Last month, thousands of people gathered in national parks from California to Maine.
A group called Resistance Rangers — consisting of around 700 outlying rangers, including those fired from the National Park Service — attempted to organize protests in each of the country's 433 national parks on Saturday, confronting what is considered a threat to public land, including job openings. By the afternoon there were at least 145 sites, according to Nick Glover, a 30-year-old graduate student who helped organize the demonstrations at Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.
The protests took place at popular locations such as Yosemite in Northern California, Grand Canyon in Arizona, Acadia in Maine, Yellowstone in the northwest, Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Great Falls Park in Virginia, and Efiguy Mound National Monument in northeastern Iowa. Tensions are particularly high in Yosemite, with employees spreading the American flag in protest at iconic locations such as Yosemite Falls and El Pitan.
Glover said his group was concerned not only about shootings but also about possible threats to national monuments, including extracting resources into public lands and suggesting that the president would remove the power to designate national monuments.
The National Park Service said it is working with protest organizers to allow people to “securely exercise their First Amendment rights.”
At Joshua Tree, about 400 people gathered to protest. Some people who were rejected last month by six rangers at the park said it was part of a wave of cuts targeting federal employees who started work within the last year, and that the Trump administration is an effort to reduce government spending.
Deborah Anderson, who has lived in the area for decades, protested the signs that he “protect our parks.”
“What's happening right now is wrong,” Anderson, 52.
Dozens of people have been demonstrated near the Roosevelt Arch in Gardiner, Montana in Yellowstone up north, chanting “No public land for sale” and “Dowe with Doge,” referring to government efficiency, Elon Musk's outfit oversees employment cuts.
Before resigning in 2016, David Uberaga, who had worked with the National Park Service for over 30 years, including overseeing Grand Canyon National Park, urged people to take action, including calling representatives and senators in protest.
“We can't keep things going,” said Uber Aga, 74. And we cannot be disillusioned. ”
About 100 people protested at the Grand Canyon. Sean Adams, a 29-year-old seasonal worker who electrically represents invasive trout and conducts conservation studies on native fish, said the visitors were surprised by the park workers' firing.
“They didn't realize that it was affecting people like us, people who work consistently and consistently for more than 10 hours of day,” he said. “The money they save by cutting people like us is a bucket reduction.”
Along the country, about 150 people gathered on the statue mound, some of which are signs depicting Lorax, with Dr. Seuss' character “talking for the trees” and Smoky Bear, a symbol of the U.S. Forest Service's wildfire prevention efforts. Among the protesters was Brian Gibbs, 41, who was fired from his job as an education engineer at the monument.
For Gibbs, the forested landscape along the Mississippi River, home to the monument, has many sentimental value. He said his father camped there when he was a child. Later in his life, Gibbs told his wife that he was the first time in the area to love her. And this is where they took their 4-year-old son on his first hiking trip.
After all his experience at the monument, Gibbs said it was impressive to see it become a protest scene.
“It was a volcanic moment for me,” Gibbs said. Regarding the park, he added that the presidential administration “never surpassed my mind that they were targets.”
Mimi Dwyer Contributed reports from Jennifer Brown from Yosemite National Park and Gateway Arch in Los Angeles, St. Louis.
