Federal terminations impact NC
It also contains a massive amount of peat. If left undisturbed, peat stores more carbon than all other vegetation on earth combined.
'We're already on life support and now it's going to be even worse,' said Howard Phillips, a regional representative with the National Wildlife Refuge Association. He also is a former manager of the Pocosin Refuge.
Philips said by the time he retired after 20 years, his staff had dwindled from 15 to three or four people. Now the state's refuges are dealing with even more cuts.
'They're scared. They're very scared. They don't know what they can say or what they can do or fear of retribution. The morale is the worst I've ever seen it.
They have a variety of different tasks. Managers who oversee everything have responsibility for everything. They supervise what's going on. there are biologists who provide for adaptive management of both wildlife populations and wildlife habitat. You've got maintenance staff that maintain the roads, the buildings, the other infrastructure. They do all of all of those various things that need to be done on a piece of land like a National Wildlife Refuge. You have law enforcement that provides for public safety and detect wildlife violations to protect the wildlife that that we're trying to manage. The list goes on and on, and they're all important. Positions exist because they are necessary for the refuge to be able to meet its mission and purposes whenever a refuge is established. A lot of times it's legally mandated by Congress when they're established. And to meet those purposes, the refuge has to have the staff in in order to do the work that's required to meet,' said Phillips.
North Carolina's national parks aren't immune to DOGE directed terminations either. With Hurricane Helene related clean-up still needed and tourist season approaching, the Association of National Park Rangers says twelve probationary employees were terminated from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The list stretches from the Blue Ridge mountains to the coast. From what ANPR has been able to gather as of February 14th the other NPS terminations break down as follows:
'Some people think that because they don't work in the federal government, it's not going to affect them. It's going to affect somebody in your family,' said Christine Surrette.
Surrette is a decades long federal employee and the regional National Vice President for the American Federation of Government Employees. The organization represents park rangers as well as workers with Department of Veterans Affairs, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Surrette said the lack of transparency means it's hard to get exact numbers of how many of the 51,000 federal workers (not including uniformed military personnel) in North Carolina have been or will be impacted.
'We're not just sitting around doing nothing. There's programs and software in place to determine how much we're working and doing a day. He's done a scare tactic, and some people have bought into it. Until it affects their family they're going to buy into it,' Surrette said. 'They don't know how the system works. They don't know how the job is. You know, how can I come in and tell you how to do your job? I think maybe you're doing too much time on this and just take it away. i don't know how to do your job, but I'm going to come and tell you what you need to quit doing or stop doing, or we don't even need you anymore. I think someone else can cover it. '
Howard Phillips worries that there could be much more to come.
'If you love getting out on public lands and enjoying nature like I do that's bad news. If you love wildlife and love seeing wildlife populations thrive, that's really bad news,' he said.
CBS 17 reached out to the US Department of the Interior for clarification on the number of federal terminations that have occurred in North Carolina. The agency has not responded.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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