As a steady stream of people marched through Yosemite National Park, homemade signs were held high above their heads, repeating a single unified message of “protecting our park.”
Thousands of people, including the Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone, gathered in national parks around the country on Saturday to protest federal cuts to US historic public land.
In recent weeks, President Donald Trump’s administration has recently fired about 2,000 employees recently employed by the U.S. Forest Service, and has significantly cut the National Park Service’s employment by 1,000 more.
Mass termination, part of the federal government’s bureaucracy and continued push to reduce spending, raised concerns about the future of these lands. Affected national parks and forest employees told NBC News that fewer workers will lead to longer lines, filthy bathrooms and unsafe hiking and camping conditions.
“We need to stop nonsense,” John Goodwin, a now-retired longtime Park Services employee, told the NBC Bay Area while protesting at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco. “We need to hire people who have been fired not only in national parks but all federal employees who have lost their jobs in the past six weeks.”
Following the initial backlash against the cuts, the Associated Press had reported that the administration would recover at least 50 jobs and employ nearly 3,000 seasonal workers.
Still, there were some frustration that led to the nationwide protest on Saturday. A week ago in Yosemite, a group of layoff park employees turned the American flag upside down at the top of Elpitan, a famous 3,000-foot vertical rock formation.
According to the US flag law, an upside down American flag is traditionally a sign of “disastrous pain.”
Protesters appeared in national parks large and small on Saturday, spanning dozens of states from coast to coast.
“Public land belongs to all Americans, and federal agencies and federal employees work on behalf of the American people,” protester Peri Sasnet told NBC affiliate Wjar in Providence, Rhode Island, calling on the administration to “illegally fired federal employees.”
She was holding a demonstration at the Roger Williams National Memorial, a 4.5-acre park in Providence.
And in Washington, local resident Austin Woods was one of more than 50 people gathered to protest at the Whitman Mission National History Site.
“It feels like there’s not much to do in the current political environment,” he told NBC affiliate Kndu in Yakima, Washington. “But one thing we can do is be present, voiced and passionate.”
Since taking office in January, the Trump administration has targeted workers on probation and has fired mass shootings in numerous departments of the government. This comes after the administration tried to provide acquisitions to almost all government officials and imposing employment freezes on federal workers.
On Wednesday, a Trump administration memo directed federal agencies to prepare for a massive layoff, demanding that Trump “forced massive cuts.” A day later, a federal judge ruled that the memo was legally invalid and ordered it to be revoked.
