These national parks have been hit hardest by firings

By the numbers: Florida's Everglades National Park (15 workers fired), Virginia's Shenandoah National Park (15) and New Mexico's Carlsbad Caverns National Park (14) are among the hardest hit locations across the U.S. National Park Service (NPS), per the tally.

• North Carolina and Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains National Park (12), Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park (12) and Utah's Zion National Park (11) also saw significant losses. (Axios Salt Lake City previously reported that at least 13 employees at Zion were fired.)

How it works: That's according to a spreadsheet shared with Axios by a U.S. park ranger who requested anonymity to protect their job and employment prospects.

• The spreadsheet, which shows 756 total firings as of March 4, is based on reports from hundreds of rangers and other park workers in multiple online groups.
• This NPS document shows staffing at national parks as of fiscal 2023.

Because it's a crowdsourced effort, the document is likely incomplete and undercounts the full breadth of the firings.

• The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), an independent parks advocacy group, says more than 1,000 park staffers were fired on Feb. 14.

Threat level: 325.5 million people visited U.S. national parks in 2023, up nearly 20% from a decade earlier.

• Many national parks have been struggling to deal with the glut of visitors, as well as the traffic and trash they bring.

What they're saying: After the firings, "I don't think the parks are equipped to be able to handle the visitation that they get," says the ranger who shared the document with Axios, adding that the stakes go far beyond long lines, crowded campsites and dirty bathrooms.

• "The odds of search-and-rescue missions turning into recoveries [of dead bodies] will be a lot higher this year than most," the ranger says.
• "There will be more people dying this year than probably any other year, and that's entirely due to the lack of staffing."

About 250 people die annually on NPS-managed lands, per Backpacker.

• The firings could also leave fewer staffers to quickly snuff out small fires that might otherwise grow into massive blazes, the ranger adds.

The other side: NPS "is hiring seasonal workers to continue enhancing the visitor experience as we embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation in workforce management," a spokesperson said in a statement.

• "We are focused on ensuring that every visitor has the chance to explore and connect with the incredible, iconic spaces of our national parks."

NPS did not provide an official count of firings by park and did not comment on the tally in the spreadsheet.

• The ranger countered that new seasonal workers can't replace the institutional knowledge lost by firing park veterans.
• "With peak season just weeks away, the decision to slash 1,000 permanent, full-time jobs from national parks is reckless and could have serious public safety and health consequences," NPCA president and CEO Theresa Pierno said in a separate statement, adding that national parks are major economic drivers for nearby communities.

Zoom in: The spreadsheet includes details about specific workers or teams affected at some parks.

• Smoky Mountain's trails crew was its "hardest hit division," according to the document. The "only aquatic ecologist who tests water safety" at Lake Mead, an arborist at Glen Canyon, and potentially several fee collectors at Yellowstone National Park were also fired, per the spreadsheet.
• "You might see one ranger is missing at a park, but some of those parks have less than 10 staff," the ranger says. "So you might have a park that ... lost 10% of their workforce overnight. That makes a big difference."

Yosemite National Park lost its only locksmith, per the document. That appears to be a worker named Nate Vince, who shared their story separately on Instagram.

• "48 weeks ago I started my permanent NPS position as Yosemite's new locksmith," Vince wrote.
• "Well now 3 weeks short of my probationary period I've been fired. I've had exemplary performance and am essential for park operations. The people that fired me don't know who I am, or what I do. They simply don't understand this park and how big and complex it is."

The response: Protestors demonstrated at parks nationwide this past weekend, while upside-down American flags — a traditional symbol of distress — have been hung at Yosemite, Joshua Tree and Rocky Mountain National Park in recent days.

• An Instagram profile called "ResistanceRangers" has sprung up to advocate for fired park workers and advertise protest activity.

What's next: At least a few fired park workers have since gotten their jobs back, per the document, suggesting there's at least a glimmer of hope for people who have found themselves out of their dream job at what's so often called "America's best idea."