It was Feb. 14. But what nearly 400 Environmental Protection Agency employees got that day were not Valentines. They were pink slips.
The firings touched critical roles in EPA offices across the country, including dozens of scientists at the agency’s Chicago office.
The American people did not vote for toxic air and poisoned water. But that will be the consequence as Donald Trump and Elon Musk move not only to dismantle the programs that keep our families healthy and safe but to fire, recklessly, the dedicated civil servants who have devoted their careers to doing the same.
That same wave of civil servant layoffs ensnared about 3,400 U.S. Forest Service employees and roughly 1,000 employees of the National Park Service. You might be struggling to make sense of a decision to institute big cuts at an agency tasked with managing forests and preventing and fighting wildfires immediately following some of the most destructive wildfires this country’s ever seen. But an examination of these mass firings also shows that senselessness and sloppiness — and utter inefficiency — are hallmarks of Trump and Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Further illustrating that sloppiness: across agencies, some of the most egregious terminations of vital workers had to be rescinded days later.
Imagine vacationing with your family at one of America’s beloved national parks and getting stuck in a bathroom for hours because something is wrong with the lock but the park doesn’t have a locksmith.
Nate Vince, Yosemite National Park’s locksmith,explained in a post on Instagram that he was just three weeks shy of the end of his one-year probationary period, after apprenticing for four years under the park’s previous locksmith. He also noted Yosemite is the size of Rhode Island with “more locks than a small city,” for everything from a federal court to administrative buildings, gun safes, and more. “Without a locksmith I’m deeply concerned for the safety and security of the park and people in it,” Vince said. “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 layoffs hit other popular sites like Grand Canyon National Park, which prompted the Association of National Park Rangers to warn of slower rescue efforts, reduced programs and more litter. Following layoffs that gutted the team managing rentals within Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, visitors received notice their reservations had been indefinitely canceled.
The list of examples goes on. This is not what the American people voted for: 3/4ths Americans see the National Park Service in a positive light and 88% of Americans (including 85% of Republicans) want national park wildlife better protected.
Cutting programs that boost the economy
Trump and Musk’s slash-and-burn project is a supposed effort to save taxpayers money by laying off thousands of hardworking civil servants and cutting food aid, science, education, medical research and more, but it’s going to end up costing Americans more. In some cases, the programs and agencies being gutted will cost taxpayers far more in economic growth and direct government revenue than the amount of the “cuts.”
For 2025 and the past few years, the National Parks Services budget hovers at just over $3 billion per year. In 2023 alone, that budget (a relatively high $3.75 billion that year) supported 415,000 jobs and $55.6 billion in economic output. To put it another way, for every $1 invested, American taxpayers see a nearly $15 boost to our national economy.
This is part-in-parcel with the sloppiness — and also dishonesty — with which DOGE is operating. Personnel costs for the federal civilian workforce are only 4.4% of our federal budget.
As they gut key agencies and the federal workforce, what are some examples of where this administration is focusing our tax dollars? Well, there is the $200 million international ad campaign by the Homeland Security Department, personally requested by Trump, “thanking” the president for his immigration and border policies. And, of course, there are the proposed massive tax cuts for America’s very wealthiest that are really the crown jewel of the Trump-Musk agenda.
Acts of democracy must not happen only in election years. It is up to all of us to hold power accountable, keep sounding the alarm, and keep speaking out for justice for all. Because, as the great John Lewis reminded us, “A democracy cannot thrive where power remains unchecked and justice is reserved for a select few.”
Ben Jealous is executive director of the Sierra Club and a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
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