Protesters held signs in front of the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park visitors’ center in New Bedford Saturday as part of a coordinated demonstration at parks across the country denouncing Trump administration firings.
One hand-drawn poster featured the head of Smokey the Bear and the words, “Only you can prevent fascism.”
Former Alaska park ranger Naomi Boak, who lives in New Bedford, held a photograph of a huge bear standing in a river, captioned, “The only thing standing between you and this bear is a park ranger.”
Between 15 and 20 people turned out, she said. They interacted with passersby and sang a few protest songs played on a phone.
“One sign said, ‘Theodore Roosevelt wouldn't do this,’” she recalled. “And a fellow drove by in the car, and he said, ‘Theodore Roosevelt? Eleanor Roosevelt would have been out here with a shotgun.’ So there was some levity and fraternity.”
The Trump administration has reportedly fired about 1,000 National Park Service workers who were in the probationary period of their employment, either as new employees or following a promotion or job change.
The administration maintains that it is eliminating wasteful spending across the federal government.
For opponents of the move, Saturday’s demonstrations were a moment to seek solidarity.
“Going to the protest at the New Bedford historical site was the first time in the last few weeks that I actually felt good, because I was out there with others who felt strongly about the importance of the national parks,” Boak said.
Sources suggest that either one or two employees have been fired from the New Bedford park; CAI has not been able to confirm that number.
A “rogue” park ranger has been compiling a spreadsheet of the number of firings at each park, according to the San Francisco-based news website SFGate, which reports on the parks frequently. To date, the database shows one person fired from New Bedford.
Even if the number is small, it’s a big loss for a park the size of the Whaling National Historical Park, Boak said.
The National Park Service did not respond to questions for this story.
In a statement to CAI last week for a story on how the administration’s hiring freeze could affect seasonal hiring at the Cape Cod National Seashore, the National Park Service said it would hire seasonal workers, but at the same time “embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation in workforce management.”
But Boak said national parks won’t be the same this summer without a full complement of interpreters.
“You will get something from your visit, but you will not get the kind of understanding and emotional connection that a park ranger can give a visitor,” she said.
