Fired Channel Islands Worker Speaks out at Protest Against Cuts to National Parks

Around 300 Protesters Demonstrated Outside Channel Islands National Park Visitor’s Center on Wednesday

At least 300 people showed up for the protest on Wednesday, holding signs and lining up down the street. | Credit: Callie Fausey

Kenan Chan, a marine ecologist who spent nearly a decade working on the Channel Islands, lost his dream job last month. He joins a growing list of casualties as the Trump administration hacks and slices its way through the federal workforce.

Recently fired scientist Kenan Chan addresses the group of protestors on Wednesday. | Credit: Callie Fausey

Chan was on a weekend trip in Yosemite when he received the call that his job at the Channel Islands National Park had been terminated in the name of “increasing efficiency.” After five seasons monitoring the channel’s kelp forests, getting at least 500 dives under his belt, and then landing a permanent job at the park in October, he was unexpectedly cut loose.

Chan was not the only one. Five other park employees also lost their jobs amid the wave of layoffs orchestrated by Elon Musk’s White House advisory team, which he calls the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

On Wednesday, March 5, he and a huge crowd of at least 300 protesters gathered outside the Channel Islands National Park Visitor’s Center in Ventura to protest the cuts to national parks. Despite the rain, people gathered under umbrellas, holding signs with messages like, “Only you can prevent forest firings,” “Protect our parks,” and “Keep your DOGE on a leash.”

“I don’t think that any of us ever thought that taking a federal job that is known for being secure would be at risk,” Chan said. “Especially working for the National Parks and these other federal lands. These jobs are important for preserving and protecting these lands. These are very, very special places for all Americans.”

Chan’s supervisor had no say in the matter. His performance reviews had been positive.

However, his and his colleagues’ termination letters — coming from much higher up — stated that they had “ … failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment because of your subject matter knowledge, skills, and abilities … ” He said he and the others chose not to sign those documents, “as I refuse to attach my signature onto something that is false.”

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“We were understaffed to begin with, and so having the cuts that we did really just makes the understaffing greater at this and many other parks,” he added.

Chan lamented that the park was one of his first jobs out of university, and he has made lifelong friends there. It’s also where he tragically lost family to the Conception boat fire in 2019.

“That kind of just speaks to how connected I am to these parks,” he said. “These parks are part of my life, part of my family’s lives; they hold a lot of my memories.”

Julie Tumamait-Stenslie and her family spoke about the importance of the Channel Islands to the Chumash people. | Credit: Callie Fausey

During Wednesday’s protest, people booed and cheered along to his speech. The day also marked the 45th anniversary of Channel Islands National Park — a place of important data collection on unique, endangered species, of conservation of wildlife like the Channel Islands fox, and of hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, a Chumash elder, emphasized the long history of the Chumash on the islands and what is at risk should these islands lose the protections provided by the National Park Service.

“We go out to the islands, and it replenishes us. It revives us,” she said. “It brings us back to that place of the beginning of knowing that this is our home, but now it is all of our home. It belongs to all of us, and so we share that with you.”

Even as the current administration makes these indiscriminate cuts to the National Park Service, 2024 set a record high for visits to the country’s 63 national parks, nine of which are in California, the L.A. Times reports. Nearly 332 million people visited America’s national parks last year. But this year, all in all, the service has lost about 1,700 employees.

Russell Galipeau, a retired Channel Islands National Park superintendent with 40 years of experience, noted how understaffing and park closures lead to consequences like vandalism, dirty bathrooms, and, at the most extreme, chopping down Joshua trees for firewood. Park employees help prevent visitors from getting lost or harmed, and they’re there to help them if they do.

“These are national parks. These are supposed to be the iconic examples of America. And it’s for you. It’s a promise that was made, and all the parks want to do is keep the promise,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican, you’re a Democrat, you’re red, you’re blue, you’re young. It does not matter. Americans love their parks, and now they’re in jeopardy.”

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Wednesday’s large turnout showed just how much the local community cares about the parks. And Chan and his colleagues are not going down without a fight. He is leaning on his fellow terminated employees to try to appeal the decision and see if they can be reinstated.

“Our lands are resilient, and the employees are very dedicated to their mission, and so I have no doubt that you know all the current employees will still continue doing their job to the fullest of their abilities,” Chan said. “But with that said, their capabilities are going to be extremely limited based on these cuts of really important and integral employees.”