"This land was made for you and me."

Only 1,417 days to go...

Mar 05, 2025

The National Park Service created a Passport To Your National Parks. I thought it was fun to have, so I bought the little book at one of their gift shops and started buying the stamps to put in it. I had this idea, that someday my little passbook would be filled. Right now I have stickers from Yellowstone, Zion, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Acadia, Route 66, Crater Lake, Glacier, and many many others.

I’ve been traveling to our national parks since I was child. Every summer we’d drive out to visit my grandmother in Montana and we’d see Yellowstone or Mount Rushmore or The Badlands, etc. and maybe camp along the way. My parents always made a habit of showing us our natural wonders. I’ve sailed near Picture Rocks, hiked down into Canyon de Chelly and cross-country skied through Yosemite.

I’ve also been lucky to be able to travel the world. I’ve seen the Great Wall of China and the Okavango Delta in Botswana. I’ve toured the Vatican with its Sistine Chapel. I’ve seen the remarkable Red Square and the amazing St. Isaac’s Cathedral. I’ve been to literally dozens of palaces, cathedrals, gardens, churches, temples and castles. But not one of these wonders compares to the sheer magnificence of the Grand Canyon or the beauty of the Apostle Islands or the majesty of the Grand Tetons or the wonder of Sleeping Bear Dunes.

We may not have soaring cathedrals or grand castles and palaces, but thousands of people from all over the world come to visit our natural wonders. When my sister and I drove Route 66 in 2017 we met people from Europe, Australia, Asia — they just wanted that experience of driving across America and visiting its parks, seeing its beauty and feeling the awe of the vastness of our country. It’s something quite rare and unique and special.

The United States federal government owns about 650 million acres of land, which is roughly 30% of the country's total land area. This land is managed by several federal agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the National Park Service (NPS), and the United States Forest Service (USFS).

I have this sinking feeling that we are going to be experiencing a Teapot Dome type of scandal with this president… he certainly has staffed his administration with folks as corrupt as Harding’s Ohio Gang. Sadly this president looks at our amazing open lands simply as real estate to be bought, developed and sold. He doesn’t care, whether it will be enjoyed by future generations: he’d rather develop it into golf courses or resorts. He doesn’t worry about the impact on our climate or the future of our planet Earth. It’s drill, baby, drill.

“The public lands are an American value, and they’re trying to get rid of that value by getting rid of the offices and the people. If that value doesn’t exist, there’s not really any way to stop them from selling off land.” (newspaper quote)

I read this in the Citizen Times. It’s an Opinion from Josh Kelly, MountainTrue’s public lands field biologist. I thought it was worth sharing.

“We all want our government to use tax dollars efficiently and effectively. However, the latest firing spree of the Trump Administration will work against both purposes. Last Thursday and Friday, the Trump Administration laid off hundreds of thousands of federal workers that had a “probationary” status. This included not just much-needed new hires meant to fill gaps but also seasoned professionals who were promoted within the past year. This move hit conservation agencies like the National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service, and the National Resource Conservation Service particularly hard. Those agencies, already suffering from staff shortages, saw an overnight reduction of 10% or more of their workforce.

Western North Carolina is blessed with 1.6 million acres of federal public land. The Southern Blue Ridge Mountains as a whole have 3.3 million acres of federal public land. The lands produce drinking water for over 30 million people, provide wildlife habitat for thousands of species, are an economic engine for the region and a huge source of health, pride, recreation, and renewal for the entire nation. Made by Mountains estimates that outdoor recreation accounts for more than $1 trillion in economic activity nationally, and $14.6 billion in North Carolina alone. Tens of millions of people visit Southern Blue Ridge public land annually to commune with god and nature, hike, bike, hunt, fish, paddle, camp, picnic, and enjoy their freedoms and privileges as Americans. The mass, poorly considered firing of federal workers puts those freedoms and privileges at risk.

National Forests in North Carolina lost 17 employees to the sudden order. This includes most of the Disaster Response Team that is helping the region recover from Hurricane Helene. There are still hundreds of miles of roads and trails and many campgrounds and recreation facilities on National Forest land that need rebuilding. These layoffs will delay that recovery tremendously. Firefighters were excluded from the move to fire federal workers, but almost all Forest Service Employees have firefighting as a secondary duty. The impact zone of Helene will have an elevated wildfire risk for years to come. Trees were blown down across hundreds of thousands of acres, and all those twigs, limbs, and trees will be drying out for years to come. Now, there are 17 less people working to create fire lines and 17 less people to fight wildfires.

The cuts also put the diversity of life of the Southern Blue Ridge in danger. We take great pride in our region’s immense biodiversity; Pisgah National Forest has over 240 species of birds, 180 species of fish, 80 reptiles and amphibians, over 2,000 native plant species, and much more. This 500,000-acre piece of land is one of the most diverse places in the temperate world. It is beloved by hunters, anglers, birders, and biophiles of all stripes. Several biologists with the Fish and Wildlife Service and US Forest Service were forced out by the sudden order. All of them were given the message: "The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest." The fact that the person, or people, who made the decision about this firing spree didn’t actually review anyone’s performance should be obvious to all. Fortunately, Pisgah National Forest’s wildlife biologist was rehired after being laid-off for a week, which was a small consolation amidst the other losses.

Reducing the federal workforce will make the government less efficient and less effective. With huge cuts made to science and conservation by the Trump Administration, it seems unlikely that the US will be able to continue to offer clean water, clean air, open spaces, and a good quality of life to its citizens.

The USA is the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and for generations we have had parks and forests that are equal to our stature. If you have enjoyed our national forests and parks, or even just like knowing they exist, now is the time to stand up. Those parks, forests, and natural resources can’t exist without people to care for them. Please speak up for national forests, national parks, wildlife, and conservation. Call your representatives and demand they stand up for the federal conservation workers they funded and empowered, through legislation, to care for our lands, waters, and wildlife.”

Yet again, I just sent letters off to my MAGA trio of representatives in Washington DC. We’ll see if they stand up for the federal conservation workers they funded and empowered.

I’m not holding my breath.

I just hope my National Park’s passbook doesn’t expire - ever. I have my NPS lifetime senior pass, that I bought when I turned 62.

I still have a lot of parks I want to see…. starting with DENALI.

Thought for the day…

"There is nothing so American as our national parks…The fundamental idea behind the parks...is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us."

~ Theodore Roosevelt

Must Read Article:

They're scientists. Veterans. Park rangers. Lawyers. Researchers.

They work on fire safety. Safe drinking water. Veterans' health. Combating bird flu. They're victims of efforts by President Donald Trump and his senior adviser, billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk, to cut the size of the government.

Quotes of the day:

from defenders of the National Parks…

"They are destroying the institutions that make this country move: the transportation, the education, the parks. They're going to hurt us all in untold ways for generations to come."

“There is no value you can put on a national park. They’re absolutely priceless — maybe our most valuable thing in this country.”

What I’m reading today…

Cuts to national parks and forests met with backlash

The cuts have hit the US Forest Service, which maintains thousands of miles of popular hiking trails, even harder. Around 10% of the Forest Service's staff - about 3,400 people, including Ms White and her team - have been fired. The cuts have upended the management of national parks, which get around 325 million visitors annually, as well as national forests, which see about 159 million visitors each year. Long queues of cars were stuck outside Grand Canyon National Park over President's Day weekend, one day after the mass firing, due to a lack of toll operators to check people in at the gate. Similar lines of cars have been growing at other parks as well.

Thousands Gather at National Parks Across U.S. to Protest Job Cuts

Thousands of people gathered on Saturday at national parks from California to Maine to protest the Trump administration’s firing of at least 1,000 National Park Service employees last month.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park may lose more staffers

Of the 1,000 National Park Service staffers fired on what some critics are referring to as the “Valentine’s Day massacre,” about a dozen of them reportedly worked in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. And that number could grow in the coming months.

These National Park workers say a Trump agency fired them illegally. A judge agrees

The couple has worked in Lake Clark for about 10 years. She's in logistics, he's a biological science technician. They were both recently promoted. Those promotions put them into probationary status in their new positions. The Trump administration has fired tens of thousands of federal workers with "probationary" status, which usually means newer workers, and makes them easier to let go. But those workers still have some rights and protections, and many say the administration has used false pretenses to fire them.

National Monuments Under Threat

Here are just seven of the dozens of exceptional public lands that could be under threat. Please consider taking action to help defend these monuments, which belong to all Americans.

A book recommendation from a friend…

To Speak for the Trees by Diana Beresford-Kroeger

“I want to remind you that the forest is far more than a source of timber. It is our collective medicine cabinet. It is our lungs. It is the regulatory system for our climate in our oceans. It is the mantle of our planet. It is the health and well-being of our children and grandchildren. It is our sacred home. It is our salvation.”