Protect Our Parks national protest held at American Camp

By Kristina Stucki • March 10, 2025 1:30 am

A group of approximately 50 protestors gathered with signs and upside-down flags at the entrance to American Camp on Saturday, March 1, to join the national Protect Our Parks event. The nationwide protest, organized by a group called Resistance Rangers, was held at more than 100 national park sites and was in response to the federal defunding and layoffs occurring under the Trump administration.

“While we preserve and protect national parks, we are America’s history keepers and storytellers,” the Instagram account of the Resistance Rangers, a community of 730-plus off-duty park rangers rallying to save public lands, said. “And we will continue doing just that.”

Feb. 14 brought widespread layoffs throughout the National Parks Service, somewhere around 1,000 according to National Public Radio. Layoffs happened here in San Juan County also, with more rumored to be on the way.

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One former National Park Service employee, who was let go without warning on the 14th, was touched by the turnout at the protest.

“It was amazing to see so many people who I’d never met before show up,” they said, anonymously. “They’re not just caring about the parks, but about what was happening to the people who worked in them, too.”

The Trump administration has reversed course from the initial order, allowing rehires of 50 terminated employees and the hiring of up to 7,700 seasonal workers. NPS budgets and jobs remain uncertain, however, with 10,950 still unemployed. Local employees who worked at San Juan National Historical Park, which includes both English and American camps, have not been rehired as of the writing of this article.

If you have information about how federal funding cuts have impacted the islands locally, email kristina.stucki@sanjuanjournal.com.