PORT ANGELES — Fourteen years ago, corporate employee Nataleigh Permantier came to the North Olympic Peninsula to visit the Hoh Rainforest for the first time, “carrying my Burberry purse and my Prada sunglasses,” she said.

That day, her life changed forever. While she stood in the forest marveling at a natural beauty she had never seen before, a Pacific wren sang to her for more than 30 minutes.

“That’s when I realized that we have a much deeper connection to the world around us,” she said.

Four years later, at 35, she quit her retail job, returned to school to study science and applied to work for the National Park Service.

“This was where I wanted to spend the rest of my life,” she said.

After two terms as a seasonal employee, Permantier applied for and was tentatively offered a permanent position with the parks — something most seasonals only dream of, she said.

“What a wonderful Christmas present to hear, after 10 years of working towards a goal, I was able to achieve it,” she said. “I think I literally sobbed the day I found out.”

But less than one month later, the dream came crashing down around her.

“At the stroke of 11:50 p.m. on the 20th, with a Sharpie marker, 10 years of hard work and dedication was gone through an executive order,” she said.

Permantier is only one of the thousands of federal employees impacted by President Donald Trump’s executive order mandating a hiring freeze for almost all federal civilian positions. And, with the National Park Service (NPS) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) gearing up for spring and summer, many individuals are sounding the alarm on how a myriad of Trump’s actions might impact these natural resources.

In addition to a hiring freeze, the federal government fired thousands of probationary employees across multiple departments.

Probationary employees are new hires in their first two years of employment, or longer-term employees who recently transitioned to a new position.

Olympic National Park fired five employees in their probationary period, said Hazel Galloway, a science communications specialist who was fired on Feb. 14. In addition to her position, the park cut two road maintenance employees and two biological science technicians, all probationary employees, Galloway said.

NPS declined to comment on local impacts of the executive orders.

An employee being in their probationary period doesn’t mean they are new to the the park service nor does it mean their job function is less important, Galloway said. Many park employees work seasonally for years before gaining the civil protections attained by term or permanent employees past their probationary periods, she said.

Galloway shared the email notifying her of her termination, which cited a failure to demonstrate her fitness or qualifications for the role. She also shared her 2024 end-of-year performance review, in which she received top marks across all categories.

In 2024, Eric Valeriano accepted his dream job as a biological science technician. On Feb. 14, Valeriano was driving when he received a text from his supervisor asking him to call.

“I knew immediately when I got that text,” Valeriano said. “I had started driving the moving truck. We were literally five minutes on the road, you know, navigating using my phone. I saw that text and I was like, ‘Oh no!’”

Valeriano was on an annual unpaid furlough, required for career-seasonals. He had returned to Brownsville, Texas, to pack up his belongings.

“I felt like the world crashed around me,” he said.

Valeriano had already signed a lease for an apartment in Port Angeles; his partner had accepted a job.

Olympic National Forest fired three employees, said Sophie Merchant, a botanist who was fired from the forest service.

Merchant, who had relocated from Nevada to work in the Olympic National Forest, described losing her job as whiplash.

“It still doesn’t feel real to not be going back up there this season, because the people on the Olympics are amazing. I loved working with them,” Merchant said. “Being a part of that forest, seeing the passion that went behind that forest, was really inspiring for me so early in my career.”

Nationally, the USFS lost 3,400 employees, a 10 percent reduction in its workforce. Roughly 1,000 NPS employees were also terminated, a move some referred to as the “Valentine’s Day massacre.” More federal layoffs could be in process.

“The parks were already understaffed as an agency nationwide,” Permantier said.

Since 2010, the NPS workforce has declined by 15 percent while visitation levels have increased by 16 percent. This year’s layoffs could lead to increased trash at the parks, overcrowding at campgrounds, burning during active burn bans, people and their pets being hurt by wildlife and “the overall degradation of natural resources throughout the park,” Permantier said.

“I could go on and on about the impact,” she said.

Galloway said the road maintenance employees fired is something most locals know the impact of. Road crews are responsible for keeping the road to Hurricane Ridge open.

Galloway said she was an intermediary between park scientists and public-facing employees like rangers and nature interpreters. Her newsletter reached about 900 park employees and 500 members of the public, she said.

She also was responsible for facilitating an annual public symposium called Science Days, held virtually earlier in February.

“We had about 320 in attendees; it took place online,” she said. “It was a success. We had about 60 great speakers. I was working as a facilitator to make sure everything ran smoothly. I was doing all the promotion and communication about it. I wrapped that up and was fired the next day.”

Valeriano, one of the two biological science technicians fired, was on a small crew which traveled throughout western Washington supporting teams at small parks in dealing with invasive weeds.

“Part of the essential work invasive species work that we’ll do, as a bio-tech, a lot of it is also data collection,” Valeriano said. “We want to know how much we’ve been spraying or treating and we want to have a good collection of that data. So we did a lot of work with GIS.”

Valeriano and his crew would record information, like if treated weeds had already gone to seed or if they were treated before going to seed, to inform the schedule of their next treatment.

Valeriano completed a two-year GIS certification to further develop his skill set.

Merchant treated invasive weeds in ONF.

“At the Olympics, I was the crew lead for the botany crew, mostly specializing in invasive plant species,” Merchant said. “During the fall time, planting up to 30,000 native plants in forested areas. During the summer, we would travel around the entire Olympics, staying in motels, treating as many acres as we could.”

Last year, the crew treated 1,500 acres, she said. The forest covers a total of almost 630,000 acres, she said.

Invasive species are highly flammable, threaten biodiversity, and their shallow root systems may allow for erosion, impacting waterways, Merchant said.

Initially, the hiring freeze also applied to NPS seasonal workers, who provide essential support during the NPS’ busy seasons.

However, following a public uproar, the Trump administration approved the hire of up to 7,700 seasonal workers — higher than the past three-year average of 6,350 seasonal employees.

But Permantier said the delay itself could have a large impact on park operations. Typically, seasonal positions are planned out and hired six months in advance. With most parks’ busy seasons starting in May, hiring managers now have only about two months to hire and onboard new employees.

“[They have] about half the time, and that’s being generous,” Permantier said. “I don’t know what they’re going to do now.”

In addition to positions that were frozen and probationary employees who were let go, about 700 NPS employees nationwide voluntarily resigned after Senior Advisor Elon Musk’s “fork in the road” offer.

Among them was Mike Cameron, the Mora district maintenance mechanic and water treatment plant operator. He cared for the Mora area campground, where he lived, for eight years. Cameron, born in Port Angeles, worked for ONP for 14 years.

After years of observing deferred maintenance and degradation to the park, Cameron said he already had started looking for other work; the offer was his best option, he said.

Cameron said the park doesn’t have any plans in place to find his replacement and will be sending someone from the park’s carpentry crew out to maintain the area, reducing the carpentry crew’s workforce.

Cameron said sending an employee out from Port Angeles for a few hours every day can’t possibly cover everything that needs to be done. Mora area is likely to be more heavily inundated than it usually is with the Hoh Road closure, he said.

Layoffs at each of these organizations will affect both the individual park or forest, as well as all other national lands with which they engage.

“All units, across the board, have symbiotic relationships with each other — especially when you’re managing natural resources,” Permantier said.

The layoffs also may have ripple effects on the local economy.

“The Olympic National Park is clearly the No. 1 draw for visitors coming to the Olympic Peninsula,” said Marsha Massey, executive director of the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau. “I think any closure or scaleback of access to the National Park will have an impact on visitation, and it will have an economic impact on our area.”

Massey, who noted that she was not speaking on behalf of the ONP, referenced a 2023 economic study that found tourist spending brought about $445 million to the North Olympic Peninsula economy alone. Although she wasn’t sure where tourism fell in terms of overall economic impacts, she said it likely is in the top three local economic drivers.

An ONP-published economic impact report for 2024 states that the park had a cumulative benefit of more than $393 million to local communities.

In addition to the stress that might be brought to the local economy, many federal employees are feeling stressed, tired and emotionally drained, Permantier said.

“It’s like [there is] a magnifying lamp or lens on everything,” she said. “It is like an atmospheric river of deep emotions and deep feelings.”

To express their anger and frustration, people in the community have been gathering to protest the federal administration’s actions. A protest for national parks and public lands is scheduled for noon today in Port Angeles at the fountain located at the intersection of First and Laurel streets.

“I think it’s something the community has to rally around,” Massey said.

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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.

Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.