U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar, left, and Tina Smith, right. Photos courtesy of the U.S. Senate

By Laura Durenberger-Grunow - Boreal Community Media - February 24, 2025


Last week, US Senators Tina Smith (D-MN) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) issued a letter to Secretary of the Interior (DOI) Doug Burgum demanding answers over the firing of over 2,000 DOI employees, including National Park staff. 

The letter from the US Senators came around the same time that Minnesota Senator Grant Hauschild issued a letter to President Trump and Congressman Pete Stauber (R-MN), urging the president to reverse the firing of U.S. Forest Service employees in the Superior National Forest and Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. In the letter, Hauschild said, "The decision to cut these positions does not merely affect numbers on a budget sheet—it affects real people, real families, and entire communities that rely on these jobs. It undermines the efforts of those who have committed their lives to public service, often at the cost of personal sacrifice, and diminishes the well-being of the very communities they serve."

Both the National Park Service and the Superior National Forest workforce were already understaffed before the cuts, according to the Star Tribune. Senator Smith said in a release, “Park Rangers keep us safe in some of Minnesota’s most wild and extreme areas, including Voyageurs National Park. When your boat gets stranded on a remote lake, it’s the Park Rangers who come to your rescue."

The two US Senators requested answers to a list of 12 questions, including:

 1. What was the process NPS used in reviewing staff performance and what criteria were used to determine who was fired? 

2.       Please share a list of all NPS staff in Minnesota who were fired. 

3.       Please provide a breakdown of NPS staff in Minnesota who were fired and:  

a. were recently promoted 

b. are veterans 

c. were probationary employees who were previously employed by the federal government immediately prior to their most recent role 

d. were probationary employees who were not previously employed by the federal government 

4.       How did NPS assess the public safety impact of these firings? 

5.       What is NPS’s plan to maintain the same level of public safety with fewer trained staff? Please be specific.   

6.       How will these layoffs impact park operations? 

7.       How will the NPS have enough staff to handle heavy season (May-September) summer visitors in a responsible way when parks are already overrun now? 

8.       How will reduced staff affect the safety and environmental well-being of Voyageurs? 

9.       What offices and staff were involved in the determination of these firings?  

10.   Were decisions made solely by “DOGE” (“Department of Government Efficiency”) staff or Department political appointees?   

11.   Were career staff consulted about these decisions? 

12.   Please provide a list of staff involved in meetings and communications about these firings including anyone representing “DOGE”, any career staff and current or former Department political appointees. 

Senator Klobuchar said in the release, "We must preserve Voyageurs National Park for generations to come—not put park operations at risk by indiscriminately eliminating Park Rangers who help people on land and water,” said Sen. Klobuchar. “There are ways to run the government more efficiently, but the across-the-board elimination of jobs without regard for the job function or the capability of workers is not how our government should be operating.”

To read the full letter, click here.

To read the letter from MN Senator Hauschild to President Trump and Congressman Pete Stauber, click here.