The Sierra Club on Wednesday asked a federal court to reverse the firing of thousands of National Park Service and Forest Service workers, arguing in a suit it filed alongside a trio of other nonprofits that the government violated the Constitution when it dismissed them and other probationary federal employees last month
Besides the Sierra Club, the other organizations behind the suit are the Union of Concerned Scientists, Organization of Chinese Americans, and Japanese American Citizens League; the suit names as defendants Elon Musk, his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), its administrator Amy Gleason, and the heads or acting heads of 16 different government agencies including the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Interior Department. The complaint runs to more than 100 pages. Among other claims, it says that Musk violated the law by directing agencies to make cuts because he is not an elected or confirmed federal official, and that the group’s actions violated the separation of powers clause because only Congress has the authority to change or cancel federal appropriations.
In November of 2024, President Donald Trump announced his intention to establish DOGE, appointing Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as the informal branch’s leaders. That organization got to work on the day of President Trump’s second inauguration, quickly firing about 1,000 probational National Park Service employees and 3,400 U.S. Forest Service employees. Those fired workers included everyone from park rangers to archeological preservationists to trail builders; many of the fired Forest Service employees were part-time wildland firefighters under the agency’s militia program.
In the wake of those dismissals, many park visitors reported disruptions to their trips. Yosemite National Park postponed reinstating its timed entry system and pushed back the signup dates for popular campgrounds in the park. Visitors to popular destinations like Grand Canyon reported longer lines, while destinations like Hot Springs National Park, Florissant Fossil Beds, and Gates of the Arctic closed visitors centers and even trailheads due to short staffing.
In a statement announcing the lawsuit, Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, suggested that without relief from the courts, the situation could get even worse.
“Firefighters and forest management staff have been dismissed as families remain on edge from the threats wildfires pose,” Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, wrote in a post announcing the lawsuit. “Families wanting to enjoy our national parks, forests and monuments are being welcomed with closed signs, long lines, and unmaintained trails—before the parks’ busiest season has even begun. Without the workers to staff and support our public lands, communities will face more dangerous and deadly fires, park visitors will face unsafe conditions, and local economies that rely on national parks will struggle.”
In a speech before Congress on Tuesday, Trump praised Musk and DOGE’s work, stating that the cuts the group had made so far were “just the beginning.” Wednesday’s lawsuit is the latest of several arguing that last month’s dismissals of federal workers was illegal.
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