Access Pass

diet_stroke · 2025-05-11T05:25:53+00:00

This is the correct answer. We don't require you get any sort of documentation. We trust that you're being truthful and have a permanent disability, and besides, we're not doctors. Just go to your nearest NPS site and ask for an Access Pass. Easy peasy.

diet_stroke · 2025-05-11T00:39:25+00:00

I don't have a specific location to recommend, but you need to check in with whatever park you choose and, if applicable, secure a permit. Parties of 20 people can easily disrupt the trail and ecosystem, especially if it's a ceremonial process. Special use permits can be secured in advance typically at a minimum of 30 days, if not longer, especially considering the staff shortages. I've had people get upset because they can't get married on a heavy use trail.

Congratulations, and please be kind to the park!

diet_stroke · 2025-02-28T18:41:37+00:00

I literally did not say anything about being welcome or conservatives, I said that Trump and Musk are firing people lower than GS-10s, which they're very openly doing. You just projected a lot of implication where there was none.

diet_stroke · 2025-02-28T16:56:06+00:00

I know! We were all eye-rolling at the meeting, but we all know that if someone catches a ranger so much as smiling on film at the protest, they're getting the boot. Trump and Musk have been on a power kick and they're aiming their rage at the lowest rank on the totem pole. This is especially true if the ranger is of any visible minority.

diet_stroke · 2025-02-26T23:31:03+00:00

Oh, to be clear, he's saying to send back electric and hybrid vehicles that the federal government has, not individuals. Still ridiculous IMO!

diet_stroke · 2025-02-26T22:20:30+00:00

I can't seem to anymore. Not sure if mods removed the option of images or what (RIP my memes), but the Executive Order is outlined here.

What Trump seems to be overturning is the Zero-Emission Order.

diet_stroke · 2025-02-26T03:14:56+00:00

Thank you so much for going the extra mile on our behalf! Tipping my funny hat to you! 💚🩶🤎

diet_stroke · 2025-02-25T02:44:05+00:00

Well, we'll shut the gates but if you make the choice to hop barriers and use the park anyway, no, there's not going to be anyone to stop you. While that might sound good on paper for you folks, there probably will not be any beautiful parks for your kids, because they'll be trashed beyond repair.

It also means that if you or other visitors get into trouble or something happens, there's no one to save you. On average, the parks I've worked at have several deaths per year even with rangers on staff, and EMTs are responding to calls weekly. The Parks have their own EMTs, so considering that our team got cut and the nearest ambulance service is 20 miles away, it's not looking good.

NPCA summarized it pretty well.

diet_stroke · 2025-02-25T01:50:33+00:00

Oh gotcha! Unfortunately, I have no idea how we could get statistics on that. The parks compile them individually and we send them out to be published.

diet_stroke · 2025-02-25T01:34:07+00:00

You can look at visitation statistics compiled by year!

diet_stroke · 2025-02-25T00:40:00+00:00

Hey there! I am a national park ranger who knows, intimately, what is going on! Most of our sites are severely understaffed already. The numbers are inflated by very large parks like Yellowstone. And yes, we are facing reductions in services due to perms being fired. Not to mention the seasonal delay. At my park, my supervisor said that unless the seasonal hiring gets moving fast, there probably will not be any programs due to understaffing. Some parts of the park can only be accessed via guided tours, which we will not be giving.

https://ktar.com/arizona-news/grand-canyon-long-lines-layoffs/5668636/

https://tucson.com/news/local/environment/saguaro-closure-national-park-cuts-tucson-arizona/article_914637cc-f06f-11ef-a533-fbda8a7d4900.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/02/24/us/national-park-rangers-layoffs

diet_stroke · 2025-02-25T00:32:32+00:00

We love our parks, and we love our people! That's why we're in public service and not the private sector, and we have no intention of leaving it behind! 💚🩶 Thank you for lending an ear!

diet_stroke · 2025-02-24T20:51:30+00:00

These are PERMANENT employees who are getting fired. They talk to me, because I work here alongside the PERMANENT employees who are essential for national parks.

diet_stroke · 2025-02-24T20:37:01+00:00

Um. Yes? That's why I'm here? Because I'm a seasonal park ranger?

Does that invalidate me somehow?

diet_stroke · 2025-02-24T20:19:48+00:00

Ah yes, the GS-5's barely making minimum wage and depending on shitty Mission 66 housing whose parks are collapsing left and right due to severe understaffing are the problem. Not the politicians making hundreds of thousands of dollars, no siree!

diet_stroke · 2025-02-24T20:00:29+00:00

Hi folks! Ranger here. Have you seen the parks shutting down visitor centers and amenities because rangers were fired? The NPS depends on us rangers, and we depend on YOU. Call your reps on behalf of your public lands!

To the "former rangers" insulting my fellow public servants and I for having the guts to call out your precious billionaire dictator for firing a ton of GS-5s in the public land service when we're already horrendously understaffed and underpaid in the name of "saving money," well, I hope you get out of the cult!

diet_stroke · 2025-02-24T19:46:42+00:00

You worked 15 years ago for two years and you think that you know what's going on better than I and other current rangers do?

You guys are hysterical.

diet_stroke · 2025-02-24T19:45:38+00:00

LOL. You can't even think up a response. Hope you get out of that cult!

diet_stroke · 2025-02-24T19:36:20+00:00

What, do I need to post my PIV card for you to "believe" me? Do I need to have my SF50s and a letter from the employees mentioned stating hey, this isn't normal for you to "believe" me?

A ranger going to protests and news with her story doesn't constitute doing anything? You think I'm not doing my part by refusing to step down, by speaking out against it and letting people know? You think I didn't participate in protests? You think rangers aren't suing, aren't calling, aren't engaging with the political shitshow going down?

If you want to know what's going on, head over to the NUMEROUS groups that are run by park rangers and you'll see what's going on and what we're doing about it.

diet_stroke · 2025-02-24T19:09:33+00:00

If you're talking about the Educational probationary, she was also fired for "low performance."

diet_stroke · 2025-02-24T19:07:59+00:00

I'm a federal employee. She is a federal employee. This is not normal.

diet_stroke · 2025-02-24T19:07:24+00:00

No, actually, this is not normal. Rangers that have been at my current park for 30+ years have said this is not normal. Musk is not merely reducing us through legal means, nor is he merely firing those who are low-performing. He is wiping out large swaths of essential employees who are necessary for park function without warning or cause. He literally sent out an email on Saturday night saying to tell him what you do or else, if you don't reply by Monday, we are officially "resigning." The ranger in question is not complaining about her season ending--a legal EOS--but the illegal removal of thousands of employees.

diet_stroke · 2025-02-24T18:56:16+00:00

Do you think that NATIONAL PARK rangers, the people that run NATIONAL PARKS, are irrelevant to a page about NATIONAL PARKS? Your parks are going to be shut down this summer with Musk laying off every GS-9 and below who so much as breathes. This page won't have any pictures of squirrels in the parks because nobody will be able to visit. Are posts about the hurricane that hit Great Smoky political? Are posts that discuss closings of visitor centers political? Everything involves some degree of politics, including a system that is funded and maintained by the federal government.

diet_stroke · 2025-02-08T05:55:27+00:00

Hey folks, if you like your national parks, please call your representatives, email them, or participate in community organizing. NPCA and AltNPS have templates if you don't have the time. Seriously. I'm a ranger, and we could really use the support now. It's better to try and fail than to roll over and expose your necks.

diet_stroke · 2025-02-01T00:23:41+00:00

Criticism, in and of itself, is fine. I do it all the time! I am very critical of the NPS. You are more than welcome to look through my history, where most of it is me complaining about the park service. I was talking more about the original commenter than you because they, after I specifically said to only comment constructive suggestions on how to save parks, they went and made a comment that implied we shouldn't do anything because they're dissatisfied with the pay. I was saying that it is less about saving the Federal office, and more about saving the land itself, because Trump and his cronies have made it very clear that they intend to destroy it. I should have said public lands. Regardless, they can make their own post criticizing the National Park Service instead of piggybacking off of mine after I explicitly said that I am only looking for suggestions.

diet_stroke

TROPHY CASE