During the last week, over 4,400 U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service workers were unceremoniously fired.
The government agencies in charge of overseeing public lands have been one of the targets in Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk's push to shrink the federal government. To comply, the NPS had earlier also rescinded hundreds of seasonal job offers across the country’s 63 national parks during the busy summer period.
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'Absolutely heartbroken and completely devastated': park ranger recounts being fired
In an emotional post he published on Facebook (META) , longtime educational ranger Brian Gibbs described the devastation he felt when losing his "dream job" on Valentine’s Day.
"I am absolutely heartbroken and completely devastated to have lost my dream job of an Education Park Ranger with the National Park Service this Valentine's Day," Gibbs wrote in a post that ended up going viral with over 92, 000 upvotes. "Access to my government email was denied mid-afternoon and my position was ripped out from out under my feet after my shift was over at 3:45 p.m. on a cold snowy Friday."
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While a White House representative said the cuts affected probationary workers, Gibbs had worked at different national parks since 2015. Most recently, he had been an educational ranger at Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa and also captured photographs of the landscape that were shared on NPS social media.
"I am my son's 'Junior Ranger' idol," Gibbs continued in the post which he signed off as Ranger Brian💚. "I am of the place where I first told my spouse I loved her. I am a college kid’s dream job. I am the smiling face that greets you at the front door. I am your family vacation planner."
'Things are not ok. I am not ok.'
Continuing the post, Gibbs also described the emotional impact of being abruptly left unemployed — of “wiping away [his] wife’s tears and reassuring her that things will be ok for us and our growing little family that she's carrying."
"Things are not ok,” Gibbs wrote further. “I am not ok. This is the second time in five years a dream job I worked has been eliminated.”
More on national parks:
- Now is the time to apply for permits for popular national park activity
- Multiple national parks warn of similar danger
- One of the biggest crimes committed in a national park is solved
Since the start of the current administration’s term, both national park workers and visitors have been warning against the consequences of cutting jobs from parks that have already been dealing with decades-long understaffing.
While workers tasked with emergency response have so far been exempt from job cuts, the biggest fear expressed by lawmakers is that there will not be enough staff available to reach visitors who end up in dangerous situations in some of the parks’ most remote areas and rugged terrains.
"Without seasonal staff during this peak season, visitor centers may close, bathrooms will be filthy, campgrounds may close, guided tours will be cut back or altogether canceled, emergency response times will drop, and visitor services like safety advice, trail recommendations, and interpretation will be unavailable," a letter that 17 Democratic and Independent lawmakers sent to newly confirmed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum at the end of January reads.
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