What park workers firings mean for L.A.’s natural wonders
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I felt conflicted as my friend Taran and I pulled into Death Valley National Park this past Friday evening. I was over the moon to attend the park’s annual Dark Sky Festival. I’d booked a campground months in advance so I could gaze at the stars in the desert. But I knew this was a challenging moment for the parks staff.
Just a week before our arrival, the Trump administration fired about 1,000 permanent National Park Service workers as part of a mass purging of tens of thousands of federal workers still in the probationary period of their jobs. When we pulled into the Furnace Creek campground, we were greeted with a sign on the ticket booth window.
“Death Valley has been impacted by the removal of dedicated employees who were let go without cause or notice,” it read. “Please bear with us during this transition.”
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The sentiment was familiar. This past week, I spoke with experts who told me that our parks are currently facing a triple threat that will harm them in the short and long term: a months-long delay in hiring seasonal workers after the Trump administration rescinded their jobs and then, following a public outcry, gave them back, the firing of permanent workers and potential budget cuts to the National Park Service and its contractors.
One of my first questions amid these cuts was: How will this affect the two natural wonders that are practically in L.A.’s backyard? That is, Channel Islands National Park and Santa Monica Mountains National Park. The experts I spoke to painted a dire picture.
A ‘terrifying’ funding freeze
Shortly after President Trump was inaugurated, his administration froze and unfroze trillions of dollars, a “terrifying” move that affected all of the federal money that the Santa Monica Mountains Fund, a nonprofit and official partner of its namesake national park, receives, said Executive Director Deanna Armbruster. The organization’s budget is only $3 million and relies heavily on federal grants.
Although the Trump administration did not follow through with the funding freeze, it took several days for the money to return to the system where the Santa Monica Mountains Fund withdraws it. None of the money that came from the Biden-era Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was returned, Armbruster said.
“Those funds specifically for us are for wildfire recovery work,” Armbruster said.
The Palisades fire had just burned through the Santa Monica Mountains, and Armbruster spent days worried she’d have to lay off the workers whose jobs it would be to restore the charred landscape. Fifteen people were at risk of losing their jobs, including those who yank invasive plants like mustard and castor bean from the hillsides, weeds that make wildfires worse.
Other staffers whose jobs were threatened run the organization’s farms, where they collect native seed for restoration purposes.
“We had invested a year’s worth of work into building this farm, and I was out there yesterday looking at it thinking that all of this work is going to go away, and the plants are going to die because we’re not going to have the crew to be able to come out and care for them,” Armbruster said.
The organization also wouldn’t be able to host volunteer planting events without those staffers, who oversee and train helpers. That effort is crucial to scaling the Santa Monica Mountains Fund’s local impact on improving wildfire resistance.
The day I spoke to Armbruster, she’d just learned the money from the Biden-era law had finally been unfrozen. She’d planned to talk to me at 2 p.m. and then lay off 15 people at 3. She was shaking and relieved she no longer had to do that.
Still, Armbruster said she doesn’t know how her organization will survive without continued federal money. The group employs 58 people and usually hires dozens of seasonal workers in the summer.
If the Trump administration eliminates its federal funding and no other funder steps up to help, “it’s literally the difference between preserving and protecting our mountains, or not,” she said. “A lot of times we forget that if we don’t provide a habitat, the animals that live there are going to suffer, and there’s not going to be a place for them to relocate. We’re going to lose the habitat, and then we’re going to lose the animal populations.”
Armbruster and her team used to work alongside the eight staffers who were fired from Santa Monica Mountains National Park, which included workers focused on archaeology, wildlife research (including mountain lion studies), special park use (like getting permits for filming or wedding rentals) and emergency medical response.
Issues from these firings are and will continue to be felt systemwide, said Cassidy Jones, senior visitation program manager at the National Parks Conservation Assn.
Fired workers included administrative workers who perform background checks for seasonal workers, maintenance staff who kept water treatment systems running; staffers who reopen restrooms and shovel snow and clear rocks off trails; engineers who address how to fix serious damage like landslides and interpretive staff who educate visitors daily about a park’s culture, wildlife and plants, Jones said.
And not everyone who was fired was a new employee. Some permanent workers who lost their jobs had been with the park service for decades but had recently moved to a new position, Jones said. All of these fired workers lost their health insurance. Some of them even lost their housing.
A trickle-down effect
The firings affected workers in many departments, meaning the impact and delays will be wide-reaching, Jones said. Teachers will notice it’s nearly impossible to schedule field trips. Hikers will notice permits that are normally available through a lottery aren’t posted yet on recreation.gov, the government’s online reservation system. And visitors wanting to book cave tours or camp will notice delays in those opportunities coming online.
In light of the firings, it remains unclear whether parks such as Yosemite National Park will implement a reservation system, which in recent years has helped with crowd control. Jones said that means parks could be crowded this summer, and it’s crucial that visitors to national parks understand just how hard the remaining staff is working.
“You’ve got to pack your patience and be kind to other visitors,” Jones, a former ranger, said. “There’s not very many [workers], and they’re doing their very best.”
Kenan Chan, a marine scientist, was a permanent worker at Channel Islands National Park. He worries that Trump’s confusing orders related to seasonal and permanent park staff will muddle the public’s ability to understand and react to it. He’s particularly concerned that people won’t fully grasp why the loss of permanent staff remains significant.
Chan started working at the Channel Islands about 10 years ago, including as a seasonal worker for four seasons. He started his full-time position in October and was in his probationary period. His job was to collect data from the islands’ tide pools and kelp forests to document the health, well-being and changes of the islands’ landscape. Both projects were launched by the park service in 1982.
Over the last four decades, park researchers have documented widespread and dramatic changes to the park’s marine ecosystem, Chan told me, including declines in abalone and loss of kelp beds around several of the islands. In his time there, Chan has conducted about 500 dives and spent 30,000 minutes underwater at the islands.
The data he gathers during those dives — which includes counting giant kelp and fish — provides essential information for the rest of the scientific community, who can use it to determine whether they should perform restoration work or raise awareness about species in decline.
Without Chan, there are only two full-time employees left, one to monitor the park’s five islands’ tide pools and another to monitor its kelp forests. Usually, about five seasonal workers will help collect data for about six months. Seasonal workers serve a role similar to substitute teachers, who are critical for the education system to function but might not have the expertise yet to teach full time, Chan said.
‘It’s an everybody thing’
An added insult, the six workers laid off from Channel Islands weren’t given the necessary paperwork to file for unemployment, and their termination letters state that they “failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment because of your subject matter knowledge, skills, and abilities.” It could make being rehired a challenge. Chan refused to sign it. As other park workers have communicated in their Instagram posts, Chan had stellar performance, he said.
Chan said he and his colleagues take an oath to serve their country and never wanted to bring politics into their jobs.
“These lands were created for everybody,” Chan said. “Cutting these jobs to these federal lands and other federal entities hurts everybody. If you enjoy your national parks, if you enjoy your national forests or public lands, this has an impact on you. It’s not a Democrat thing. It’s not a Republican thing. It’s an everybody thing.”
The experts I spoke with hope that people will keep contacting their lawmakers to make their support for public lands known. The National Park Service’s budget is 1/15th of 1% of the federal budget. Still, they fear the firings of National Park Service workers is only the beginning.
3 things to do
1. Walk and bike for a good cause in Culver City
Walk ‘n Rollers will host its annual Walk More Bike More Festival from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday at Ivy Station in Culver City. The event raises money for Walk ‘n Rollers’ adopt-a-bike program, which has refurbished and donated more than 350 bikes to families in need. This year, bikes will be primarily donated to families affected by recent wildfires. At the festival, guests can participate in free bike repairs, a scavenger hunt and a prize raffle. There will also be e-bike and skateboard demos. The event is free, but registration is requested, with the option to donate. Register at walkmorebikemore.org.
2. Maintain trails at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook
The Parks Project will host its quarterly trail maintenance day from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook Park (6300 Hetzler Road in Culver City). Volunteers will repair trails, reinforce berms, improve switchbacks and trim vegetation. Drinks and snacks will be provided. Register at parksprojectdiscoverycenter.us.
3. Build bikes in Mar Vista to help Eaton fire survivors
Bikerowave Co-op needs volunteers with bike wrenching experience to prep bikes that will be donated to people affected by the Eaton fire. The repair event will be from 2 to 8 p.m. Friday at its shop (12255 Venice Blvd.). The shop has several bikes to repair but welcomes donations. All bikes will be checked by a head mechanic before they’re distributed. Learn more at the shop’s Instagram page.
The must-read
Once while walking my dog in our neighborhood in Koreatown, I spotted a man with a telescope set up outside his small garage. “Can you actually see anything?” I yelled over. He enthusiastically replied, “Yes!” Los Angeles actually has a longtime stargazer club, the Los Angeles Astronomical Society. Founded in 1926, the group still meets regularly. Times staff writer Karla Marie Sanford attended the group’s February meeting and found a welcoming eclectic community. Even through L.A.’s notorious light pollution, guests spotted Jupiter and its moons, Mars, and constellations such as Orion. “It’s a good reminder that there’s things bigger than us,” said attendee Emily Guarin, 26. “I was staring at the lines of Jupiter, and it’s like I am here and Jupiter is there, and it doesn’t even know I’m looking at it.”
Tonight is a new moon, which means it’s a fine time to go outside and look up!
Happy adventuring,
P.S.
This week, the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space District awarded $17 million to nonprofits, cities and county departments to buy land for parks. The money will be used to buy an estimated 623 acres of new parkland. Baldwin Park will use its $2-million award to buy a half-acre on Puente Avenue and create a pocket park. Other organizations will use the money to repair land damaged by recent wildfires. We needed some good park news, folks!
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