Protesters in Yosemite, Bay Area blast Trump cuts

From a march and rally at Yosemite National Park to a protest hike at Muir Woods National Monument to a demonstration near the crater of Haleakala National Historic Park on Maui, fed-up rangers and supporters of the country’s park system gathered Saturday to fight the “illegal firings” of full-time and seasonal workers.

Led by more than 650 off-duty park rangers, the effort spanned all 433 national park sites across the country, including San Francisco’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Presidio. Since President Donald Trump took office, he and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team have fired about 1,000 National Park Service and 3,400 Forest Service employees, including rangers, scientists, wildland firefighters, trail crews and more. The cuts follow a massive culling of federal workers.

“I mourn for my job, but I mourn more for America’s public lands,” said Josh Barnes, one of hundreds of probationary National Park Service employees fired on Feb. 14. Barnes worked summers at Sequoia National Park in California before securing a full-time job at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico. “I fear for their well-being under this current administration. Now, more than ever, we need to fight for our natural resources and historic sites.”

The loss of employees, the group said, will harm the biodiversity and ecosystems, but also economic vitality in surrounding areas. In 2023, 325 million park visitors spent an estimated $26.4 billion in communities surrounding national parks. They said the termination of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility programs will make work groups less innovative and federal lands less safe.

In the fiscal year 2024 budget, National Park’s total operation equaled $3.2 billion, less than 0.15% of the federal budget.

At Yosemite National Park, protesters placed signs strategically in view of webcams capturing some of the park’s most iconic landmarks, such as Half Dome. At 8,000 feet altitude, demonstrators erected a sign reading: “Stand Up! 4 Public Land + The People Who Protect It” with the famed Half Dome in the distance.

Last week, a group of frustrated staffers at Yosemite National Park unfurled a massive upside- down U.S. flag atop El Capitan as a distress signal, garnering international attention. Thousands of visitors were in the valley to photograph and witness the annual firefall spectacle, where the dusk light illuminates Horsetail Fall.

On Saturday, protesters marched between the Exploration Center and the Welcome Center. Olek Chmura, a 28-year-old Yosemite custodian for 10 months, got fired on Valentine’s Day. After finishing his shift cleaning bathrooms and helping demolish a house that is being renovated, Chmura pulled up his email and found the dismissal letter.

“I dropped to my knees. Tears were flowing,” said Chmura, a rock climber who moved from Cleveland to California, chasing the famed granite walls of Yosemite Valley.

“At heart, I’m a climber,” he said. “Yosemite is the center of the universe for rock climbing. The pay wasn’t great. I could make twice as much as a plumber. … But my most beautiful moments in life have been on the side of walls or backpacking, and I want those memories to stand for generations to come.”

Eric Kufrin made his 44th trip to Yosemite on Saturday. The Wisconsin native first visited in 2010 and became addicted to the grandeur, eventually moving to Aptos.

“Other national parks are closer to where I live, but I keep coming here,” Kufrin said. “This is my home park.”

Kufrin spent his 42nd birthday at Yosemite last Saturday and attended the first protest as well.

“I want to support the National Park Service employees and try to share the message to protect the parks,” he said. “The migrants haven’t stolen their jobs, Donald Trump did that.”

Don Neubacher, who oversaw Yosemite National Park and Point Reyes National Seashore as superintendent during a 36-year career, filed a declaration this week in support of a lawsuit fighting all federal firings.

Neubacher said the park service cuts would have “dire impacts on safety, environmental quality, and services to the public in the national parks.”

In just the two weeks since the firings began, he said, the “first signs of these direct impacts” have already been observed across the park system. In Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California, the Black Rock Nature Center, which provides water and toilets for the public, remained closed well after its scheduled opening time despite strong winds, temperatures in the 30s and a line of visitors.

On Thursday, a federal judge in San Francisco ordered the Trump administration to stop its firings of several thousand Defense Department workers, saying the dismissals had no legal justification. U.S. District Judge William Alsup said Trump’s Office of Personnel Management had no authority to fire anyone outside of its own department.

However, it’s unclear how the ruling will impact park and forest service employees, as Alsup said his ruling would not impact workers represented by unions because the labor groups must take complaints to an administrative agency first. But the judge said advocates, such as the Sierra Club, could make legal cases that National Park Service employees were wrongfully dismissed.

On Feb. 13, the Office of Personnel Management told federal agencies to terminate “probationary” employees, about 200,000 nationwide and 15,000 in California, according to court filings.

On Saturday, passionate parks supporters spread across the country.

Beneath the centuries-old Redwoods in Muir Woods, more than 100 demonstrators chanted “Hey hey! Ho ho! Elon Musk has got to go!” Dozens hiked through the narrow pathways weaving between old growth coastal redwoods, carrying signs with slogans including “No Kings.” An upside-down American flag was planted beneath the park sign.

A woman who gave her first name as Angie grabbed a bullhorn and said she had interned at the grove for a year and had just started her job as a biological science technician three months ago before being fired in February. She worked with invasive and native plants to create a more biodiverse landscape and to support endangered and threatened species.

“The people in my life would ask me why I do it. I could make so much more money if I worked elsewhere, and aren’t you tired of pulling weeds all day?” she said. “My work is so much more than a job. It’s my labor of love. I think this is my purpose.”

In the Presidio, hundreds of protesters sang and chanted as they marched from the historic military base to Fort Mason with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

In Richmond, women dressed as Rosie the Riveter demonstrated at the park named after the World War II female workers who supplied the war effort. One held a sign — “Rosie didn’t back down. Neither will we!!”

At Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, a gathering of demonstrators stood in the snow and chanted: “Less parks rangers puts our parks in danger!” One woman held a sign saying, “Musk Fired Our Future.”

At Acadia National Park in Maine, someone hung an upside-down American flag underneath the park sign and another posted an “SOS” sign on one of the famed stone bridges.

A group stood with upside-down flags and signs at Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa. One sign read: “Defend Not Defund Parks.”

Reach Matthias Gafni: matthias.gafni@sfchronicle.com