Tell Burgum: Stop Using Responders for Vanity Projects

Days after a deadly flash flood tore through Grand Canyon National Park and forced a major rescue operation, new reporting put a disturbing Interior Department decision in the spotlight: nearly 300 National Park Service emergency-response personnel had been diverted from regional duties to projects in Washington, D.C.

Some of those trained responders were reportedly assigned to work involving the East Potomac golf course and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, instead of preparing for disaster. 

These are Incident Management Team personnel — trained responders parks rely on when floods, wildfires, rescues, and other emergencies hit. The Grand Canyon disaster did not happen because of these reassignments. But it showed exactly why pulling emergency personnel away from regional duties for vanity projects is such a reckless gamble.

Tell Interior Secretary Doug Burgum: Stop diverting emergency responders for political vanity. Send them back to emergency duty now.

On August 29, flash flooding ripped through Bright Angel Canyon at Grand Canyon National Park. Two hikers were killed, dozens of people had to be evacuated, and rescuers mounted a major emergency response.

Disasters like this do not wait for Washington to finish a beautification project. Wildfires spread. Floodwaters rise. Hikers disappear. When lives are on the line, trained responders need to be ready to go — not hundreds of miles away working on projects that have nothing to do with public safety.

Yet the Interior Department reportedly pulled these personnel from regional assignments and sent them to Washington. That was a choice. And Secretary Doug Burgum can reverse it.

Emergency responders are not a workforce for Trump administration pet projects. Taxpayers fund the National Park Service to protect our public lands and the people who visit and work in them. Specialized responders should be doing the jobs they were trained to do.

The next flood, fire, or rescue emergency could happen at any time. We should be strengthening emergency readiness, not gambling with it for the sake of appearances.

Add your name and demand that Secretary Burgum put public safety ahead of Trump’s vanity projects and return these responders to emergency duty.

The petition to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reads:

“Immediately return National Park Service Incident Management Team personnel to their regional emergency-response duties and stop diverting trained emergency responders to Trump's non-emergency vanity projects.”