning that some national parks may have to shut down without additional staff for the busy summer season. 

“Americans showing up to national parks this summer and for years to come don’t deserve to have their vacations ruined by a completely preventable – and completely irresponsible – staffing shortage,” said the letter, which Michigan Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin did not sign.

North Country Trail

Elsewhere in Michigan, the nonprofit group in charge of maintaining the multistate North Country Trail last month is making contingency plans after temporarily losing access to its federal funding as the result of a Trump administration spending freeze that was subsequently blocked by the courts. 

Marked by distinctive blue blazes, the trail winds through many of the state’s best-known natural landmarks, including the Pictured Rocks, Tahquamenon Falls, Wilderness State Park and the Manistee National Forest. 

While funding was restored last week, the federal money will dry up by springtime, and North Country Trail Association Executive Director Andrea Ketchmark told Bridge Michigan there’s been no word on whether an updated operating agreement will be approved. 

“That is still totally up in the air,” she said. “We're very concerned that, come the end of March, we will not have $400,000, which is what is in that agreement for the new year.” 

Support from the National Park Service makes up roughly a quarter of the North Country Trail Association’s budget and funds operating and maintenance costs, staffing, equipment, trail improvement projects and volunteer training. 

Another $100,000 in planned grant-funded projects and training support from US Forest Service is also in limbo, as is a pending US Forest Service grant proposal that would impact projects in three of Michigan’s national forests, Ketchmark said. 

The trail association is already identifying programs to scale back, such as: 

• The cancellation of planned summer training events for volunteers in Michigan and other states who assist with ongoing trail maintenance
• Pulling back or delaying planned projects to keep the path clear or more accessible
• Slashing administrative costs and public resources, such as the mapping program that updates trail conditions 

Also on the line: a long-planned trail easement project along 20 miles of trail in the Upper Peninsula that would protect public use of the North Country Trail on privately owned land. 

Federal funding fight

Ketchmark said the North Country Trail association is preparing a contingency plan that includes dipping into reserve funds, but the uncertainty over the trail’s funding future and the possible loss of park staff “will definitely hinder our ability to do the work.”

“We are the ones that are actively building and maintaining and promoting and doing trail protection, but they have their role as the federal administrator,” she said. “It's a huge, huge impact in recreation, which is going to hurt our rural communities.” 

As with many of the programs implicated in the Trump administration’s proposed funding freezes, funding for upkeep of the North Country Trail was previously authorized by Congress as part of the federal budget. 

The Trump administration has argued trimming federal spending is essential to “increase the impact of every federal taxpayer dollar.”

If the federal grant freeze survives ongoing court challenges, it could affect money that pours in regularly to state and local governments, as well as nonprofit organizations around the state.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, one of 22 state attorneys general who joined a lawsuit challenging the administration’s spending freeze, called it an “unprecedented, reckless, and illegal attack on vital government services.”

US Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Bruce Township, has accused critics of "fearmongering" and said Trump "rightfully has everyone talking about reexamining our country's spending priorities. We are trillions in debt."