Denali Education Center cancels summer programming due to National Parks Service layoffs

For the last twenty-four years, the Denali Education Center (DEC) has partnered with the National Parks Service and Denali National Park to provide educational, and environmental programs for children. These Programs facilitate camping, hiking, and many other outdoor activities.

However, due to layoffs in the National Parks Service, the DEC stated it is canceling two of its summer programs: the Denali Discovery Camp and Denali Backcountry Adventures.

According to DEC Executive Director Jodi Rodwell, it came down to children’s safety. The National Parks Service has previously provided the program with critical risk management support.

“That risk management piece is really important,” Rodwell said, “having direct access to the comm-center through the radio system, and making sure that the kids are safe and that things are going okay because they they have encountered things out there.”

These layoffs are part of a wide-ranging initiative to reduce government spending. An initiative that Rodwell said could have major impacts.

“Some of the effects of the downsizing in our government affect things in ways that people just can’t predict,” she said, “Someone’s job in a position in the government doesn’t just affect something in isolation that there you know, everything is connected in some way.”