DENVER — The National Park Service will once again begin hiring seasonal workers following an uproar over an aggressive plan to downsize the agency, according to new reporting from ABC News.
In a new memo, the Trump administration said it would reverse a hiring freeze for seasonal National Parks Service employees, allowing "the system to fill crucial roles to help maintain and operate popular parks ahead of the summer season," according to ABC News.
ABC News reports that NPS will be allowed to hire 7,700 seasonal workers.
This comes after the Trump administration on Wednesday fired about 1,000 newly hired National Park Service employees in an effort to thin out the federal workforce.
After last week's announcement, officials with Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Florissant announced it will close on Mondays and Tuesdays, starting Feb. 24, due to staffing shortages.
"People come here to eat beforehand and to look about what to do or vice versa. They'll go on a hike and then come here to eat," a Florissant business owner told our sister station KOAA. "It would be a loss if they wouldn't be able to be open as much or even shut it down for the whole community. All of Teller County, honestly."
ABC News also reported that the memo doesn't mention the fate of the probationary National Parks Service employees who were terminated.
"Now that's really good news, because that's going to help the parks immensely," said Bill Wade, Association of National Park Rangers executive director. "However, it may not be. There still may be some understaffing in the early parts of the summer. When you have to hire 7,700 seasonals, they all go through human resources, and they all have to go through all of the paperwork."
Wade told Denver7 that hiring seasonal workers isn't the answer to firing the probationary employees.
Former employees include Dr. Natalie Peitsmeyer, a retired Denver-area teacher who took an NPS job in Kansas at the Fort Scott National Historic Site last year.
"I sold my home and bought a new home here in Kansas. With regards to the costs, just moving alone cost $8,000. The first few weeks, I stayed in a hotel because the home that I had chosen to purchase here in Kansas was not ready to close," she said. "So that was maybe an additional $2,500. I don't know that I could have afforded to do this had I not been retired."
Dr. Peitsmeyer told Denver7 that, like many others in their probationary period, she received a concerning email on Feb. 14.
"Four months after having started the position at four o'clock on Valentine's Day. So some have dubbed this as the 'Valentine's Day Massacre,' if you will. It seemed that people at my job site knew that it was coming my way. I was asked to check my email. And by four o'clock, the email had arrived," she said. "Then it was a matter of formalities of just going through the process of being terminated."
"I was essentially off-boarded in an hour and turned in my keys, anything that didn't belong to me: my badges, that beautiful National Park Service badge that is gold plated, turned those in. I was essentially out the door by five o'clock," she added.
Like Wade, Dr. Peitsmeyer said she still doesn't understand why NPS probationary employees were targeted.
"Yes, I think that's great that they're going to be getting seasonals. They need that," she said. "However, again, I come back to, well, why did we get rid of the probationary employees? It wasn't due to a lack of performance on my part."
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument will now be open Wednesday through Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
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