From the Joshua Tree in California to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, thousands of people turned out last weekend for demonstrations against the Trump administration's workforce cuts in the National Park Service in February.
And on short notice too, with only days to pull the pieces together.
But the speed of the firings and budget cuts, a lack of transparency, and a chilling effect among federal employees are all complicating efforts to mobilize pushback by those opposed. Helping fill that vacuum are people like Emma Hoskins, a digital content creator with strong ties to national parks, but not one of the employees on the chopping block.
Having recently wrapped up a fellowship with the National Parks Conservation Association, she's uniquely positioned to help the cause.
"We have kind of, as the content creators, become a vessel to amplify the voices of rangers and get the word out because, as federal employees, they can't speak for themselves," Hoskins explained. "So we've been able to try to work with them to support them, especially for the ones that want to remain anonymous in the layoffs."
"This isn't just a layoff like at a corporation."Emma Hoskins, content creator and organizer
There's also the matter of gathering data that may not be exactly forthcoming from the administration or, more specifically, the Department of Government Efficiency, commonly called DOGE.
"Campgrounds are closing, and our group is trying to track that because with all of this, there has been no public release of how many rangers have been let go from each park site and what the impacts are," Hoskins said. "We're working to track all of that behind the scenes to try to get that out to the public to understand the seriousness of what could happen to these parks. And our park rangers are still scared for their jobs every day. They're wondering if they're gonna have their jobs in two weeks from now."
The content creator-turned-organizer says she and others plan to continue the work of tracking those numbers and advocating with a possible focus on US forests as well.
Working with Resistance Rangers — a collection of around 700 off-duty rangers, according to the New York Times — Hoskins describes her group as "scrappy and grassroots." Last weekend's protests were, in some ways, a test case giving them some ideas of "what worked and what didn't."
Assessing Protests
Announcing their nationwide National Park demonstration less than a week before mounting the protests made for a rush.
"Saturday is a little insane, especially trying to do it across the entire country. But the people showed up. I mean, it was honestly really, really amazing," Hoskins said.
In the Commonwealth, which isn't home to anything like a Yellowstone or Yosemite, the numbers were smaller — just shy of 200 for the state. She put the national number at "past 10,000 nationwide." In fact, Hoskins found herself fielding calls from across the country and helping coordinate different site organizers.
"I was getting texts like 'Meet at the big tree at César Chávez,'" she said. "Just really random notes, but the people here will know what that means."
At the time, her group knew of seven national park staff in Kentucky who had been laid off, and she said the prevailing mood was one of fear for their jobs and the future of the lands they love. The cuts are coming at a time, she says, when visitor numbers are actually trending up.
"Visitation since 2010 has gone up 16%, and staffing's gone down 20%. And that's before these cuts. So hopefully, if people didn't show up, they're going to start learning that this isn't just a layoff like at a corporation," she said. "This is going to affect all of us and how we're able to recreate outdoors, connect with natural resources and cultural resources, and learn about where we are."
A Shift in DC?
The national picture is still only coming into focus, with opposition groups scrambling to create a united front across different sectors of the federal government — while Republican supporters of DOGE's stated mission to eliminate "waste, fraud, and abuse" are privately raising concerns about the effect of the fast-paced firings.
Elon Musk, the tech mogul seen as the face of DOGE, already appears to be distancing himself from the on-the-ground effects of slashing the government workforce. In a private meeting with leaders at the Capitol, Musk said he's not to blame for the firings, instead claiming those decisions are in the hands of federal agencies.
President Donald Trump may also be backing away from the fallout.
The Associated Press reports the Republican president said Thursday he's told department secretaries working with DOGE to be "precise." He went on to post on social media that decisionmakers should be using a "scalpel," not a "hatchet" in their efforts to shrink the federal government.
“I don’t want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut,“ Trump told the press in the Oval Office.