REGIONAL — Voyageurs National Park is weathering the federal government shutdown during a quieter stretch of the year, with boat tours finished for the season and visitation already reduced. But the shutdown lands at a time when the National Park Service is already strained by widespread staffing losses and delayed research work, and advocates say it is compounding problems that have been building across the system.
Three of the park’s four visitor centers are routinely closed at this time of year, including the Kabetogama Lake, Ash River, and Crane Lake centers. But the Rainy Lake Visitor Center normally remains open on reduced fall hours, and it is currently closed due to the shutdown.
Christina Hausman Rhode, executive director of Voyageurs Conservancy, spoke with the Timberjay on Tuesday about how the shutdown and other issues are affecting the park. She emphasized that she does not speak for the National Park Service, but after 14 years of working closely with Voyageurs National Park, she understands the situation well. She said the challenges unfolding across the system this year are unlike anything she has seen before.
“I have never experienced a year like this year,” she said. “Some of the challenges we talk about with the National Park Service, staffing concerns, budget concerns, have been a constant. But this is really unprecedented chaos.”
A significant wave of retirements and departures has diminished staffing nationwide. The National Parks Conservation Association estimates the system has lost at least 24 percent of its workforce this year. That loss, Hausman Rhode said, includes decades of institutional knowledge.
“The really challenging piece is just the amount of expertise we’ve lost, the amount of years of knowledge we’ve lost,” she said. “I’m hearing anywhere between 100 and 150 superintendents have left this year.”
At Voyageurs, that loss of long-term experience has been especially visible. The park’s cultural and archives collections manager retired this year after more than 30 years with the park, and former superintendent Bob DeGross retired this spring following a 36-year career with the National Park Service, including nine years leading Voyageurs. Their departures represent decades of knowledge about the park’s history, operations, and resource management.
At the same time, a federal hiring freeze and reduced administrative staffing are slowing the ability to fill vacancies.
“You’re just creating a situation where it’s going to be harder and harder to fill them,” she said.
Those national strains are reflected locally. Voyageurs is currently down about 12 full-time positions from being fully staffed, Hausman Rhode said. Among the key vacancies are law enforcement officers, the permanent superintendent, the lead wildlife biologist, and the cultural and archives collections manager.
Hausman Rhode said the acting superintendent, Brian Harmon, is carrying multiple responsibilities.
“He has to be the head of natural resources, head of cultural resources, and the superintendent,” she said. “So, you know, it just doesn’t work.”
Hausman Rhode noted that national parks require active management that the public does not always see.
“Our national park rangers are just as iconic and just as critical to these places as the scenery,” she said. “Even though they’re natural landscapes, they need staffing in place, not only for visitor services and visitor safety, but there’s so much land management and facilities management that goes on behind the scenes.”
One concrete example of the impact is the interruption of a long-term research dataset.
“For the first time in I want to say at least 25 years, we won’t have aerial beaver surveys done this fall,” she said.
The break in the record affects scientists’ ability to track ecosystem change over time.
The shutdown has also required some essential employees to work without pay. That work has included pulling navigation buoys and winterizing facilities across the park’s lake system, tasks that must happen regardless of funding delays.
“It is not acceptable to me to expect government employees to work without pay,” she said. “We have park staff who are being asked to perform essential duties, and they are not going to be paid till the end of the shutdown.”
Voyageurs is fortunate that the shutdown occurred after peak summer visitation, reducing immediate impacts to visitor safety and services.
“I can’t really fathom if this would happen in summer,” she said. “We would be in a very different place.”
Still, the shutdown is halting the Conservancy’s annual joint planning with the Park Service for future programs and projects, including work that would set priorities and funding commitments for the 2026 season.
“Even though we’re shut down during this quiet time, we’re having these ripple effects,” she said. “We were supposed to have a tribal workshop in November that we had to postpone.”
Communication has become another hurdle. During the shutdown, all media inquiries are routed through regional or Washington offices.
“Most of the comms office has been laid off,” she said. “And then they direct everyone to them, and there’s no one there to respond to you.”
With official communication limited, Voyageurs Conservancy has taken on a larger role in sharing information with the public.
“I feel like we have really leaned into being a voice for the park,” Hausman Rhode said. “I think one of the important roles we can play is to try to tell the story of what’s going on and be that connection to the public.”
She stressed that support for the park is broad.
“National parks are not partisan,” she said. “Everyone loves a shore lunch on Rainy Lake. Everyone loves stargazing. Everyone loves floating on a houseboat. That’s not partisan.”
Despite the uncertainty, she said the community surrounding the park remains committed.
“We’re a community of thousands of people who believe that Voyageurs National Park is a special place that needs to be protected and preserved and invested in,” she said.