Some Pa. campsites shuttered by DOGE are back open. Others may not be open all summer.
At Raystown, the Army Corps knows who it would like to hire, but the agency is waiting for approval.
The Army Corps of Engineers officially reopened a campground in rural Tioga County that was shuttered by “executive-order driven staffing shortages,” and hundreds more on Pennsylvania’s largest lake are in the process of reopening, too.
It’s unclear, however, whether that will happen before summer ends for Raystown Lake’s 300 campsites.
“It would be speculation, because we have not been provided with a timeline,” said Cynthia Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the Army Corps’ Baltimore office.
Tompkins Campground, on Tioga-Hammond and Cowanesque Lakes, officially reopened its 125 campsites to outdoor enthusiasts on June 30, according to an Army Corps news release, and they will remain open until Oct. 14, extending the normal recreation season there by nearly six weeks.
At Raystown Lake, in Huntingdon County, 300 campsites at Seven Points, Susquehannock, and Nancy’s Boat-to-Shore Campgrounds remain closed for now.
“We have seen some progress, but it hasn’t trickled down to Raystown yet,” Mitchell said.
In March, the Army Corps’ Baltimore office announced that campsites on the 8,600-acre lake would be closed indefinitely due to staffing shortages. Those staffing shortages would require the Army Corps to focus on “dam operations for flood protection and emergency response readiness” ahead of the 2025 season.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency targeted cutbacks at a slew of government agencies, including the Army Corps. Musk announced he was leaving DOGE in late May.
Mitchell said the Army Corps was recently granted a “categorical exemption” for seasonal hires at recreation sites.
“That didn’t necessarily allow us to immediately begin hiring, unfortunately,” she said.
At Raystown, Mitchell said the Army Corps already knows who it would like to hire — including seasonal rangers and custodial staff — but the agency needs to wait for final approval from the Department of the Army.
“What we were not provided, unfortunately, is what that timeline looks like,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said it could be possible to extend the campground season at Raystown, similar to what the Army Corps did on Tioga-Hammond and Cowanesque Lakes.
When The Inquirer visited Raystown Lake on Memorial Day weekend, local businesses that depend on a steady stream of campers said they were already suffering.
“Is this hurting our business? Yeah, it’s hurting our business,” Kris Paterson, manager of Backwoods Smoke Shack, said at the time. “It could destroy us this summer. We get a lot of campers here, all summer.”
Mitchell said several elected officials in Pennsylvania have been in communication with the Army Corps. None of those officials immediately returned requests for comment Thursday.