The steady stream of visitors who descended on Great Falls Park this past weekend likely noticed little amiss, as they enjoyed a hike, picnic and scenic views of the Potomac River on a balmy spring day.
But the couple dozen protestors who lined a path near the McLean park’s visitor center on Saturday (March 22) fear that may soon change, if the Trump administration’s plans to terminate hundreds of federal workers and open up more public lands for resource extraction move forward.
“I want to support the employees of the National Park Service. They’re important to us, and they’re being let go illegally,” local resident Jim Bierman said.
Father of Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman and a regular visitor to Great Falls Park, Bierman added that he believes “it’s important to preserve our beautiful country and make it accessible to citizens of the country” and wants to draw attention to how the federal government’s current actions might jeopardize those priorities.
Other participants in the “Protect Our Parks” rally expressed similar sentiments in comments to FFXnow and through signs with slogans like “Thank you, NPS workers,” “Save our parks,” “Keep public lands in public hands” and “Make America grateful for federal workers again.”
“I felt compelled to come and show support for our environmental stewards who work really hard at protecting these lands and making them accessible and safe for communities to enjoy,” said Northern Virginia resident Evangelia, who learned about the rally through social media. “They mean a lot to me, and they mean a lot to other people, so I wanted to come and show my support.”
The rally was one of many organized at national parks across the U.S. that day by the Resistance Rangers — a grassroots group of more than 800 off-duty, former and retired park rangers — in response to the Trump administration’s sweeping layoffs and policy changes, including the Feb. 14 firing of an estimated 1,000 probationary employees who had been recently hired or promoted by the National Park Service.
While the overall impacts of the federal government downsizing on a local level remain unclear, the February firings included rangers at Great Falls Park, and earlier this month, four George Washington Memorial Parkway rangers were let go, according to Henrik Sundqvist, an Arlington resident and artist who led the Great Falls rally.
Federal judges found on March 13 that the Office of Personnel Management lacked the authority to conduct the mass firings, which they also said violated the law, including by not providing at least 60 days’ advance notice. The courts ordered that the layoffs be halted and the fired employees reinstated.
Though the NPS indicated last week that it would offer fired workers their jobs back, the Trump administration appealed one of the rulings to the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday (Monday), and all departments were ordered to deliver plans for implementing significant job and budget cuts by April 14.
For the National Park Service, the Interior Department is reportedly aiming to slash 30% of its payroll budget, and as recently as March 17, it offered severance payments to workers who agreed to leave this spring.
The nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) says it’s prepared to oppose any future layoffs.
“We welcome reinstatement but remain concerned about recent buyout offers and other coercive tactics intended to continue decimating the Park Service and sending rangers packing,” an NPCA spokesperson told FFXnow. “We know there is still a reduction in force plan coming down the line for NPS and other agencies, and while we don’t know the contents yet, we firmly stand against any more cuts, period.”
Staff essential to national parks, rally participants say
With summer on the horizon, typically the peak visitation season for national parks, a Manassas resident who participated in the Resistance Rangers rally at Great Falls Park and asked to remain anonymous says she worries about the strain that additional cuts will place on any remaining park staff, who might have fewer resources to handle duties from keeping lines moving and bathrooms clean to rescuing lost visitors and preserving the natural environment.
She visited Great Falls Park while growing up and now loves to hike the trails at Shenandoah National Park. However, both parks also pose dangers. Even though swimming is banned at Great Falls Park, a sign near one outlooks warns visitors that an average of seven drownings occur annually in that section of the Potomac River, where one person died in May 2024.
“People die in Shenandoah when they get lost. It’s a difficult terrain to navigate, and we need experienced people to do those jobs,” the Manassas resident said. “They’re essential. They’re not inefficient, and we need them, so it really upsets me that our government thinks we should cut those kinds of jobs.”
Paul, who volunteers at Great Falls Park for the Weed Warrior program that tackles invasive plants, argues that, if anything, the National Park Service needs more staff, volunteers and program funding.
If park staffing is further reduced, some challenges will be evident to visitors, such as overgrowth or trees blocking trails. Others may take longer to emerge — an erosion project falling by the wayside, for example, or inaccurate wildlife counts due to a lack of workers with the necessary experience and expertise.
“You really need an encyclopedic knowledge of nature to really know whether bird populations are dwindling,” Paul said. “… So, yeah, it’s the kind of thing where I think it might be hard to immediately judge it, unless you’re here and you’re with the staff and you are privy to what specifically is now being neglected, but in general, [Great Falls Park] needs and all parks need more stewardship.”
Protestors concerned by possible public land sales
In addition to showing support for current and former NPS employees, organizers of Saturday’s rally at Great Falls Park hoped to raise public awareness of policies proposed by the Trump administration that they say will endanger the parks themselves.
Since taking office on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump has signed executive orders seeking to expand oil and natural gas drilling, logging and mineral mining on federal lands, including by accelerating permitting processes and selling off parcels to private bidders.
“Once you extract timber or gas and oil extraction, you destroy those ecosystems, and many of the animals … they don’t know the borders, so you really are taking away a lot more when you start extracting for short-term profit from our public lands,” Sundqvist said.
At the same time, the Trump administration has signaled plans to roll back environmental protections aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and air and water pollution.
While new Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin trumpeted the proposed rule changes as reducing costs for businesses and families, former EPA administrators and public health experts say the climate and health consequences will be damaging and ultimately more costly than enforcing regulations.
Public lands and parks should also be protected because they ensure access to nature for people who might not have it in their backyard, according to Cheri Conca, a conservation program manager for the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, which joined other environmental advocacy groups last month to sue the Trump administration over its bid to expand offshore oil drilling and provided support for Saturday’s Resistance Rangers rallies.
“We’re standing with them,” Conca said. “A lot of people don’t know what to do right now, so you do whatever you can. If it means coming out here with a sign, that’s doing something. We have to do something.”
Recalling the “most magical experience” of seeing the comet Hale-Bopp pass over Big Bend National Park in Texas in 1997, Sundqvist says he got involved as a community organizer with the Resistance Rangers because he wanted to support a cause he cares about and speak up for park rangers who aren’t able to take a public stand for fear of retaliation.
He hopes to potentially work with other organizations to raise more awareness of future rallies, with the next event likely coming on April 22 in conjunction with Earth Day.
“This protest today came by quickly, but we’re hoping to build a movement around national parks,” Sundqvist said. “That’s really what Resistance Rangers are: to educate and to build a movement.”
