National parks in turmoil: why rangers hung an upside-down American flag at Yosemite

On Saturday evening, a group of Yosemite National Park employees hung an upside-down American flag 3,000 feet in the air, at the top of El Capitan summit. The display was absolutely not missed. It happened in the midst of this year’s Firefall at Horsetail Fall, a popular event at the Mariposa County, California, national park, when between mid- to late February, the waterfall begins to light up 5 to 15 minutes before sunset, looking almost like molten lava.

Hundreds of photographers and observers were in the park when the upside-down flag, known as a “distress flag,” according to American flag code—a sign that something is desperately wrong—hung from the mountain top. The act came shortly after Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) fired more than 1,000 National Park Service rangers amid drastic cuts to the federal budget.

The message was clear: America’s parks are in trouble.

“We’re bringing attention to what’s happening to the parks, which are every American’s properties,” Gavin Carpenter, a maintenance mechanic at the park, told the San Francisco Chronicle. Carpenter was central to the employees pulling off the feat, supplying the flag and helping to get it to the top of El Capitan. “It’s super important we take care of [the parks] and we’re losing people here, and it’s not sustainable if we want to keep the parks open,” Carpenter told the paper.

National Park Service rangers are massively important to the preservation of our national parks. Their duties range from running programs and camps for children to maintaining the cleanliness and upkeep of trails, as well as staffing visitor centers and helping to keep visitors safe from wild animals and other dangerous natural elements. But as DOGE’s federal firings continue, many are expressing huge concerns over how parks will be maintained if there are not enough employees to manage them.

Some parks have already begun trimming their hours, cancelling tours and other events, and closing visitor centers. In a post on Facebook, which has garnered more than 20,600 comments, the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Florissant, Colorado, announced it would be forced to cut hours.

“Due to a lack of staffing, effective Monday, February 24, 2025, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument will be closed Mondays and Tuesdays. There will be no access to the visitor center, trailhead parking, or public restrooms,” the post read.

Social media posts from devastated park employees who have been let go in recent weeks have gone viral, too. “I am absolutely heartbroken and completely devastated to have lost my dream job of an education park ranger with the National Park Service this Valentine’s Day,” former ranger Brian Gibbs wrote in a February 14 post on Facebook. “My position was ripped out from under my feet after my shift was over at 3:45 p.m. on a cold snowy Friday.”

The post went on to detail the many irreplaceable roles of a national parks ranger: “I am my son’s ‘Junior Ranger’ idol . . . I am a college kid’s dream job . . . I am the smiling face that greets you at the front door . . . I am your family vacation planner . . . I am a voice for 19 American Indian cultures.”

DOGE’s alarming layoffs have not been limited to park workers. Last week, the administration also fired more than 300 National Nuclear Security Administration workers, then quickly rehired most of them over major national security concerns. And on Sunday, approximately 2,000 employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) were informed they were being laid off. The majority of full-time staff were put on administrative leave.

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