As part of its efforts to cut spending and shrink the federal government, the Trump administration abruptly fired 3,400 U.S. Forest Service and 1,000 NPS probationary workers on Valentine’s Day 2025.
Popular national parks like Yosemite, Acadia and Grand Canyon were already struggling with understaffing relative to increasing visitor numbers. After losing additional staff, many reported chaos such as long lines at the park entrances, dirty bathrooms and trails and visitors centers that were forced to shorten hours.
Grand Canyon National Park is one of the National Parks struggling with reduced staff.Â
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NPS workers fired illegally, federal judge rules
“It looks like the Trump administration is monkeywrenching government by needlessly disrupting even basic operations,” Chandra Rosenthal, a Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility director for Rocky Mountain National Park, said in a recent statement. “The individual Interior agencies, such as the NPS and Bureau of Land Management, have been taken by surprise and are themselves grasping for additional guidance.”
These efforts to shrink any NPS jobs not related to law enforcement or emergency response have, however, just hit a legal snag. On March 13, U.S. District Judge William Alsup, ruled that any federal workers fired during the February purge must immediately be reinstated.
“I am absolutely heartbroken and completely devastated to have lost my dream job of an Education Park Ranger with the National Park Service this Valentine’s Day,” Brian Gibbs wrote in a post that ended up going viral. “Access to my government email was denied mid-afternoon and my position was ripped out from out under my feet after my shift was over at 3:45 p.m. on a cold snowy Friday.”
Related: An emotional letter from a national park ranger goes viral
Along with the 1,000 probationary NPS employees, this order affects workers from Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Agriculture, Energy and Interior.
‘That should not have been done in our country’
“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,” Alsup, who was appointed by Bill Clinton in 1999, said as part of the ruling. “That should not have been done in our country. It was a sham in order to try to avoid statutory requirements.”
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While an OPM representative tried to shift the blame on the individual agencies, Alsup found that OPM directly directed them to lay off any probationary employees — this term is used to mean anyone who has been in the job for less than a year or even anyone who was recently promoted to a new role. The ruling also prevents OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell from giving such “guidance” to fire employees in the future.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement calling the order “absurd and unconstitutional” and accusing Alsup of trying to exercise “executive powers.”Â
In the past, the administration has both openly mocked or ignored rulings that it did not agree with, an effort to bide time. Alsup further ruled that the affected federal agencies must provide compliance reports documenting whether they’re abiding.
Phil Francis, chairman of the Executive Council of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, called it an “important win for NPS employees who were wrongfully terminated.”
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