On Saturday, people gathered at national parks all over the country to protest the firing of 1000 national park employees. At Joshua Tree National Park, hundreds joined the movement.
Six rangers were fired last month at Joshua Tree as part of the Trump administration’s push to downsize the federal workforce. Some 300 people showed up at Joshua Tree.
Nick Graver, a community organizer, says he’s worried Trump’s cuts will make it harder to protect the rare Joshua trees.
"We don't have that many Joshua trees to lose... and our parks are understaffed and our public lands are understaffed, we're gonna we're gonna lose huge areas of desert," said Graver. He's also concerned there won’t be enough rangers to respond to emergencies— especially when temperatures soar in the summertime.
According to an email obtained by KVCR, the park already had 38 open positions which will now not be filled. The nationwide protests were organized by a group of some 700 off-duty park rangers.