Elliot Lozano, a biological science technician at Yosemite National Park, was celebrated for his role in saving an endangered baby fisher but was recently laid off amid cuts by the Trump administration. His dismissal is part of a broader reduction of staff, raising concerns about the impact on park operations, especially with critical positions remaining unfilled. Despite the cuts, officials claim visitor experiences will not suffer—a point challenged by experts and park employees. Many fear the layoffs reflect a deeper dismantling of federal roles essential for conservation and public safety, highlighting tensions between fiscal austerity and the preservation of national heritage.
Elliot Lozano, a 37-year-old biological science technician specializing in weasels, serves as a notable example of the Trump administration’s decision to eliminate 1,000 positions from the National Park Service.
For some, he’s a representation of the Park Service’s mission, highlighted by Yosemite employees who recently raised an upside-down American flag on the iconic El Capitan.
While working at Yosemite National Park, Mr. Lozano received a $5,000 bonus last year for his exceptional work in saving an endangered weasel—a baby southern Sierra Nevada fisher that his team discovered orphaned in the park. He was one of about 10 Yosemite personnel who were informed via email on February 14 that they would be let go due to their “subject matter knowledge, skills and abilities” being deemed unnecessary. At least 30 other job positions remain vacant due to a hiring freeze.
“It feels like I’m spending my life force trying to address a significant issue,” Mr. Lozano remarked, still discussing his previous role in the present tense.
Currently, there are few obvious indications of job reductions at Yosemite, which spans an area comparable to Rhode Island and was established 134 years ago in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains—a place Ansel Adams famously described as “a glitter of green and golden wonder.” The upside-down flag has been removed. The summer tourist season is still several months away. Climbers continue to assemble in the meadows during the early morning light, using binoculars to watch their friends scale the towering wall as the sun illuminates the face of El Capitan.
However, the Trump administration’s drastic transformation of American governance is evident in this idyllic natural landscape as well. These changes are often subtle, lurking beneath the surface where tensions have been escalating between budget cuts and the preservation of America’s cherished heritage.
Displaced federal employees are planning to participate in protests this Saturday across national parks for a “Nationwide Day of Action.” Officials at the Department of the Interior, which governs the National Park Service, assert that these reductions will minimally affect visitor experiences, a statement some experts question. Tourists expressed confusion over why national parks, among other government services, faced such cuts.
Advocates for Yosemite, the third oldest national park in the U.S., view it as an example of the streamlined bureaucracy that President Trump and his team advocate. Last year, taxpayers contributed approximately $32 million to support Yosemite, yet around $60 million in additional expenditures were covered, wholly or partially, by volunteers and nonprofit organizations financing conservation and scientific efforts on public lands.
This funding helped employ roughly 400 permanent federal workers and an additional 345 seasonal employees. Their responsibilities included managing the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which supplies water to the San Francisco Bay Area, maintaining trails, combating wildfires, providing educational lectures during field trips, and repairing numerous locks on various facilities. A U.S. District Court operates within Yosemite (where even traffic tickets are federal concerns), alongside a medical clinic and a helicopter-equipped search-and-rescue team.
“No one disputes the legitimacy of assessing staffing levels across the government,” stated Senator Angus King of Maine, an independent who co-chairs the Senate subcommittee overseeing national parks. However, he noted, “the notion of such extensive layoffs is merely an affront to the citizens of the United States.”
The Trump administration appears to hold a different perspective. At a recent conservative political gathering, Elon Musk, the billionaire chosen by Mr. Trump to identify federal waste, brandished a chainsaw to emphasize his vision for the federal bureaucracy.
“We aim to ensure that every visitor has the opportunity to explore and connect with the remarkable, iconic areas of our national parks,” a spokesperson for the Interior Department stated, adding that the Park Service “is collaborating closely with the Office of Personnel Management to prioritize financial responsibility on behalf of the American people.”
Most of the four million visitors to Yosemite each year confine themselves to a seven-square-mile zone of waterfalls and steep cliffs, including Half Dome, which stands three times taller than the Empire State Building. The remaining 1,180 square miles consist mainly of wilderness, serving as a habitat for skilled climbers, hikers, and wildlife.
Employees at Yosemite, as well as in other parks, have a far-reaching influence. The helicopter rescue team in Yosemite sets a benchmark for aerial rescuers and is deployed well beyond the park’s confines. Park firefighters are part of a national consortium of trained experts combating wildfires for state and local governments, additionally assisting their parks by transporting goods and aiding individuals in inaccessible areas. Rangers often set aside their law enforcement responsibilities to undertake rescues. Air quality specialists monitor acid rain, which affects the overall wellbeing of parks and rivers.
The number of open positions at Yosemite — including the approximately 10 terminations and over 30 jobs affected by the hiring freeze, out of hundreds of total roles — “might not appear alarming,” remarked Robin Wills, who led the Park Service’s fire and aviation operations in the West before retiring in 2022. “However, every one of those roles serves a critical purpose that enables the park to function.”
Critical roles, however, often come with low salaries. Mr. Lozano, the biological science technician, reported earning less than $22 an hour prior to his dismissal. Olek Chmura, 28, rejected a higher-paying plumbing position to clean restrooms and collect litter from 9,000 acres of campgrounds and pathways in Yosemite. He earned less than $23 an hour as a custodian.
“Scraping waste off toilets, squeegeeing urine from bathrooms, picking up diapers from the roadside,” Mr. Chmura described his job. “You’d be amazed by the mess people create.”
Mr. Musk’s efficiency initiative, labeled the Department of Government Efficiency, marked Mr. Chmura’s skill set as superfluous, leading to his termination last week. This raises the question of who will manage the full truck bed of trash he claimed to gather daily during peak seasons.
Workers at Yosemite express concerns that the layoffs—coupled with a distinct temporary freeze on hiring hundreds of seasonal staff this winter—could result in disarray during the increasingly busy spring and summer seasons.
The Park Service has indicated its intention to recruit more summer staff this year compared to previous years, presumably to compensate for the hiring delay during winter. However, former park officials contend that this freeze disrupted recruitment at a pivotal time, causing applicants to seek alternative employment and complicating the schedules for training and accommodations for new hires.
Mr. Wills, the retired Park Service official, expressed concerns about a potential deficit of firefighters just as California’s wildfires are growing both in intensity and frequency. Other experts voiced worries regarding the likelihood of summertime traffic congestion, pointing out that Yosemite has been slow to develop a transportation management strategy and campground reservation system for midsummer visitors.
Employees at Yosemite noted that they saw no clear rationale behind the choice of individuals who were let go last month. They expressed worries that this move may signal the beginning of a larger dismantling of the federal workforce, as emails circulating within various agencies seem to indicate.
“It feels as if they simply took a list of personnel and employed a random number generator, with results like, ‘You’re fired,’ ‘You’re fired,’” recounted one probationary employee at Yosemite who wished to remain anonymous, fearing repercussions for speaking to a reporter.
The termination of probational employees—who typically undergo a year-long evaluation period but also include career staff transitioning to more advanced roles—was particularly painful, according to workers. In the Park Service, individuals often spend years cycling through various temporary and seasonal jobs in hopes of eventually securing a permanent position. The probationary period is essentially the path to stability.
Mr. Lozano, the fisher expert, serves as a prime example. He had dedicated nearly a decade to Yosemite, yet had only been on the federal payroll since 2021. To earn a role on the team studying the southern Sierra Nevada fisher, with a chance for permanent employment, he worked unpaid for almost a year.
“Living through probation entails years of sacrifice and unstable employment, all in pursuit of a reliable position,” he explained.
Fewer than 500 southern Sierra Nevada fishers are believed to inhabit Yosemite and its surroundings. In his final role, Mr. Lozano placed traps in the frigid backcountry and investigated dead trees to discover fisher dens. His team secured special protections for the dens they identified, significantly improving survival rates for the endangered weasel.
When his team discovered the orphaned baby fisher last year, Mr. Lozano took responsibility for its care, relocating to a room at the adjacent Fresno Chaffee Zoo where the animal was housed. He named the young weasel Champ. Caring for Champ back to health was an around-the-clock commitment, during which he admitted to rarely sleeping for more than 45 minutes to an hour at a time. He was prescribed medication for anxiety due to the stress and sought support from two therapists.
“While I’m not raising a child,” Mr. Lozano asserted, “I believe that in caring for Champ, I’ve learned what it means to be a parent, at least emotionally.”
Andria Townsend, 36, a supervisory carnivore specialist who was part of the fisher team, also lost her job. “My husband doesn’t have a degree,” she mentioned. “He’s a line cook. We’ve always lived paycheck to paycheck. He supported me through my undergraduate and graduate studies, so we could eventually aspire to a stable life.”
Both Mr. Lozano and Ms. Townsend earned exceptional performance evaluations. Should they have been dismissed in the pursuit of efficient governance, there’s a significant catch: the firings, in reality, did not seem to yield any financial savings for the National Park Service.
Records reveal that the salaries of Mr. Lozano and Ms. Townsend were largely funded by the Yosemite Conservancy, one of the numerous nonprofit organizations that support parks nationwide. Officials from the Conservancy did not respond to inquiries for comment.
Ultimately, Mr. Lozano’s efforts with Champ proved fruitful. The weasel not only survived but thrived enough to be reintroduced into the wild. Champ holds the distinction of being the first known southern Sierra Nevada fisher raised exclusively from infancy in captivity to successfully return to its natural habitat.