Former Minnesota national park worker speaks out amid government layoffs

CBS News

25-02-2025

President Donald Trump's plan to slash the federal budget is having an unexpected impact hundreds of miles away from the White House.
National parks around the country are cutting hours and services.
Kate Severson, who was fired from Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota, says the staffing cuts mean the park won't be as clean, and possibly less safe.
Severson was abruptly terminated this month from her job as a program manager of education and visitor services. She had to tell one of her employees he was being let go as well.
"Both of us uprooted our lives within this past year, moved across the country and had settled down, had taken that risk," Severson said. "He had a family he's trying to support. He had a mortgage."
Severson was in her job just seven months, but she's far from inexperienced. She was a park ranger for years in Texas and Colorado.
Since she was still probationary though at Voyageurs, she got the axe as part of President Trump's cuts to the federal workforce.
"I'm negotiating for the people of the United States and we're doing a great job of it," Trump said Monday. "It'll be hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud and abuse."
About 1,000 employees with the National Park Service have been fired, which is roughly 5% of the agency.
10% of the U.S. Forest Service was wiped out.
"It has nothing to do with performance, which is a common thing I keep hearing," Severson said.
Protesters hung an upside-down American flag this weekend at Yosemite National Park, which is reportedly halting reservations for nearly 600 camper spots this summer.
"No one's going to be there to pick up the trash," said Olek Chmura, who was laid off as a custodian at Yosemite. "You'd be amazed with how many diapers I pick up off the side of the road, beer bottles, toilet paper."
Severson says visitors will see fewer clean bathrooms and campsites, and trails will get overgrown.
She will also not be around for training the new seasonal workers, whose job it is to keep guests safe.
"Completely getting rid of first-year employees is a waste of taxpayer money," Severson said. "There was no thought to it. It was just, 'Let's get rid of these people.'"
In response to backlash, Trump's administration says it plans to restore at least 50 jobs and hire more seasonal workers.
WCCO reached out to the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service with questions but didn't immediately hear back.