Thousands of people gathered in the national park across from us to protest layoffs

Thousands of people gathered in California to Maine’s national parks on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s firing of at least 1,000 national park managers last month.

A group called “Resistance Rangers” that includes about 700 off-duty Rangers, including some people fired from the National Park Service – attempted to organize protests on Saturday at the country’s 433 national park sites to resist what they believe is a threat to public land, including layoffs. Nick Graver, 30, said protests had occurred at at least 145 locations by the afternoon, organizing demonstrations at Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.

Protests were held in protests such as Yosemite in northern California, the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Arcadia in Maine, Yellowstone in Northwest, Gatway Arch in St. Louis and Great Falls Park in Virginia, and well-known places. Tensions in Yosemite are particularly high, where employees protested the upside-down American flag between iconic sites such as Yosemite Falls and El Capitan.

Mr. Graver said his group was concerned not only with shooting, but with the extraction of resources on public lands and possible threats to national monuments, such as the proposal to remove the power to designate the President’s national monument.

The National Park Service said it is working with protest organizers to allow people to “safely exercise their First Amendment rights” while protecting their resources.

At the Joshua Tree, about 400 people gathered to protest. The six Rangers fired last month are a wave of cuts targeting federal employees who started working last year, and the Trump administration is talking about efforts to reduce government spending.

Deborah Anderson, who has lived in the area for decades, said “protect our parks.”

Ms Anderson, 52, said: “What’s going on now is wrong.

In the north, dozens of displays near the Roosevelt Arch in Gardiner, Montana, chant “No public land for sale” and “Sold with Doge” refer to Elon Musk of the Department of Efficiency, whose clothing oversees work layoffs.

Before retiring in 2016, David Uberuaga, who had worked for more than 30 years at the National Park Service, urged people to take action, including protesting and calling their representatives and senators.

Mr Uberuaga, 74, said: “We can’t continue to let things happen, we have to work very hard, and this is effective over time. And we can’t disillusion.”

About 100 people protested in the Grand Canyon. Sean Adams, a 29-year-old seasonal worker who is responsible for invasive trout from native fish and conducts conservation studies, said visitors were surprised by the shooting of park workers.

“They didn’t realize it would affect people like us, people who worked consistently for over 10 hours,” he said. “The money they saved by cutting people like us is a sum of money in the barrel.”

Half the country, on the statue mound, about 150 people gathered together, with some signs depicting the role of Lolax, Dr. Seuss, who “speak for trees” and smoked bears, a symbol of the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire prevention efforts. Among the protesters, Brian Gibbs, 41, was fired as an educational technician by the monument.

For Mr. Gibbs, the forest landscape along the Mississippi River where the monument is located has a lot of sensual value. He said his father took him to camp when he was a kid. In the late stages of Gibbs, Gibbs told his wife that he loved her in the area for the first time. This is their first hiking trip with their 4-year-old son.

Mr Gibbs said it was amazing to see it become a protest place after all the experiences on the monument.

“It’s just a volcanic moment for me,” Mr Gibbs said. Regarding the park, he added: “It never made me think that they would be the target of the presidential administration”.

Mimi Dwyer Jennifer Brown from Yosemite National Park and Los Angeles and St. Louis Gateway Arch contributed the report.