Wild, who had been a park ranger for some 15 years and with the National Park Service for six of them, worked for most of the year at Devils Postpile National Monument, a stunning rock formation and waterfall that straddles the Pacific Crest Trail in eastern California.
Following the abrupt firing of some 1,000 National Park Service employees by the Trump administration last week, rangers like Wild are raising the alarm about the impact the cuts will have on America’s 63 beloved national parks.
Park rangers at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico tell The Independent that long lines are snaking around buildings after the firing of ticket office workers.
A job with the National Park Service was never high-paying, or particularly stable — park rangers always joke that they get paid in sunrises.
It’s not just the meadows he’s worried about — long lines that are already forming at park entrances because rangers who sell tickets have been let go, garbage won’t get picked up, tours will be canceled, campgrounds will be closed, the abandoned wildlife, hikers lost because no ranger was there to guide them and lives at risk as rescue teams are cut back.
