February 16, 2025
A message from the Board of Directors of the Civil War Roundtable of Eastern Pa., Inc .
For almost 50 years, the Civil War Roundtable has been dedicated to the fight of preserving American battlefield land and the legacy of our nation’s defining conflict. The following opinion piece by Ryan Quint expresses a concern we share for the future of the park service, and in particular the battlefields whose preservation we work to support. We are therefore grateful to Emerging Civil War for its recently published post, which we share for your consideration.
From Emerging Civil War by Ryan Quint
Posted on February 15, 2025
This is the story of a park ranger who, in their time with the National Park Service, gave innumerable tours for school kids of all ages. Their approachable demeanor, kindness, and thoroughness was noticed time and time again in subsequent emails sent from grateful teachers. This same park ranger also resonated with individuals who came to the park seeking to connect with the past. One thankful visitor wrote afterwards: “The presentations. . . were outstanding. You can tell that each person there has a passion for our history and telling its story.”
This is the story of a park ranger who spent years as an intern and a seasonal before finally getting a permanent position. Besides being an interpreter, this park ranger undertook training to get red carded—a status meaning to be qualified to fight wildfires. This duty was not required of them—it was a voluntary collateral, undertaken because this person wanted to help.
This is the story of a park ranger who has been interviewed for numerous documentaries as a subject matter expert. . .
. . . all three people were fired yesterday. They were three out of almost 1,000 employees let go from the National Park Service—not because they were underperforming or not necessary, but because they were probationary employees. Their only shortcoming was being individuals with less than one full year in permanent status. To be clear, these people were not new hires—they have dedicated years of their lives as interns or seasonals to get to this point, to get one of the extremely hard and rare attainable goals of a permanent park ranger.
Why should this matter to readers at ECW? At some sites, nearly entire interpretive staffs were wiped out. Employees like the three above staff the visitor centers that millions of visitors a year flock to. They give the tours that introduce people to the resources that make these places so valuable to us as a national identity. They check the junior ranger booklets that are going to ignite the spark for kids to become the next generation of historians and caretakers of these special places. They research and reveal stories hitherto hidden for generations. They are, to put it mildly, not becoming generationally wealthy doing this work.
A park ranger with the National Park Service interacts with the public and shows reproductions of Civil War era items. (Courtesy of NPS)
A park ranger with the National Park Service interacts with the public and shows reproductions of Civil War era items. (Courtesy of NPS)
These firings will undoubtedly have an impact on visitor services in the months and years to come. They already have. More and more sites will have fewer and fewer staff. Opening hours will be slashed to accommodate the lack of proper and safe staffing levels. These impacts will be felt across the gamut of sites within the National Park Service—from battlefields and monuments, caves and calderas, forests and parkways.
National Parks have been touted as “America’s best idea.” When the service was created in 1916 its enabling legislation called to “conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” But those parks are hurting right now, and desperately needs its friends and defenders to call out for aid. Not just for the three rangers at the top of this piece, but for all of us, to abide by that last clause— “the enjoyment of future generations.”
The opinions in this piece are only the author’s and do not reflect the views of any employer past or present.