From layoffs to billion-dollar budget cuts and ideological battles over history itself, the National Park Service is facing one of the most turbulent moments in its 109-year history.

Reporter Heath Druzin hikes deep into Yellowstone National Park’s backcountry with biologist Doug Smith, who helped reintroduce wolves to the park 30 years ago. The program transformed the ecosystem but could be at risk in future rounds of budget cuts. 

Also particularly at risk: biologists and other scientists whose conservation work happens behind the scenes. Reveal’s Nadia Hamdan talks to Andria Townsend, a carnivore biologist at Yosemite National Park who tracks endangered fishers and Sierra Nevada red foxes. 

“I would say myself and every other federal employee has not felt safe in their position,” Townsend says. “It makes it challenging to feel that same passion and drive that you maybe had for your work before.”

Meanwhile in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, reporter Najib Aminy attends a Civil War reenactment. He meets hobbyists and historians grappling with a new executive order from the Trump administration that directs the National Park Service to strip away what it calls “partisan ideology” from monuments and signage.

This week on Reveal: what’s really at stake in the battle over America’s parks.

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