Hike the HillⓇ 2025

There’s no better way to release feelings of anger and frustration than hiking to the top of a mountain and screaming at the top of your lungs.

That is what this year at Hike the HilllⓇ felt like as we tried to make every Member of Congress and the leaders of the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Forest Service hear the devastating impacts that the indiscriminate firing of nearly 6,000 federal land management public servants has and will continue to have on our nation’s trails and public lands.

The National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and WIldlife Service are being decimated with these mass firings and funding freezes. This means that partners like American Hiking Society and trail organizations across the country who have been decades long partners with these agencies are unable to provide the critical trail maintenance and management that keeps our trails safe and accessible for all!

What happened at Hike the HillⓇ this year?

All week during Hike the HillⓇ we called on congress to reverse these firings which were taken with the surgical precision preciseness of a chainsaw. There has been no rhyme or reasons to these layoffs and all of us visiting these places over the coming weeks and months for spring break and summer vacation will experience unsafe conditions, closed restrooms and visitor centers, and trails that are impassible or don’t live up to the standards that the public has come to expect as the crown jewel of the country. Without on the ground staff, organizations like American Hiking Society, cannot partner and volunteers cannot give back in the same way.

Through hundreds of meetings with Congress and agency leadership over seventy-five trail leaders from across the country turned our frustration and anger into action, yelling this message through the halls of Congress.

There are so many opportunities right now for our public lands from the extension of the Legacy Restoration Fund, the full funding of the Recreational Trails Program, implementing the EXPLORE Act, and supporting trails through annual appropriations that the blight of these firings and funding freezes are overshadowing.

We should be celebrating the bipartisan nature that public lands, outdoor recreation, trails, and hiking has always been and not fighting for the continued existence of America’s national treasure.

Yet this is where we find ourselves. We can’t do this alone. It will take all of us to speak out, contact our elected officials, donate to organizations like American Hiking Society, and step-up to volunteer to take care of trails where our federal land managers won’t be able to.