Park rangers fired from the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and Channel Islands National Park heard Thursday that their jobs will soon be reinstated. The nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Assn. said in a news release Thursday that as a result of recent court orders, \u201cthe National Park Service is authorized to fully reinstate 1,000 previously terminated probationary employees at national parks across the country.\u201d Fired workers included rangers, law enforcement officers, firefighters and other critical personnel, the group said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe American people love our national parks and want them protected for future generations,\u201d Theresa Pierno, the group\u2019s president and chief executive, said in a statement. \u201cIt\u2019s time the administration listened. We won\u2019t stop fighting until these attacks on our national parks come to an end.\u201d Workers contacted Thursday by The Times declined to speak on the record, fearing it would jeopardize their reinstatements.<\/p>\n
On Feb. 14, about 1,000 National Park Service permanent workers who hadn\u2019t finished their probationary period were fired as part of a waste-cutting effort led by Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk\u2019s White House advisory team, which he calls the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
\nThe Channel Islands National Park visitors center in Ventura, Calif.
\n(John Antczak \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n
The decision was the second park-related cut by the Trump administration that was met with widespread opposition spanning the political spectrum. In January, thousands of seasonal park workers were told they wouldn\u2019t be hired this season. Public outcry in defense of national parks broke out in the form or protests and social media posts, and the Trump administration walked back the effort about a month later. On March 1, thousands of people \u2014 including hundreds at local fixtures like Joshua Tree National Park, the Channel Islands Ventura office and the Santa Monica Mountains \u2014 rallied at parks to show their support for fired permanent park workers. Another nationwide \u201cProtect the Parks\u201d rally is planned for Saturday with events scheduled in Calabasas and Ventura.<\/p>\n
Fired workers included about eight staffers at Santa Monica Mountains near L.A. and six at Channel Islands. At the Santa Monica Mountains, fired workers included an emergency response worker and a park ranger trained in land management. Two archaeologists tasked with surveying land at the Santa Monica Mountains were also fired. Katie Preston, one of the archaeologists fired, told The Times at the March rally that it was unclear how the $400,000 allocated for them to survey the park for cultural resources would be spent without any staff left to do the job. Only 30% of the Santa Monica Mountains have been surveyed, meaning potential historical landmarks and sacred Indigenous sites remain unknown and unprotected.
\nSanta Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park. Scorpion Ranch, 2019.
\n(Christopher Reynolds \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
At Channel Islands, marine scientist Kenan Chan, who surveyed the park\u2019s kelp forests and tide pools, was fired. Channel Islands National Park has collected data through its full-time staff and seasonal workers on its kelp forests and tide pools since 1982. His firing meant only two full-time workers were left to conduct the research. Chan said Thursday on Instagram after a \u201cmonth full of uncertainty, stress, sadness and frustration\u201d he was grateful to be headed back to work. Chan thanked everyone who had rallied to support the fired workers. \u201cI still have not received any official documents confirming I am once again an employee, but I am hopeful,\u201d Chan said. \u201cWe are back. We did it.\u201d Park ranger Lydia Jones, who was fired from Badlands National Park in South Dakota, said Thursday on Instagram that she was thrilled to share that she had been reinstated but was still concerned by the possibility of future cuts.<\/p>\n
The reinstatement of fired park workers is a significant victory for the National Parks Conservation Association and the thousands of people who rallied in support of the workers. However, the possibility of future cuts remains a concern, and the association has vowed to continue fighting to protect the national parks.<\/p>\n
Introduction to the Reinstatement of Fired Park Workers Background on the Firing of Park Workers Park rangers fired from the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and Channel Islands National Park heard Thursday that their jobs will soon be reinstated. The nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Assn. said in a news release Thursday that as a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/d8bcad8\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/3929x2063+0+325\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F55%2Fc6%2Fbe0d83af4f5087b81a3ead43b37a%2F1496702-me-protect-parks-protest-01-mjc.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10546,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544\/revisions\/10546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}