Fired Yosemite workers say upside-down U.S. flag was a call to protect public lands

They said they fear national parks and forests will be privatized and exploited for their natural resources. They also want their jobs back.

Laid-off employees who hung a U.S. flag upside down at Yosemite National Park in a sign of “distress” said the action was a call to protect the nation’s public lands from privatization and to reinstate the thousands of federal workers who were recently fired.

The terminations at national parks and forests have left workers bewildered and worried not only for themselves but for the future of America’s public lands, and they fear the cuts could be the first step in privatizing millions of acres of wilderness.

“It seems clear they are trying to destabilize and decentralize,” said Andria Townsend, a laid-off Yosemite employee whose work included researching the endangered fisher, a small, carnivorous cousin of the otter. “That’s how we lose public lands and start resource extractions.”

The upside-down flag was hung Saturday from the summit of Yosemite’s iconic El Capitan, a 3,000-foot vertical rock formation that draws a flurry of visitors each February to witness the “firefall,” when Horsetail Fall, a seasonal waterfall on the summit’s east side, takes on an orange, lava-like glow at sunset.

“It’s a huge statement,” said Olek Chmura, a former Yosemite custodial worker who was fired this month. “It’s always been a sign of the country being in distress, and to put it up over Horsetail Falls over the weekend is to tell people to wake up and look around.”

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the Interior Department, which manages the National Park Service, said the flag display was inappropriate and taken down quickly.

“This blatant disregard for park regulations and respect for our national symbols is unacceptable,” Elizabeth Peace said in the statement. “The NPS does not condone such actions, and the flag was removed as soon as possible.”

Chmura, who did not participate in the flag-hanging, was among 1,000 National Park Service employees who were fired Feb. 14. He was two months shy of completing his one-year probationary period when he received the notice.

A plumber by training, Chmura said he was dedicated to public service and loved his job despite having made more money in the private sector.

Over the weekend while visiting Yosemite, Chmura said he was forced to use a bathroom with a broken lock because the other facilities were too dirty. The lock was broken, he said, because the park’s only locksmith had been fired recently.

“We were already unstaffed,” said Chmura, who estimated Yosemite lost 11 employees in the cutbacks. “And it’s not even peak travel season.”

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told Fox News this month that the Trump administration would open up federal lands to oil and gas leasing.

“We’re moving very quickly,” he said.

Burgum ordered officials this month to review and consider redrawing the boundaries of national monuments created under previous presidents. Among the sites most at risk are two in Utah: uranium-rich Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, which holds large reserves of coal.

A spokesperson for the White House previously said in a statement that it would “continue to protect America’s abundant natural resources while streamlining federal agencies to better serve the American people.”

“In his first term, President Trump proved that environmental stewardship and economic greatness can go hand-in-hand,” it said.

Townsend, who was also fired during her probationary period, said her position, unlike most federal jobs, had been funded through grants.

“Not a single dime of taxpayer money is being saved by firing me,” she said, adding that the nearly two weeks since she lost her job have been painful and isolating.

Townsend said she felt a spark of hope after seeing the upside-down U.S. flag hanging from El Capitan, Yosemite’s most popular attraction.

“Yosemite has the advantage of being so well known,” she said. “When people think of national parks, they think of Yosemite, so we have the leverage to really make a difference.”

Townsend joined about 100 people who protested at the park Saturday, holding signs calling for employees to be rehired and for public lands to remain off-limits to private interests.

The organizer of Saturday’s protest, a former ranger who did not want her name used because she hopes to be rehired, said people honked and cheered when the flag was unfurled upside down.

Some people were annoyed by the display, calling it unpatriotic and complaining it blocked their view of the waterfall, while others said it touched off memories of visiting national parks with their families.

“People are standing up and people are listening,” the ranger said. “We’re going to keep fighting. Federal employees across all agencies matter.”

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