UPPER DELAWARE RIVER, NY and PA — The opening weeks of President Donald Trump’s second tenure have seen the incoming administration embark on a rapid overhaul of critical governmental functions. The Upper Delaware Council (UDC), a nonprofit partnership charged with protecting the Upper Delaware River, heard on February 6 how the uncertainty caused by that overhaul is affecting river management agencies. 

Lindsey Kurnath, National Park Service (NPS) Superintendent for the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River (UPDE), told the council the park service had been hit by a 90-day hiring freeze, along with the rest of the federal government. 

“We do have permanent staff whose offers were rescinded, both people coming and going, and then all of our seasonal staff have had their offers rescinded,” Kurnath said. 

Seasonal positions with UPDE for the summer 2024 season included two seasonal park rangers, according to a 2024 press release. 

“Park rangers play a vital role in protecting and caring for the Upper Delaware River and helping our visitors to recreate safely and responsibly,” reads the press release. It lists park ranger responsibilities as including interacting with visitors at boat launch sites, patrolling the Delaware River to promote safe river recreation, and presenting education programs to youth groups and summer camps. 

Any position slated to start after February 9 was affected, said Kurnath. “People had started moving; people had done a lot of things,” she said. 

The 90-day hiring freeze will last into April.  

Separately from the hiring freeze, the federal government attempted to institute a freeze on the dispersal of federal funds. While the freeze was blocked in federal court, reports nationally have been made of lingering issues accessing funding. 

The funding freeze impacted the operations of the UDC, which receives nearly 100 percent of its funding from the federal government. 

The UDC was unable to access its federal funding account from Monday, when the order came into effect, until Thursday afternoon at around 3 p.m., a day after the order was rescinded, said UDC Executive Director Laurie Ramie. 

“We had four days of a lot of uncertainty, and not a lot of explanations were given,” said Ramie. 

Following the hiccough in the UDC’s ability to access its funding, Ramie looked into whether the UDC could transfer money from its federal bank account to its own account, to create a buffer in case of any further interruptions. 

The answer was “no,” Ramie found. “The policy is that we can only withdraw the exact amount of direct immediate expenses as a reimbursement, essentially, and cannot take out any extra dollars to have as a cushion.”