The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore has already reduced its staff, yet the results speak louder than all the warnings we’ve heard for years. The bathrooms are clean, the visitor centers are open, the trails are clear, and the experience for visitors is just as strong as ever. The truth is undeniable, the system runs, and it runs well, even with fewer employees.For decades, the National Park Service has repeated the same line, that without more funding, without more staff, everything would fall apart. They said the parks would crumble, that the experience would be ruined, that safety would vanish. But when the staff reductions actually came, the collapse never happened. The chaos they promised didn’t arrive. Instead, the Apostle Islands showed us something different, that the parks don’t need armies of employees to keep functioning.This moment is a reminder of something bigger, that necessity and efficiency are not the same thing. The employees who left were not as essential as they claimed. The warnings were exaggerated. The qualifications were overstated. The reality is that fewer people did the same job, and the islands kept welcoming visitors just as before. That’s not weakness, that’s proof.We are told constantly that the solution is always more, more money, more programs, more staff. But the Apostle Islands prove that less can be enough. That a smaller, leaner system can still maintain the beauty, the access, and the experience that truly matters. And it proves that the dire predictions we hear from government agencies are not the final word, but just another attempt to hold onto funding and power.This isn’t about tearing down the parks, it’s about seeing them clearly. It’s about recognizing that the National Park Service doesn’t need endless budgets to preserve what matters most. The Apostle Islands are thriving not because of bloated payrolls, but because nature itself draws people here. The real strength is the land, the water, the caves, and the history, not the bureaucracy behind it.The lesson is clear, we don’t need to depend on the Park Service’s constant demands. We don’t need to buy into the fear that without them, everything will collapse. The Apostle Islands prove that what truly matters endures. And that truth should inspire us to challenge the myths, to reject the idea that more government is always the answer, and to embrace the reality that less can be more, and still enough.
Apostle Islands