Former national park employees weigh in on firings
Two retired employees of the national park system, both of whom worked at Fort Necessity and Friendship Hill, have opposing thoughts about the recent firings of nearly 1,000 National Park Service employees.
Mary Ellen Snyder of Deer Lake and Chip Nelson of Fairchance both retired from NPS. Snyder was the management assistant for Western Pennsylvania National Parks and Nelson worked as a site manager for several parks including Fort Necessity and Friendship Hill.
And while both have spent their lives working at national historic sites and parks, the two former federal employees have different opinions when it comes to how the current administration is cutting costs by firing federal workers – among them, employees of the NPS.
Nelson said he believes that there are too many national parks, which has led to unnecessary government spending.
“Can you run with less staff at the parks? Yes, you can. Can you run with fewer parks? Absolutely. Does everything have to be a park? No, it used to be that parks had to be nationally significant now they’re just congressional vanity projects,” Nelson said
While technically the U.S. only has 63 national parks, there are a total of 429 nationally protected parks sites – such as national battlefield or historical sites – which are congressionally designated protected areas operated by the National Park Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior.
Synder said this recent round of firings is very different from what she experienced during her over 30-year career at the parks. During her tenure, Snyder said there’s been about eight times where the government was shut down or parks budgets were cut. But, despite which party was in power, parks officials were able to give months’ notice about layoffs or budget cuts.
“This time it’s very different, from my friends who are still working at the different national parks – they weren’t given any notice, they weren’t given any options on how the parks could save money, they were just told that people were going to be fired,” Snyder said.
Nelson said he feels badly for those who lost their jobs; however, they knew the risk when they accepted it.
“Everybody that gets hired by the federal government knows that within one year they could be fired for any reason,” Nelson said.
Employees at Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Farmington and Friendship Hill National Historic Site in Point Marion said there have been no disruptions in operations, but declined to discuss their feelings about the current administration’s cuts.
On Friday, the Associated Press reported that the Trump administration would restore jobs for dozens of NPS employees, and hire nearly 3,000 additional seasonal workers, following an uproar over an aggressive plan to downsize the agency.
Snyder said she thinks the firing of around 5% of the parks workforce could be a safety hazard for larger parks like Yellowstone and Sequoia, where rangers also act as law enforcement.
“If those parks lay off people that are law enforcement or emergency responders, there’s one there to help because it’s not like there’s a city right next door with city police or state police. Many of these parks are in very isolated places,” Snyder said.
She also worried about what could happen if visitors come to parks but there are either no or too few employees there to help them.
Nelson did not share those concerns, stating that plenty of people visit parks when there are no park officials there.
“Parks are open from sunrise to sundown but employees leave at 5 everyday, so do the math. Why is being unattended a concern now?” he asked.
Nelson said that there has been a growing level of bureaucracy that has taken over the park system, adding to the growing cost of the NPS.
“We were constantly getting pulled from doing our job. We had to stop whatever we were doing to go back to the office to file some report so that somebody up in Philadelphia could file it and never read it. It didn’t matter,” he said.
Both former national park employees did agree on one thing: how important national historic sites like Fort Necessity are.
“I know some of these parks are small but they’re saved for a reason. … Like where the first women’s rights conventions were held or underground railroad sites, those are all important historic sites that school kids visit, and if you close them you won’t be able to see the place where the history happened,” Synder said.
“There’s definitely a balance. … I think if you go back to the original intent of the national park services there has to be a national significance. Does Fort Necessity fall under that? Absolutely. It’s the birthplace of America with the start of the Indian and French War and with Geroge Washington,” Nelson said.
Greene County Messenger Editor Garrett Neese contributed to this story.