In the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, “There is nothing so American as our national parks.The fundamental idea behind the parks…is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us.”
Current President of the United States Donald J. Trump has made it increasingly clear throughout his two terms in the Oval Office that he does not care for the American National Parks and public lands that President Roosevelt described. Having run all three of his presidential campaigns under the slogan “Make America Great Again,” someone who attacks the public lands of the United States is not one who is making the country great again.
On Feb. 14, 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) targeted the country’s public land bureaus, letting a number of workers from the National Park Service, the National Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, according to AP News. Approximately 1,000 newly hired National Park employees were fired by DOGE in its effort to reduce government size and spending.
In addition to these firings, President Trump signed presidential orders to reduce Bear Ears National Monument and rescind bans on leases to oil drilling companies in Gates of the Arctic National Wildlife refuge, according to whitehouse.gov.
Taylor Sink, an archaeologist at Channel Islands National Park, had only been in full uniform for two months before he was let go on Feb. 14. Sink said that many rangers have taken drastic measures to do the work they do for the little that they are paid. He said that some rangers have lived in their cars or utilized food stamps in order to survive, describing that rangers are “more concerned with protecting America’s natural resources than they are their own financial well being.”
“We understand that not everything we do is quantifiable by the same metrics that everyone considers significant, you know, but the idea that we are in any way leeching money off of the average person next door or that we’re not doing very much work or that we’re freeloaders is just so far from the truth,” Sink said.
Another ranger from Channel Islands National Park, who wished to remain anonymous given the sensitive nature of the topic, described the email they received informing them of their termination as “a stab in the heart.”
“Once these places that are so special, that protect our history, our American history, our human history and our beautiful natural resources, all these places that are so gorgeous, once those things are gone, you can’t get them back,” they said.
Following a number of protests at national park sites around the country in February and March of 2025, including one at Ventura County’s Channel Islands Visitor Center, the National Park Service was authorized to rehire a number of previously terminated employees. Regardless of the fact that these employees were rehired, the original attempt to rid the federal workforce of them emphasizes this administration’s priorities.
According to the National Park Service, the parks resulted in a “record year” in 2023, recording a $55.6 billion benefit to the United States’ economy – while working with a budget of $3.1 billion. Additionally, the NPS reported supporting 415,400 jobs that year.
“This is unprecedented and potentially catastrophic what’s happening now. These are not things we can undo, we should not be pretending that any of this is normal,” Sink said.
Claudia Zimmerly, a rental property owner near Yosemite National Park, said she has already begun to feel the burden of these cuts. She said that this year she has already seen fewer reservations for her property, including a Canadian traveler who cancelled their reservation due to the current political climate within the United States.
How can we fix the American economy if Americans are actively losing their jobs and incomes from public lands?
Apart from the obvious financial benefit the national parks have brought the American economy through recreation and visitation, Sink said they provide much more for all generations, as places you go to better your health while enjoying beautiful things.
“We’ve all been next to the tablet kid at the restaurant, who’s just sitting there playing real loud tablet music all the time, everyone looks at this kid and says, ‘This kid needs to get outside.’ Well, where [is] that outside gonna be?” Sink said.
Sink explained that when it comes to the national parks and public lands of the country, one does not get to pick and choose what aspects of them they get to support. He said that you cannot separate the importance of scientists from firefighters or law enforcement rangers, describing them as “one in the same.”
“It’s really just to make sure that the resources we grew up loving, that we grew up knowing, that is iconic to this country and is just a healthy natural landscape, we want to make sure they’re still there for the next generations,” Sink said.
Our nation’s history is written within these natural spaces. They are the traditional lands of the people and wildlife who called these places home long before the United States of America was even a concept in the founding father’s minds.
Sink described his work as an archaeologist within the Channel Islands as a last ditch effort to “salvage what we can with the time we have.”
“For me, the important part is we are preserving these sites that are significant to Indigenous persons who have been here since time immemorial, these are intertwined with the landscape,” Sink said.
During a speech delivered in North Carolina in 2020, President Trump said, “Under this administration you will never be abandoned. I will always stand proudly with our Native American communities, always.”
Firing people qualified to protect and document these Indigenous archaeological sites is not “standing with” Native American communities; it is turning your back on them. In my opinion, it seems like Trump’s administration is willing to let these sites be forgotten or abandoned in hopes of financial gain.
We are currently running a knife’s edge in regards to our planet’s climate and disappearing wilderness. Regardless of the fact that these places fall within the boundaries of the United States, we are just visitors to them. The flora and fauna that reside in them deserve a home and the peoples that came long before our country deserve places to remember and honor their cultural history.
“We should not be normalizing this behavior, we need to normalize that the appropriate response to this is shock and outrage,” Sink said.
The rangers and workers of the United States public lands are the true experts, trained to protect these places and the beautiful things they contain. If you support these cuts to the National Park Service and other public land agencies, I hope you never need a ranger’s help because how could you ever call on them for assistance when you have turned your back on them now?
Our public lands are under attack and need us now more than ever.
