Effigy Mounds employee feels sadness, confusion after NPS firings

By Audrey Posten

Times-Register

It was Valentine’s Day. Education park ranger Brian Gibbs was among the Effigy Mounds National Monument staff gathered at a morning meeting where they learned firings could be coming down targeting probationary employees—newly hired employees or those who had moved into new positions. 

It wasn’t the first time Gibbs, who was eight months into the job, had felt anxiety in recent weeks. Earlier “Fork in the Road” emails that offered federal employees deferred resignations or retirements stated those who upheld their service might not be guaranteed their jobs.

“That was the start of an unnerving period for many federal workers,” Gibbs said. “But I figured my position would be completely safe because I was working with children in an education and interpretation position. I had also received an exceptional employee performance evaluation.” 

“But as time went along,” he reflected, “I couldn’t help but wonder.”

After the meeting, Gibbs continued on with his day, planning upcoming school lessons. With new snowfall, he also began preparing a public snowshoe hike.

But as the afternoon progressed, “things got very murky,” he recalled. Gibbs’s supervisor received mixed messages about whether he should be closed out and turn in his badges and access card. Shortly after he started printing off personnel files from a federal server, both Gibbs and another co-worker were locked out. 

“That was an absolute dagger of a feeling that something big is going to be coming. I sat there pretty paralyzed,” Gibbs shared. “I kept waiting for that chime of an email to come through.”

It wouldn’t come, though. Gibbs had been locked out of that too. It was through a message from his supervisor that Gibbs finally learned of his termination, effective immediately. 

“I immediately felt sadness to be losing this dream opportunity and a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about what was happening,” Gibbs said. “I gathered all my school curriculums, my park service flat hat, my thank you notes written from professors and teachers and walked out of the office in a snow storm.”

Gibbs and another Effigy Mounds employee were among 1,000 National Park Service and 3,400 U.S. Forest Service employees fired that weekend as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce and federal spending.

That evening, Gibbs, also a talented photographer and writer, penned a heartfelt letter on his personal Facebook page detailing the day’s events and his role as an environmental educator and steward of public lands. The post was accompanied by photos of Gibbs at Effigy Mounds with wife Emily and son Oliver.

As of Feb. 24 — 10 days since the post was written—it had garnered 98,000 reactions and 15,500 comments, as well as 240,000 shares. Within days, Gibbs had spoken with news outlets around the country. 

He’s even partnered with printing, design and clothing company RAYGUN on a pair of T-shirts. One uses the phrase “Gratitude and reciprocity are the doorway to true abundance, not power, money or fear,” directly from Gibbs’s online letter.

At the time, Gibbs didn’t imagine his words would go viral.

“It was something deeply personal to me,” he said. “I felt compelled to immediately process what I was feeling, and shared it online as an avenue to try and make myself understand things better, but also as a way to hold space for other federal employees who were simultaneously being terminated.”

Now, he’s proud to advocate for others experiencing the loss of their livelihoods. It’s the second time Gibbs has lost a “dream job,” after a previous position with the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point was cut in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Just to let them feel seen and empowered. To help people understand that these cuts are really happening and directly affecting families all over, in big cities and in our rural communities like Clayton County,” said Gibbs, who lives in Elkader. “While I’m super proud and happy that it’s reached millions of people, I wish it didn’t have to be that way, and I would do anything to get my job back as an education technician at Effigy Mounds National Monument.”

The 1,000 terminated National Park Service employees represent around 5 percent of the agency’s workforce. John Gardner, senior director of budget and appropriations for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), said the cuts make no sense.

“It makes no sense for local economies, it makes no sense for the people who care for these places, it makes no sense for the well-being of our most treasured in this country,” Gardner said in a video.

“With peak season just weeks away, the decision to slash 1,000 permanent, full-time jobs from national parks is reckless and could have serious public safety and health consequences,” added NPCA President and CEO Theresa Pierno in a statement. “Years of budget cuts are already weakening the agency’s ability to protect and preserve these incredible places.”

National Park Service data shows that national parks contributed $55.6 billion to the national economy and supported 415,000 jobs in 2023. An estimated 325.5 million visitors spent $26.4 billion in communities near national parks.

The latest figures from Effigy Mounds National Monument show the park has 56,000 annual visitors and contributes $6.1 million in economic output. 

Seven full-time staff remain at Effigy Mounds. A request to the National Park Service on if, or how many, seasonal workers will be hired this year was not returned. Seasonal positions were previously on a nationwide hiring freeze.

Gibbs is focused on the personal impact to his growing family—he and his wife are expecting a second child this summer—as well as the possibility of relocating for work. He said he couldn’t speak directly to if the terminations, or employees telling their individual stories, will impact policy or regain jobs.

“As my poem reflected, or as people have poured out in emails or text messages to me, they’ll miss having my presence there. I think it’s really important to note that I was one of 999 other people who lost their jobs in the National Park Service. That’s a sizeable number, a lot of people who were protecting our public places, who will no longer be there,” Gibbs said.

Effigy Mounds, which preserves prehistoric American Indian burial and ceremonial mounds, is not just an economic driver in the area, Gibbs noted, but “an extraordinarily spiritual and special place for many different cultures for thousands of years.” 

“The descendants of those people still come to this place to honor their ancestors and celebrate connections to the landscape. Being a caretaker of Effigy Mounds is a huge responsibility for many different people. It is my hope that they will continue to be safely protected and preserved and persist,” he said.

Gibbs called places like Effigy Mounds “essential to the human condition.” He recalled leading tours where people remembered visiting as a child, and now they are bringing their own children or grandchildren. It was the first park he brought his own son to and where he told his spouse he loved her for the first time.

“These are places where we, throughout generations, make core memories. As a federal civil servant of the National Park Service, that’s part of my job—to protect and preserve these memory-making places so they don’t get vandalized, so they don’t get looted. So people can learn about them and make their own emotional and intellectual connections, so they can bond with them and advocate for them as well. I hope my post has struck that chord to the everyday American,” Gibbs reflected.

While Gibbs is unsure what the future will hold, he’ll continue to share his story and advocate for other grieving federal employees. He’ll also concentrate on spending time with loved ones and on his art, including updating the website for his Timberdoodle Photography to sell online.

“My spouse and I are very concerned about what the months ahead look like for us. But like many other families, we are super resilient,” Gibbs said.

Healing will be important too.

“I’m still really sad,” Gibbs shared, thinking of how his son would hug him each day when he came home from work wearing the National Park Service uniform. “He’d ask me, ‘Daddy, how was your day at Junior Ranger?’” 

“There’s going to be a lot of healing work for many people. But like many other families, we are super resilient,” Gibbs said.