Assateague Island, Maryland — The shoreline of Maryland’s Assateague Island is a familiar place for surfer Zack Tyndall.
A former firefighter paramedic, Tyndall often helped beachgoers there — but now, as the mayor of nearby Berlin, Maryland, he says safety isn’t guaranteed.
“I don’t want to see anybody drown,” Tyndall told CBS News. “We had saves where we were able to bring people out, and we had some where we weren’t able to, and that’s my biggest fear here on the island.”
The 37-mile-long Assateague Island is shared by both Maryland and Virginia. Each year, millions of people visit the Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland, which is managed by the National Park Service. However, this summer, visiting families are also seeing shuttered lifeguard towers and signs warning that no lifeguards are on duty.
CBS News asked the Park Service about the staffing situation on Assateague Island, but the agency did not directly respond to those questions – instead, saying in a statement that lifeguard shortages are a “nationwide concern even outside of our public lands. Many communities and cities across the country are experiencing a lifeguard shortage below ideal levels. Visitors have always had access to unguarded beaches and guarded beaches even after lifeguards leave for the day. We appreciate the public’s understanding and cooperation as we work to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for all.”
The Trump administration laid off about 1,000 NPS employees in February as part of its push, led by the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, to enact large-scale personnel and budgetary cuts across the federal government. President Trump also enacted a hiring freeze on federal permanent civilian employees immediately after taking office, which has impacted the Park Service. That hiring freeze has since been extended to July 15.
“This was a policy put into place by DOGE and the current Trump administration that led to a complete hiring freeze on all hiring across the National Park Service,” Ed Stierli, Mid-Atlantic region senior director of the National Parks Conservation Association, an independent Park Service advocacy group, told CBS News.
According to analysis released this week by the Conservation Association, the Park Service has lost 24% of its permanent staff since Mr. Trump took office in January. The analysis also determined that about 4,500 seasonal positions have been filled, including lifeguards, well under the 7,700 seasonal positions NPS earlier this year said it was aiming to fill.
“The reason there are no lifeguards at Assateague is honestly a symptom of the chaos and dysfunction that has been impacting this agency since the beginning of this administration,” Stierli said.
A Trump administration official told CBS News that all fire, law enforcement and public facing NPS personnel are prioritized to remain in place.
Tyndall, meanwhile, is just hoping for a safe summer in Maryland.
“Every day that we don’t have a lifeguard here on the beach is putting every one of these swimmers, every one of our local residents, everybody that comes to visit Assateague Island, in jeopardy,” Tyndall said.
And the situation could get worse with the proposed budget for fiscal year 2026, which calls for the Interior Department to cut more than $1 billion to the National Park Service, the largest such cut in its history.
