On Feb. 14, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), acting under head advisor Elon Musk’s orders, fired a little under 1,000 national park employees whose primary jobs included cleaning and providing maintenance to various park features. This mass firing is one of many efforts spearheaded by the Trump administration to eliminate many government jobs. Officials behind the move claim it was to reduce unnecessary government spending, but, despite this, it seems that critical and hardworking members of the national parks system were also dismissed in the mass firing. Some, like NC Newsline’s reporter Rob Schofield, are worried this could have a negative impact on the quality of national parks as a whole.
“Get ready for lots of trash, dirty restrooms, poorly maintained trails and a big shortage of employees to keep order and serve visitors,” Shofield said on Feb. 28 in a radio commentary piece. “And you can thank Trump and Musk for the mess.”
Beyond just frequent visitors of the parks, the terminations have also caused an uproar among former employees. Workers, especially those who had felt secure in their jobs, began criticizing the move publicly soon after the firings took place. Alli Pryor, who worked at Valley Forge National Park for nearly three years as a museum technician, described the chaotic aftermath of the event as “hell.”
“Every one of the employees who was fired is almost critically essential for not only the well-being of the parks and the visitors, but for the parks’ efficiency,” Pryor told the Pennsylvania Independent. “If you say you love America, why are you destroying a point of pride for us?”
Other employees took to social media to speak out about their issues with the firings, partially in an attempt to reverse them. Josh Barnes, one of the many employees fired from Carlsbad Caverns National Park, made an Instagram post that garnered thousands of likes and was included in a New York Times article. In the caption, he poured his heart out, detailing the shock he felt after receiving notice of his termination.
“I went into the NPS in 2023, interested in trying it out, and I fell in love with it. I love my fellow rangers, who are some of the best people I’ve ever met, and hurt for them deeply,” Barnes wrote.
Another former employee, biologist Kaesee Bourne, detailed her emotions regarding the sudden decision about her job as part of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).
“420 FWS employees & thousands of others across federal agencies, were terminated — not for performance, but because we were probationary, meaning we had completed less than a year of service,” she wrote in one of the slides of her Instagram post.
Probationary employees included those who had recently switched positions or agencies, so even employees with over ten years of experience were let go. After garnering greater public attention, even those unaffiliated with national parks were inspired to take action.
In early March, several national parks were flooded with protestors, all holding handcrafted signs displaying opposition to the sudden firings. From Yosemite National Park in California to Yellowstone’s Roosevelt Arch in Montana, many ex-employees as well as their friends and family made their dissent known. Though most protests consisted of just around 50 participants, their voices were heard across America. Soon after, rulings from judges in both Maryland and California stated that the firing of probationary workers could be seen as violating federal employment laws. However, there has been no real reversal yet.
“The Department of the Interior remains committed to its mission of managing the nation’s resources and serving the American people while ensuring fiscal responsibility,” the National Parks Service (NPS) said in an official statement to Advnture, an outdoor gear and activity publication. “The Department will comply with the court’s order while the White House works through the appeals process.”
Following this statement, the future of U.S. national parks remains hazy. Even though the NPS claims to be balancing money management alongside the parks system, it is unclear how such a sudden reduction in staff will affect service. The real impact of this move will likely become more clear as more time passes and legal battles further develop. This mass firing also has the potential to set a gruesome precedent for other federally funded national projects, leaving many wondering: will similar cuts happen at the Department of Labor, which ensures safe conditions for laborers? Or the Department of Health and Human Services, which deals with Medicare and Medicaid? Donald Trump recently signed another executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, which, on the upside, is legally complicated and unlikely to happen — since this department was created by Congress in 1979, only Congress has the power to abolish it.
Even still, a pattern of blindly slashing at different departments in an attempt to reduce government spending is an unwise one. Those who fear for the future of the federal government call for a more in-depth conversation about the structures set for removal. Simply reducing the size of the government without discrimination could mean critical structures that support underserved communities get accidentally eliminated. If national parks and public education are both considered expendable, what other institutions could be eliminated?