Paid in Sunsets No More

Rangers fight Republicans for the right to work

Aug 27, 2025

Everywhere I go, every city I adopt, I relish hearing two things from long-time locals about where I am: how quickly the weather changes and how hard people work there.

It’s comforting to know that if you don’t like the weather in (fill in the blank locale), you can just wait five minutes. I can’t help but laugh at this, because I remember thinking how unique this joke was to my home state, but it is proudly claimed all over the country. And it’s usually pretty accurate.

The same is true for exceptionally hardworking people.

In Oklahoma, we are generations of people who have worked the land, lived through the Dust Bowl, and aren’t slowed down by heat and wind. In NYC and LA, we are people from around the country who come to make something of ourselves, pounding the pavement, finding a hustle, and scrapping our way toward our goals. In the mountains of Kentucky and Virginia, tough and isolating terrain conditions people to routinely overcome challenges.

I could go on.

People show their passion for life and value of a hard day’s work in so many different ways, taking ownership and pride for it in a very personal way. Paid and unpaid work, it all brings a sort of accomplishment that connects us to something, someplace bigger. We hold it close as part of our identity, kind of lost without it.

Listening to accounts from National Park Service employees, I was struck with this loss.

News stories document how downsizing has cut life-long dreams and careers abruptly short. Interviews detail how rangers have been moved to bare-bones subsistence park duties. Reports expose how seasonal employees worked as unpaid volunteers while their jobs were put on hold, because of executive-level indecision, congressional spending cuts, and resulting hiring delays.

Self-organized opposition groups like the Resistance Rangers share how Trump’s executive orders and absurd proclamations restrict crucial functions of parks. Censorship prevents rangers from giving accurate guided tours, public displays and online communication. People are reprimanded and fired for being their full selves at work and on their own time.

Across the NPS, resources are being eliminated that show appreciation and support for employees’ work.

Most recently this was shown by the monumentally impactful and symbolic shutdown of national park ranger training stations. They were places where new rangers went to learn the essential hands-on lessons that online seminars can’t teach. Park professionals from all areas of the country would meet there, train together, share their expertise, and connect in meaningful ways.

On the Resistance Rangers podcast, one anonymous employee described the move to end these programs as one marking a shift, or abandonment, of the organization’s purpose.

I feel like the NPS didn’t just shoot itself in the foot, but the NPS just shot itself in the heart.
-Anonymous NPS training staff member

National Parks have a well-deserved reputation of being able to do a lot with a little. They are resourceful with funding. As Dr. Ebony Preston Goddard of the National Park Conservation Association explained, “for every dollar invested in the national parks, we’ve seen at least 15 dollars returned within that local community.”

Part of this thriftiness comes because of relatively low-salaried employees. Park public servants are often in their professional roles because of passion for the job, not highly lucrative careers. One Resistance Ranger shared a common adage in the NPS about how you are “paid in sunsets.”

But now, with growing uncertainty about job security and park longevity, that sentiment doesn’t quite hit home. Day by day and cut by cut, NPS staff are finding that they are restricted from doing their job well. Sometimes, they are unable to do it at all. They know they are being undervalued and undercut.

So, they are unionizing.

This week, Yosemite and Sequoia & Kings Canyon became certified with the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE). The union is fighting for bargaining power to restore NPS workforce and employee resources, and to increase workers’ pay.

Employees are attesting to the need for organizational support. They want concrete evidence that they are valued, not taken advantage of, for their dedication to the job. For them, it’s a matter of assurance that they can continue to protect the places that they love so much.

I hope that I get to watch a sunset at the Grand Canyon again. And I hope that when I do, I can look forward to the sun rising on a better future for the NPS, than what it feels like right now. And I know that if I do get to watch that sunset and wait for that sunrise, it will be because the people of the National Park Service came together to make that better future possible.
-Anonymous NPS employee

Though I am well aware of the long-time underinvestment in our natural resources, Trump’s rampant abuse and dismantling of our NPS is still shocking. It’s angering and scary and sad.

But I take comfort in two things I know for sure:

First, if there is anyone capable of saving our national parks and fighting those who would do them harm, it is the gritty, hardworking people who sign up to be park rangers. They trek treacherous trails and climb impossible mountainsides. They embrace the unpredictable wilderness on a daily basis. And they are backed by nature-loving folks from all over the world—who are in their own way a fearsome army, too.

And second, things are dark in the US right now, and none of us like it… but this will not last. Advocates from all over are fighting back. We’re organizing, protesting, documenting, suing, caring, and salvaging. We’re learning how to weather the storm and limit its damage.

So, keep working. Have faith. And wait five minutes.

The weather is changing.

With love and hope for the future,

Stephanie

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What is the weather like where you are? How are your people hard-working?

Parks People

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