What is known is that among the fired in the NPS overall were approximately 1,000 workers. Approximately 4,700 employees were terminated at other public land management agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior. These probationary or provisional workers were in the first one or two years of employment or had been promoted or transitioned to a new position.
After the firings, reporting and social media stories revealed a common pattern as employees across many federal agencies described their ordeals. Many reported having very little time to prepare before they were locked out of their computers and email accounts, and kicked out of their offices. The administration’s rationale cited poor performance, despite workers saying that their personnel files showed otherwise.
Jeff Hunter, Southern Appalachian Director for the National Parks Conservation Association, works on a mix of advocacy and evidence-based projects to help the parks of the Southern Appalachians, such as the Blue Ridge Parkway and Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Hunter said that the firings represent 9 percent of the park service across all departments. “Big parks like the Smokies have sewage treatment plants, so they have staff members that are essentially running a city, with historic housing, infrastructure, and roadways,” he added. “These cuts are not going to help the visitor experience.”
Hunter emphasized these are public lands for all to enjoy. “Personally, I have a deep sense of gratitude for the sacrifice that these people make,” he said. “It’s not an easy job to deal with 13 million visitors a year in the Smokies. The process right now is not showing them that they are valued. That’s really hard on morale.”
“For every dollar that is spent on the parks, $15 is spent in local communities,” Hunter added. “Not that you can’t find efficiencies in any large organization, you can. But laying people off is not going to do it. Not when the park is already understaffed and stressed.”
Park statistics show that visitation in GSMNP generates over $2.2 billion in economic spending in surrounding communities while operating on a base budget of $22 million.
Until the new parking tag fee was implemented in 2023, funding for the park came from a combination of federal funding, camping and rental fees, concessions, and donations.
As Hellbender Press previously reported, this Park it Forward program generated $10 million in revenue in its first year to help offset some of the growing maintenance costs from high visitation. This revenue now helps make up for some of the deferred maintenance backlog of approximately $262 million, which grew in large part from years of stagnant or decreased funding from Congress. However, the loss of a dozen or more employees further hinders the park’s ability to provide a quality visitor experience and manage the environmental resources.
Hunter encourages the public to contact their elected representatives if they are concerned about the mass firings at NPS. He notes that the NPCA’s position is that everyone who has been fired should be rehired and there should not be an additional reduction in force.
Likewise, the AANP, together with the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, issued a recent joint statement appealing to the NPS to reinstate all of the recently terminated employees. Collectively, these two organizations have 4,000 members that include current NPS employees, retirees and volunteers.
When asked to comment about the firings, a spokesperson for the NPS told Hellbender Press, “The National Park Service is hiring seasonal workers to continue enhancing the visitor experience as we embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation in workforce management. We are focused on ensuring that every visitor has the chance to explore and connect with the incredible, iconic spaces of our national parks.”
The mass firings of probationary employees was found to be illegal, both by Office of Special Counsel/Merit Systems Protection Board as well as by U.S. District Judge William Alsup.