Scribble

Randy Kalp

00:00:06

We were at Zion as the first protest broke out.

Madeleine Wilson

00:00:12

I attended the rally at Mount Rainier National Park.

David Rind

00:00:18

On March 1st, thousands of protesters gathered at national parks across the country.

Protestor

00:00:25

So I'm here at the Grand Canyon.

Aiyana Grace

00:00:29

I am from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I drove down to the Indiana Dunes National Park.

'Erica Sutton-Rivera

00:00:36

Probably close to 180 to 200 people in the snow, together with families and signs.

David Rind

00:00:46

They were there to push back against Elon Musk, his Department of Government Efficiency, and the mass firings of federal workers, which had hit park rangers, scientists, and more.

Victoria Leen

00:00:56

I attended the protest because I am deeply concerned about the federal layoffs and underemployment of our public land.

Protestor

00:01:06

Rehire rangers!

Victoria Leen

00:01:07

My question is, how can we appropriately manage our forests without the appropriate number of Forest Service and Fish and Game employees to manage these contracts and make the important assessments about the health of our wildlife populations and ecosystems?

Randy Kalp

00:01:22

We just found out yesterday that the national parks had a record year last year. However, there was an internal memo that was sent out to the park services to not publicly display these numbers, to not talk about these numbers.

Alex Haraus

00:01:35

ROCKY MOUNTAIN! I went to Rocky Mountain because I see the attacks happening to our federal lands and waters and wanted to uplift others standing for them. We are really, really lucky to have the privilege to live here and see these places, and that privilege can be taken away. It's up to us to keep it.

David Rind

00:02:07

Activists are warning these cuts could impact millions of visitors who come to the parks each year. We're about to get into peak season after all. Long lines, less first responders, bathrooms running low on supplies. They say it's all on the table. But they also say there's something more at stake.

President Donald Trump

00:02:23

My, my, my. What is that all about?

Staff Secretary

00:02:26

First we have Alaska, sir. This is an executive order relating to unleashing Alaska's potential as an energy reservoir for the entire nation.

David Rind

00:02:33

Since Inauguration Day, the Trump administration has pulled out of the Paris climate accords. It's rolled back a slew of climate and pollution regulations. Drill baby drill is the order of the day.

President Donald Trump

00:02:44

This next one, sir, is a declaration of a national energy emergency. That's a big one. You know what that allows you to do.That means you can do whatever you have to do to get out of that problem. And we do have that kind of an emergency.

David Rind

00:03:01

It all has these activists worried that development could soon be coming for spaces they once thought were untouchable. Today, two park employees, caught up in DOGE's crosshairs, tell us what the park cuts mean for visitors and the future of conservation, both natural and historical. From CNN, this is One Thing, I'm David Rind.

Andria Townsend

00:03:30

I was at my office on a Friday afternoon and I had been in conversation with my supervisor about it throughout the day because we sort of knew it was coming. So it wasn't a surprise when I got it, but it was definitely just like a sinking shock.

David Rind

00:03:52

This is Andria Townsend. She had been working as a wildlife biologist at Yosemite National Park in California since last May, when she got the news that the DOGE cuts would be hitting her directly.

Andria Townsend

00:04:04

'And I was a supervisor at the time I was supervising eight people and one of my employees also got terminated and I actually got the email that he was getting terminated first since I was a supervisor. I got an email telling me, hey, we're firing one of your employees. And then about an hour later, I got the e-mail saying I was being terminated.

David Rind

00:04:26

Did they give a reason as to why?

Andria Townsend

00:04:27

I was deemed not necessary based on my qualifications and skills basically, is what the termination letter said, despite having multiple performance reviews that said I was, that I was meeting all of the standards set in my position.

David Rind

00:04:43

What's more, Townsend said she was not even paid directly by the federal government. Her salary was funded by an outside nonprofit. And her specific title was not one I'd ever heard of before, carnivore specialist. Her team was in charge of looking at two carnivores in particular.

Andria Townsend

00:04:59

Fishers and Sierra Nevada red foxes are the two carnivore species for the terrestrial wildlife division in Yosemite that we have active research projects on.

David Rind

00:05:10

So you said they're endangered, like so how many foxes are roaming around at this point?

Andria Townsend

00:05:14

Sierra Nevada red foxes are, I think they put the estimates of between 18 and 39 individuals. So really, really small isolated population.

David Rind

00:05:24

Wow that's not a lot.

Andria Townsend

00:05:24

Yeah, fishers are doing a little bit better. There's not super clear numbers for them, but the Southern Sierra Nevada population, we estimate less than 500 individuals and possibly as few as 100.

David Rind

00:05:37

Wait, what's a fisher?

Andria Townsend

00:05:39

So a fisher is a mammal in the weasel family and the Mastelidae family, the coolest family of mammals. So they live in mid elevation mixed coniferous forests and they're brown, they're about the size of a house cat. They're carnivores, they climb trees and give birth in tree cavities. They're a super cool animal that's endemic to North America.

David Rind

00:06:02

Oh yeah, I just Googled it. That is the cutest thing I've ever seen. So it seems like you're in charge of making sure that these extremely cute creatures are doing okay.

Andria Townsend

00:06:14

Yeah, specifically for them in the southern Sierra Nevada populations, I'm just one of many dedicated scientists working to try to recover both of these endangered species. So in the Fisher program that left seven people to continue on without supervision and without one of their really important colleagues.

David Rind

00:06:38

Do you have a sense of how it's going, like how they're getting on?

Andria Townsend

00:06:42

You know, they're all extremely amazing people that are fantastic at their jobs. So they just, you know, they picked up the slack and you know with, we were in the middle of our capture season because we capture fishers to put radio collars on them so we can see where they go. And so losing myself and one of my staff during our capture seasons, you know hindered our capture efforts. And so that means that we collect less data. That means we know less about our fisher population. And it's hard to really quantify what types of impacts that could have on our recovery efforts. And myself, I, as a program coordinator, oversee all of our collaborations with outside agencies. I write our reports, I apply for grants, I manage our budgets. I supervise the technicians. So, all of the... processes that go into a research program, basically were halted since I've left. And that has impacts on, in the park, how we communicate with our park managers who are doing park projects, and also potential impacts for wildfire response in this coming summer, and how that impacts fisher populations. My job is kind of behind the scenes, right? So... What I do isn't necessarily going to impact what the visitors experience when they come to the park directly, but it's having major impacts on the resources that are being protected in the parks.

David Rind

00:08:15

That's what I was going to say, because I do think a lot of people out there, they think of the national parks and they see a park ranger in their head, greeting them as they come in, you know, handing them a map. But there are these units, right, that you run and others all over the country that are doing science and data collection and conservation. Do you think people grasp just kind of what kind of work is actually being done in these parks on a day to day basis?

Andria Townsend

00:08:43

Yeah, I really appreciate you saying that. I don't think and that's not anybody's, you know, that's not a fault of their own, right? It's just I don t think people understand the network of scientists that work to maintain and preserve not just national parks, but national forests, you know, national monuments, Bureau of Land Management. tracks. So yeah, I'm just I'm a wildlife biologist, but we also have there's hydrologists and there's foresters and rangeland specialists and botanists and geologists and physical scientists and you know truly just a brigade of scientists that work every day to you know maintain and preserve the things national parks are there to protect and I think visitors experiences of those Parks. are going to be diminished eventually because of, you know, losing this institutional knowledge that these scientists have. But I do also think that by eliminating scientists like myself that focus on endangered species, that's going to make things easier for them when they try to implement executive orders like expanding America's timber production. Fishers are directly impacted by timber production and there are ESA regulations that protect them. know, when those projects are being implemented. You know, as the person collecting data on fissures in this part of the Sierras, I know and my team knows more about them than anyone. And so having us here, you know, to make sure that, you, know, those regulations are enforced is I think it would be easier to get away with doing those things if we aren't here.

David Rind

00:10:34

We'll be right back.

David Rind

00:10:43

Now advocates say it isn't just the natural wonder on display at these parks that is under threat. It's also the history they represent.

Helen Dhue

00:10:53

I like to tell visitors that we're a small park with a big story.

David Rind

00:10:58

'This is Helen Dhue.. She's a guide at Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park near the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas.

Helen Dhue

00:11:06

'Palo Alto interprets the story of the United States-Mexican War, specifically the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, kind of the two battles that started it all. 25,000 Mexican civilians die during the U.S.-Mexico war, and the United State will gain pretty much a third of what is currently the United states and half of Mexico's territory at that time.

David Rind

00:11:30

Helen started working there last August, and she had a lot of responsibilities. Stuff like opening the visitor center, turning on the informational movie, restocking bathrooms, raising flags, showing visitors around, like I said, a lot. But as she was coming back from a work trip to Arizona in February, everything changed.

Helen Dhue

00:11:48

Well, I was driving to the airport when I get a call and it's my sister and she's like, you know, I see all these probationary employees are getting laid off. Are you worried about your job? And I was like, like, yeah, Emily, of course I'm worried about my job, but like right now I'm just focused on getting home. So I get into the airport and you know I get on the plane, I'm riding the plane and we land and I turn my phone off of airplane mode once we're and all these messages start flooding in. And some of them were from my coworkers at my first park at Fredericksburg. And they were like, Helen, do you still have your job? And I'm like, as of right now, I think so. Like, I don't know, I'm not sure. And I was like, oh no, I probably, you know, something bad is coming. And then I get the text message from my supervisor and he's like, I really hate saying this to you over text message. And he's, like, I'm gonna need you to come in tomorrow because you've been laid off. my boss had printed out the email because when I got laid off, I, you know, immediately after like getting off of the plane, I had tried to get onto my work laptop because I had it with me and I couldn't access my account. And I was like, Oh my gosh, they've already shut me out. Like I can't even, I can even see the email that fired me. So when I get back, I read the language and it wasn't layoff language, it was firing language, you know, they had said that I hadn't performed my job duties. And my supervisor, you know, was like, this is not even true. And he was like you've been a great worker and like our team here is the best it's been in a really long time.

David Rind

00:13:22

So this is your boss telling you directly.

Helen Dhue

00:13:25

Yeah.

David Rind

00:13:26

You're doing a great job.

Helen Dhue

00:13:27

Yeah.

David Rind

00:13:28

Didn't matter.

Helen Dhue

00:13:29

Yeah. The one thing that I will say about Brownsville is it's very heavily impacted by the presence of Elon Musk.

Ed Lavandera

00:13:38

Thousands of people descended on South Texas to witness the thunderous launch of the SpaceX Starship rocket and heavy booster

Helen Dhue

00:13:47

Right. Yeah, the SpaceX Starbase is right there.

Ed Lavandera

00:13:49

And then a few minutes later, the rocket blew up before reaching space. Debris from the launch left craters in the sand flats. Smaller pieces peppered the landscape like a shotgun blast at close range. Tangled rebar was thrown nearly a mile away. Vegetation near the site was scorched. The area is a critical nesting ground for threatened and endangered wildlife.

Helen Dhue

00:14:14

And that's been something that's been really hard for me to see as somebody who cares deeply about public lands. You know, polluted local waterways, they've made it harder to access a public beach. Buildings have been going up there overnight, and they have all this housing there now that didn't exist before.

Ed Lavandera

00:14:31

Several environmental groups are suing the Federal Aviation Administration to take stricter oversight of the private space company's launch plans. SpaceX did not respond to CNN's requests for comment.

Helen Dhue

00:14:43

So these green spaces, there's not a lot of them left. And Boca Chica, which is where the SpaceX launch station is, is really one of the most beautiful and incredible places in the valley. It's where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf of Mexico. And you can see all these birds there and it's just, it's this beautiful place. And it's sad to see that, you know, somebody who I don't think appreciates public land and public space is taking over that area and making it harder for locals to access.

David Rind

00:15:13

In addition to all of that, I imagine it's tough just seeing visual representations of this company led by a guy who is also leading the effort to reduce the size of federal government that has resulted in the loss of your job.

Helen Dhue

00:15:29

Yeah!

David Rind

00:15:31

'Helen says when she was fired, she was in the process of training to get her red card, certification that would allow her to help fight wildland fires when they break out. Full-time firefighters at the National Forest Service were exempted from the doge cuts, but many park employees seek out the kind of certification Helen was going for so they can be of assistance during peak fire season. And beyond emergency response, Helen says you can already notice the impacts at Palo Alto.

Helen Dhue

00:15:58

Right now there is, and this is impacting all parks, but there's like a purchase limit of $1. So right now Palo Alto can't buy toilet paper. And so the maintenance staff there has had to been like, we can only put one toilet paper roll in each stall because like we are running out of supply. And then, yeah, I know like we were trying to kind have more programs on the schedule. And so, you know, like battlefield tours, that kind of thing, and provide those to the public. And now that's gonna be virtually impossible to have those.

David Rind

00:16:34

So it's like the basics may be open because, you know, they have to be, but the extra stuff, that's going to be a tall order and the people who are there are just stretched incredibly thin.

Helen Dhue

00:16:46

Yeah, and I would definitely say, like, one thing that I really want to point out to people is this is lazy leadership, you know, like at its, at its best, it's lazy leadership. And you know I see Trump like saying, you know, English needs to be the official language of the United States. And like, como una persona que usa, like yo uso los dos idiomas, like cuando trabaja en Palo Alto, like I, you I my Spanish isn't great, but like I've taken the time to learn it because I care. I don't know, it just it hurts me because it's like this is not leadership. And like living in a border town, you know, people work on both sides of the border here. And yeah, a lot of our visitors are from from both sides. So we have a lot exhibits that are both in English and Spanish, our park film is also in English in Spanish, just so we're able to, you know connect people because this is a shared history between two countries. I worked at a Civil War battlefield, you know, after 2020, when a lot of Confederate monuments had been taken down, and we got a lot a heat about that, and a lot people who were upset. And you know I would kind of talk to people about like, well, what's the history of these monuments? You know, why were they put up in the first place? Why did the people who put them up, like why did they decide to put them in those places? And a lot times people just hadn't thought about those things. So then they'd be like, oh, I see the other perspective.

David Rind

00:18:12

This commitment to understanding the full scope of American history, warts and all, has long been a part of the park system, but President Trump doesn't see it that way. On March 27th, Trump signed an executive order targeting the Smithsonian.

Omar Jimenez

00:18:28

'The order, entitled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History, states the Smithsonian has come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology that has promoted narratives that portray American and Western values as inherently harmful and oppressive.

David Rind

00:18:45

The order also called for the Interior Secretary to review public monuments, memorials, statues, and markers taken down or changed since 2020, the year George Floyd was murdered, that, quote, perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history. It says they should not inappropriately disparage Americans past their living, going all the way back to colonial times, and instead focus on the natural beauty of the American landscape and the achievements of the America people. Historians and advocates say this is nothing more than a whitewashing of history, and my colleague Anderson Cooper put it this way on his show the other day, it's hard to acknowledge our progress if you can't talk honestly about our past.

David Rind

00:19:28

So it really strikes me that you obviously know a lot about the history. You do a lot of the research. And I do think a lot of people don't realize that a lot of the park system are these battlefields and historical monuments. It's not just like mountain ranges. So what happens to that history and that education? What happens to that going forward if folks like you are fired?

Helen Dhue

00:19:53

Yeah, I definitely worry about that. Obviously, we have historic resources that we store at the park and archives, so there's no one there to take care of them. I don't know what's going to happen or if they try to gut the department. Where does that stuff go? I have no idea. I don't what their plans are, so I do think we're worried literally about physical artifacts. But yeah, also just these spaces are spaces that people go to connect. And when I worked at a Civil War battlefield, like a lot of people would come in and they'd be like, oh, I had an ancestor that served here, you know, can you help me do research and figure that out? So we're also losing our connection with those spaces. You know, these spaces are at the risk of being developed if they no longer exist. And then you lose access to those spaces that the United States historically carved out so we could enjoy, so we can learn, so could reflect. And for me, more than anything, You know, parks are a place of community. and parks have never been partisan, they're just a place that people can come and visit to understand.

David Rind

00:21:01

Helen and Andrea were both probationary employees. That's what they call employees who have been on the job less than a year. It's kind of a trial period. I spoke to both of them a few weeks ago in the middle of March, and it turns out just a few days before we spoke, they were given a lifeline.

Kate Boldan

00:21:15

hire them back immediately. That is the message now from two federal judges to the Trump administration over Dozier's mass layoffs.

David Rind

00:21:22

The two court rulings, including one issued by Judge William Alsup in California, ordered a slew of agencies to rehire thousands of these probationary employees.

Alayna Treene

00:21:32

He said, quote, it is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that's a lie. That should not have been done in our country. It was a sham in order to try to avoid statuary requirements. This is the order and it counts.

David Rind

00:21:51

The administration has since asked the Supreme Court to step in and block Judge Alsup's ruling. Legal proceedings will continue to play out. But for now, as I record this, Andria and Helen are both back on the job. One Thing is a production of CNN Audio. This episode was produced by Paola Ortiz and me, David Rind. Our senior producers are Felicia Patinkin and Faiz Jamil. Matt Dempsey is our production manager. Dan Dzula is our technical director and Steve Lickteig is the executive producer of CNN Audio. We get support from Haley Thomas, Alex Mannasseri, Robert Mathers, John Dianora, Leni Steinhardt, Jamus Andrest, Nicole Pesarru and Lisa Namerow. Special thanks to Devan Cole and Wendy Brundidge. We'll be back on Wednesday. I'll talk to you then.

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