By Miriam Raftery
Photo via Alt National Park Service: upside down flag hung by employees at Yosemite National Park signals dire distress
February 25, 2025 (Washington D.C.) – In what’s been dubbed a Valentine’s Day massacre, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has fired 1,000 National Park Service employees from the nation’s 63 national parks, plus another 2,000 U.S. Forest Service workers. Additional cuts target Bureau of Land Management’s 245 million acres and other federal lands. The action is creating havoc, including in California, which has more national parks than any other state.
At Yosemite, where the cuts have forced temporary closure of four popular campgrounds, park employees hung an upside-down flag, a universal symbol of distress, atop El Capitan as crowds gathered for the annual firefall event.
“It’s not sustainable if we want to keep the parks open,” Gavin Carpenter, a Yosemite maintenance worker who supplied the flag, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “We’re bringing attention to the parks, which are every American’s properties.”
Alex Wild is now the only ranger at Devil’s Postpile National Monument in California who is certified as an emergency medical technician. “I’m the only person available to rescue someone, to do CPR, to carry them out from a trail if they got injured,” he told NBC. The cuts could mean “life or death for someone who’s having an emergency.”
Fire prevention workers have also been let go, including Michael Maierhofer, a Forest Service trail maintenance worker at the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. He says his crew was dubbed a “fire militia” for its efforts to help with fires in the district ranging from extinguishing abandoned campfires to aiding in larger wildfire suppression, Montana Free Press reports.
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado has been forced to close two days a week due to lack of staffing, the site posted on Facebook, while visitors to Zion National Park in Utah found long lines of vehicles due to not enough staff to man entry booths, CNN reports.
At Wrangell ST. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska, which encompasses more than 14 million acres, the only bush pilot was fired, Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers told CNN. “Now how do they protect the wildlife and detect poaching activities, or find somebody that’s overdue in the park or climbers in distress and so forth?” he asked.
Without enough rangers to patrol vast areas such as Yellowstone National Park, environmentalists fear poaching of endangered or threatened wildlife and destruction of sensitive plant species.
Photo, left by Miriam Raftery: moose at Yellowstone National Park
Beth Pratt, California Director of National Wildlife Federation, recalls that when parks were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic and didn’t have staffers there, “people were cutting down Joshua Trees” at Joshua National Park, she recalls, adding that graffiti, trash, and driving on protected meadowlands also occurred.
“There’s no real staffing plan. It’s chaotic, and there’s no leadership from the Secretary of the Interior,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, NPR reports.
Fired workers accuse DOGE of lying in claims of poor performance reviews, with many saying they had positive recent reviews. “It’s a complete lie,” says Andria Townsend, a fired Yosemite specialist on carnivores. “I work really hard at my job. I have two degrees,” she told KFSN.
Richard Midgette, an IT specialist in Yellowstone who was also fired on Feb. 14, says he’s done “great work” including helping to optimize Yellowstone’s communications system and developing computer code to streamline onboarding and offboard employees. He believes his firing is both unwarranted and illegal. Claiming poor performance without evidence is “just a legal way that they’re trying to cover their ass.”
The layoffs present hardships for the thousands of employees let go, since most were low paid and moved long distances to work for the park or forest service, and now have no alternative jobs in the vicinity.
The National Federation of Federal Employees, the union representing Forest Service and National Park Service workers, has filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse the firings of those and other federal agency employees, a total that the union said could impact a half million federal workers, the Montana Free Press reports. The suit contends that DOGE and an executive order signed by President Donald Trump violate federal law outlining how federal workforce reductions must be handled—which requires action by Congress.
“There is no statute that expressly authorizes the President to slash roughly one-quarter of the federal workforce, imperiling the statutory missions that Congress has assigned to federal agencies,” the unions’ Feb. 14 filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia states,” adding that the executive branch’s efforts to “hobble agencies that Congress created” by carrying out “mass firings and a pressure campaign for resignations violates separation of power principles.”
Since the initial Feb. 14 mass firings, the Trump administration has backtracked partially, agreeing to hire nearly 3,000 seasonal workers for the summer season, Associated Press reports. But seasonal jobs are entry-level, and won’t make up for management-level employees fired, says Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association.
“You really can’t have the seasonals without the other full0time staff people who are helping to manage them,” Brengel told CNN.
Brengel notes that national parks were already short-staffed before the recent lay-offs, operating with 20% fewer employees than in 2010. “There was no fat to trim,” she asserts.
The cuts also come after the Trump administration has voiced support for opening up federal lands including national forests to mining, logging, oil and gas drilling.
“It feels like if nothing is done to prevent this administration from dismantling our public lands and the support behind them, we could very well lose access to the trails, the mountains, the plains and the wildlife that we all love so dearly,” former National Parks employee Midgette says.
Twenty Congressional Democrats did sign a letter calling the cuts “damaging and short-sighted” and warning that the mass layoffs could cause “staffing chaos” in national parks and even lead to closure of some parks entirely. But Democrats lack power, since Republicans control both houses of Congress and the presidency. While most Republicans have been silent on the issue, Republican Senator Susan Collins from Maine has voiced concerns over the impacts on Acadia National Park in her state.
Bill Wade, executive director of the Association of National Park Rangers, believes it’s up to the public to take action and save America’s most beloved places.
“It’s clear that the people of this country really love their national parks,” he told CNN. “and now it’s time for them to do something about it.”
Image: measurements in Hawaii from 1960 to present show exponential rise in CO2 levels fueling climate change.
February 13, 2025 (La Mesa) -- NOAA staffers report that Musk's minions have arrived with orders to wreck everything. This apparently includes climate data gathering. Should they succeed in shutting data collection down, attempts to fix the climate will become as effective as driving a car blindfolded.
Many of the threatened measurements are duplicated by scientists outside the USA, in what should now be called the 'Free World.' That may cushion the loss. However, I am aware of some databases that aren't. Two ",ade in the USA" climate datasets immediately come to mind:
- The Global Historical Climate Network, or GHCN. This is a collection of data from ground stations all over the planet. Collecting these data requires a diplomatic effort and international cooperation, the kind of things which Trump and his followers passionately hate. GHCN also employs clerical workers, working class jobs seen as waste by MAGAs. These features likely make GHCN what military planners call a "high value target." (I include 3 outputs from my analysis of GHCN data.)
- The CO₂ measurements from Hawaii, the longest CO₂ series started by Dr. Charles David Keeling. I doubt that the fossil fuel industry wants the general public to know about the exponential rise.
Roger Coppock is a retired computer scientist and amateur climate scientist who has helped decode' data from NASA's new Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite.
The opinions voiced in this reader's editorial reflect the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of East CountyMagazine. To submit an editorial for consideration, contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org.(link sends e-mail)
Community Power and SDF will host a webinar for prospective applicants on Feb. 13 at 12 p.m. to provide an overview of the grant guidelines and application questions. Please register here.
February 12, 2025 (San Diego) — San Diego Community Power, San Diego Foundation (SDF) and Calpine Community Energy announced today that they anticipate awarding $600,000 in grants to local nonprofits to fund projects or programs that contribute to a healthier, more sustainable future for the San Diego region.
“The Community Clean Energy Grants Program is representative of Community Power’s commitment to reinvest in our local communities as we shape a more sustainable San Diego region,” said Imperial Beach Mayor and Community Power Board Chair Paloma Aguirre. “These grants have already allowed local nonprofits to bring new resources to the communities they serve, whether it’s by creating opportunities to learn about clean energy in our schools or helping local families install solar panels on their homes.”
Launched in 2023, the third Community Clean Energy Grants cycle is expected to award more than $600,000 in grants. Grant sizes will range from $25,000 to $100,000, and each applicant is eligible to receive a maximum of $125,000 in grants.
Proposed projects or programs must serve Community Power customers (Cities of Chula Vista, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, La Mesa, National City and San Diego, as well as the unincorporated communities in San Diego County) and support energy literacy, energy education, electrification, green workforce development or energy resiliency.
“These grants are an opportunity for our nonprofit partners to invest in projects that will build more climate-resilient communities throughout our region,” said Christiana DeBenedict, Senior Director of Environmental Initiatives, SDF. “By working with San Diego Community Power and Calpine Community Energy to align our grantmaking, we can ensure more San Diegans have access to a clean energy future.”
Funding is made possible by Community Power, California’s second-largest Community Choice Aggregator serving nearly 1 million customer accounts, and Calpine Community Energy, Community Power’s back-office provider which supports billing mechanics and program implementation.
“Calpine Community Energy is and always has been committed to giving back to the communities that we live in and serve, and as a San Diego based company, it’s a distinct joy to support our local community” said Calpine Community Energy Vice President Josh Brock. “The Community Clean Energy Grants Program allows us to put money in the hands of amazing nonprofits, that are doing wonderful things to support the clean energy transition.”
The Community Clean Energy Grant Program was developed as a part of Community Power’s Community Power Plan, a five-year strategic plan informed by extensive community outreach that guides its program selection and development. To date, the Community Clean Energy Grant Program has awarded more than $1.5 million in grants to nonprofits across the San Diego region.
The Community Clean Energy Grant Program application period opens Feb. 10. Community Power and SDF will host a webinar for prospective applicants on Feb. 13 at 12 p.m. to provide an overview of the grant guidelines and application questions. Please register here.
Applicants must submit all application materials through SDF’s grants management system, Foundant. SDF staff will provide ongoing technical assistance through the grant application period. Email environment@sdfoundation.org to schedule a meeting. Grant applications are due by 5 p.m. on March 14, 2025. To apply, visit sdfoundation.org/apply.
The Community Clean Energy Grant demonstrates the power of aligned grantmaking as part of the SDF Fifty & Forward Campaign, an ambitious undertaking to grant $500 million to realize the San Diego region’s greatest opportunities in three key areas: education, children and families and the environment— and raise $1 billion to help shape the community’s future.
About San Diego Community Power
Community Power serves nearly a million municipal, business and residential power customers in the Cities of San Diego, Chula Vista, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, La Mesa and National City, as well as the unincorporated communities in the County of San Diego. Community Power is a not-for-profit public agency that provides competitively-priced clean energy and invests in the community to create an equitable and sustainable future for the San Diego region. Learn more at sdcommunitypower.org.
About San Diego Foundation
San Diego Foundation believes in just, equitable and resilient communities where every San Diegan can thrive, prosper and feel like they belong. We partner with donors, nonprofits and regional leaders to co-create solutions that respond to community needs and strengthen San Diego. Since our founding in 1975, our community foundation has granted $1.8 billion to nonprofits to improve quality of life in San Diego County and beyond. Join us in commemorating 50 years of impact – and looking toward the next 50 – by learning more at SDFoundation.org.
About Calpine Community Energy
Calpine Community Energy is the premier provider of data management and customer contact center services for Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) agencies. Calpine Community Energy is a trusted business and thought partner serving 21 operating CCAs and managing customer data and billing operations for over 5.5 million meters across California. As part of a Fortune 500 company, Calpine Community Energy’s best-in-class back-office services help guide CCA partners from initial program launch through mass enrollment phases and continue to evolve alongside their CCA partners. Decades of utility and billing experience, electronic data interchange, customized implementation planning, and robust customer data management enable Calpine’s clients to achieve their missions and long-term operational success.
East County News Service
Photo, right: Cleveland National Forest in San Diego County
February 11, 2025 (San Diego) – Congressman Darrell Issa, a San Diego Republican, has introduced the “Green Tape Elimination Act” that seeks to prevent wildfires by exempting all fuel reduction activities on federal lands from these environmental regulations for 10 years.
- The National Environmental Policy Act
- The Endangered Species Act
- The National Historic Preservation Act
- The Clean Air Act
- The Migratory Bird Treaty Act
- The Migratory Bird Conservation Act
"For years, environmental rules have become regulatory ‘green tape’ — locking in dangerous conditions and contradicting common sense reforms," said Rep. Issa. “That’s why this is no time for tinkering around the edges. We can’t wait for the next deadly disaster."
The environmental regulations that would be waived are intended to protect wildlife habitat, natural resources, clean air, historic sites, and recreational uses on public lands such as national parks, national forests, and federal wildlife refuges.
Issa's bill would provide a decade for firefighters to clear brush, cut shrubs, prescribe control burns, and utilize other strategies to stop the fires we know will occur in the future.
San Diego County is home to multiple federal lands including Cleveland National Forest, Bureau of Land Management properties, and federal wlidlife refuges. California has many forested federal lands, including Yosemite National Park.
East County News Service
February 9, 2025 (Jamul) -- The Jamul-Dulzura Planning Group is seeking funds from San Diego County’s Department of Public Works to develop a community park in Jamul. While exploring potential locations for the park, the Planning Group has launched a survey asking community members what features they would like to see in the new community park.
“As we explore potential locations for this park, we want to ensure it meets the needs and desires of our community,” an email from the planning group states. To take the survey, click here.