The National Park Service's Loss is Our Loss

(Source: National Parks Conservation Association)

Late yesterday afternoon my social media feeds lit up with announcements from friends and others that they had been laid off by the federal government. Roughly 1,000 National Park Service employees learned, with little warning and with no additional information, that their positions had been terminated.

Those impacted were at the beginning of the their NPS careers. These are people who committed themselves to protecting and interpreting some of our most important natural and historic resources. These are places that most of us give little thought to, but assume that when the time is right they will be open to visit and enjoyed.

There appears to be no rhyme or reason behind the massive layoffs that are taking place across the federal government. The Trump administration and DOGE, led by Elon Musk, have offered nothing in the way of an explanation as to how these decisions are being made. Even the National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons, was targeted with layoffs before the mistake was caught and reversed.

I am sick to my stomach this morning as I think about the careers and families that are being upended by this chaos and the sheer cruelty that has already come to define this presidency.

Right now, the livelihoods of NPS and other federal employees boils down to a line item on a budget that appears entirely disposable to a 20 year old employed by an oligarch that hovers over the president at daily news conferences.

I want to share just one person’s heartbreak at receiving the news of his firing yesterday. I don’t know Brian, but my heart goes out to him and his family. He posted this on his personal Facebook page.

Brian’s loss is our loss. It is the nation’s loss and it is going to have reverberations for years to come.

Will the next generation come to see the NPS as a place to live out their dreams and do the essential work that will preserve these sites for posterity. I have my doubts.

I’ve heard through the grapevine that Gettysburg National Military Park lost three employees and that at another Civil War site, the entire interpretive staff was gutted. [I will share additional details about this as they become available.]

Events are already being cancelled. We are already seeing the impact of the firings here in Massachusetts, where we are getting ready to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Lexington and Concord. Minuteman National Historic Park, which oversees this history, has already cancelled one event in March due to lack of staffing.

I can only imagine what this means for the anniversary itself in April, along with other planned programs over the next few years to commemorate events central to this nation’s founding.

In response to my post yesterday about Stonewall National Monument, a dear friend of mine, who devoted decades of his life to the National Park Service shared the following. I urge you to read it in its entirety:

Despite our fears, during the last Trump administration, we received little in the way of direction or commentary from above that might have affected how an individual park told its story (in my case, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP). Not in four years did I receive a directive that affected the work our staff was doing on the ground, every day, with thousands of visitors. We continued to challenge visitors to see the battles and the war through the broader lens of history and through the varied eyes all who were affected by the conflict--enslaved, free, civilian, soldiers, on the battlefields and on the home front. With few exceptions (Kevin knows and has documented those well), visitors appreciated having more ways to engage the story. They appreciated seeing these events as a human experience with immense implications for the nation and those affected. In fact, I'd offer that the period between 2015 and 2021 represented the greatest leap forward this nation has ever experienced in terms of understanding the American Civil War and its place in American culture.

This time around seems a different animal altogether. My heart breaks for the young people--committed and energetic--who have had their seasonal hires squashed and those early in their careers who may have their appointments terminated. It's impossible to overstate how important the constant infusion of young, smart, questioning minds have been to the evolution of interpretation in the NPS--not just at battlefields. They have affected even some of the hardest and most traditional old souls in the NPS (there are more than a few).

I lament for those professionals who will be told to do less than their best when it comes to the practice of history or science, who have to measure their statements and research not against historical evidence and scholarship, but the proclamations of ahistorical or anti-historical operatives.

The flat-hatted Park Ranger is an iconic symbol of American's engagement with their nation in all its forms--its places, its history, and the many lessons both have for us. They point (a lot), they famously gesticulate. They often also know more about the places they interpret than anyone on earth. They engage millions of visitors every year.

The engagement of those visitors with the places and stories of the National Park Service is essential to the health of our nation. NPS sites--and the people who work at them--help Americans connect across generations, across cultures, over distances. They help foster among visitors a common connection to our nation by helping them see their place in the American mosaic. That essential, fundamental mission is threatened. And, sadly, that seems to be the point.

This beautifully captures what we have already lost and what we stand to lose in the coming years.

Spring will be here before you know it and Americans will once again hit this nation’s roads to visit and enjoy many of the natural and historic resources overseen by the National Park Service.

But if a site is unexpectedly closed or is understaffed. If programs that normally take place are not available or if the facility appears messy and trash hasn’t been picked up on schedule, please don’t take your frustrations out on the staff. They are doing their best under very difficult circumstances.

And if you happened to have voted for Donald Trump and are looking for someone to blame, I urge you take a long look into the mirror.