Sequester will freeze hiring and cut services at national parks across the country

Sequestration is hitting national parks across the country, forcing services and hours to be cut and jobs to go unfilled. Which means Wyoming Rep. Cynthia Lummis, who's upset about cuts at Yellowstone National Park, isn't the only Republican sequester-lover who's going to be feeling its effects hit home in her district.

Moore's Creek National Battlefield, in North Carolina, won't be filling a maintenance position, and will "limit the removal of invasive plant species, reduce their fire management plan and cut back on their staff's ability to analyze water quality."

Virginia national parks will make cuts including, at Richmond National Battlefield Park, closing some visitor centers for a second day each week and leaving a park education coordinator position unfilled, possibly halving the number of children for whom the park can provide educational programming. At Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, 11 positions, or about 25 percent of its workforce, are either already vacant or soon will be, and won't be filled.

The superintendent of Petrified Forest National Park, in Arizona, left five positions vacant ahead of time'two in administration, two in visitor services, and one in maintenance. That means there won't be as sharp of a drop-off in services as some parks face, but as at other parks, programming will be cut during the peak summer tourism months.

Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in Missouri will be cutting seasonal jobs'specifically, a Youth Conservation Corps gives disadvantaged teenagers summer jobs. As one former participant in the program says, "What we were doing was helping preserve something rather than just flipping burgers at McDonalds or somewhere."

That's just a small selection of the places where national parks will be cutting educational programming, visitor center hours, and jobs. And every one of them represented by at least one Republican whose constituents are being hurt by the sequester. Tell Republicans to give a damn about the people affected by these cuts and end the sequester.