Natural Resources Alumni Affected by Federal Layoffs Speak Out

Courtney Hotchkiss and Julianne Reas, both graduates of the NC State College of Natural Resource, were among the thousands of federal employees to recently lose their jobs as a result of the mass layoffs under the government’s “workforce optimization initiative.”

In February, two weeks after offering buyouts to all federal employees who opted to leave their jobs, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to implement the initiative, leading to layoffs that affected more than 5,000 employees with public land management agencies. 

The layoffs mostly affected full-time staff on probationary status — the one- to two-year period that civil servants must complete before receiving their permanent appointments. Probationary employees generally have fewer civil service protections as tenured employees, meaning they have limited rights to appeal their termination.

“This whole experience has been incredibly heartbreaking.”

Hotchkiss, who had been working remotely from Raleigh, North Carolina as a program analyst with the National Park Service since December 2024, anticipated being fired due to her probationary status and accepted the administration’s offer of a deferred resignation, which offered to pay people until Sept. 30 if they agreed to quit. 

Reas, who had moved from Raleigh, North Carolina to Fort Collins, Colorado in October 2024 to work as a social scientist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was fired on the morning of Friday, Feb. 14. The termination was effective immediately, forcing her to quickly transfer months of work to her colleagues.

Many of the terminated employees, including Reas, received similarly worded emails or letters stating, “based on your performance you have not demonstrated that your further employment … would be in the public interest,” despite them having not worked long enough to have received performance reviews.

“I think the thing that hits so hard about these layoffs is that we’re public servants,” Reas said. “Sure, we’re fulfilled by these jobs because of our belief and dedication to the mission. But at the core of it, we’re serving the public by protecting public lands … It just seems like there wasn’t much thought put into what public services would be lost in the process.”

Hotchkiss added, “This whole experience has been incredibly heartbreaking because so many of us entered public service to make a difference in the lives of others, not to earn a lot of money. And to be told that our work no longer mattered was incredibly insulting, especially when our efforts support the public lands that millions of Americans enjoy.”

Federal Layoffs Could Cost Public Lands

During her time with the National Park Service, Hotchkiss worked with a small team of subject-matter experts in the Heritage Adaptation and Resilience Program, a new office coordinating federally-funded projects aimed at developing climate change vulnerability assessments and implementing adaptation strategies for cultural resources.

Research shows that climate change is linked to an increase in the frequency and intensity of floods, wildfires and other extreme weather events that can damage or destroy natural and cultural resources within national parks. Wildfires, for example, can burn historic buildings, artifacts and archaeological sites.

“Once cultural resources are destroyed, they are gone forever. Better understanding how important places and landscapes are vulnerable and impacted by things like extreme weather, sea level rise, and wildfires will help park staff prepare and respond,” Hotchkiss said. 

She added, “There are places that people have been going to for thousands of years that are at risk, including archaeological sites with so much information about the past that are just disappearing because of extreme weather events.”

Before she resigned, Hotchkiss helped develop internal sites and resource libraries for project staff to store, organize and share information. She also helped create external webpages on the National Park Service site to communicate the purpose, research methods and expected outcomes of projects. 

“In a lot of ways it was my job to communicate the impacts of these projects; to inform the public why the National Park Service was given this funding and how they’re spending it for the public’s benefit,” Hotchkiss said.

Hotchkiss was one of the five probationary employees to work for the Heritage Adaptation and Resilience Program before the layoffs. Now it is staffed by three tenured employees, though their future remains uncertain due to the Trump administration’s executive order pausing the disbursement of Inflation Reduction Act funds. 

“The program only exists because of the Inflation Reduction Act, and now that the funds have been frozen, I think the program will likely cease to exist and those who are safe right now will have to do other work,” Hotchkiss said. 

Reas, on the other hand, was the only probationary employee to be fired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Human Dimensions Branch. She worked with seven other social scientists to support the National Wildlife Refuge System — a network of protected lands and waters encompassing more than 93 million acres.

Scientists in the Human Dimensions Branch use social science knowledge and tools to understand how people interact with and value natural resources, including wildlife and their habitats. This is crucial to the refuge system because it helps managers address issues ranging from wildlife crime to public support for conservation efforts.

“Integrating social science into conservation work increases our ability to make decisions that are mutually beneficial for the environment and for people.”

In her role, Reas primarily focused on building social science literacy across the agency. She was not only tasked with creating podcasts, webinars and other outreach materials to help educate managers and other staff, she was also tasked with updating the agency’s website to help streamline access to social science information.

“Integrating social science into conservation work increases our ability to make decisions that are mutually beneficial for the environment and for people,” Reas said. “Working to build social science literacy of staff across disciplines creates federal agencies that are able to better utilize all the best-available science for management and conservation.”

One of Reas’ most important tasks was supporting the National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Survey. The five-year survey gathers information about visitor experiences, activities and satisfaction so that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service can gain a better understanding of how societal changes could impact refuges.

The survey’s results would have been shared in press releases, blogs and other external communications produced by Reas and the agency’s communications team. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to complete these assignments, or many of her other projects, before she was fired.

Reas said the workforce reduction, which is expected to enter a second phase, could impact some of her former colleagues as the administration widens the scope of its initiative, limiting the capacity of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal agencies to carry out their missions. 

A Career is a Journey, Not a Destination

Hotchkiss’ interest in cultural resource preservation grew from her love of traveling. She earned a bachelor’s degree in international business and cultural studies at Binghamton University in New York in 2010. Hotchkiss then spent a year as a communications and outreach coordinator for AmeriCorps VISTA in California. 

After earning her master’s degree in world heritage studies from Brandenburg Technical University in Germany in 2015, Hotchkiss completed volunteer work and seasonal jobs at Everglades National Park in Florida, Capitol Reef National Park in Utah, Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, and Acadia National Park in Maine. 

Hotchkiss enrolled at NC State in 2019 to pursue a doctoral degree in parks, recreation and tourism management. Her dissertation focused on climate change adaptation planning for archaeological sites, resulting in several papers examining the importance of incorporating local and Traditional stakeholder values and perspectives. She was named a Global Change Fellow in 2021.

In 2023, after completing her doctoral degree and working in the field for seven months, Hotchkiss returned to NC State as a postdoctoral researcher to help develop a tourism framework for Antarctica, a protected area balancing multiple climate concerns with increasing tourism. 

Hotchkiss applied for many jobs with the National Park Service during her time as a postdoctoral researcher at NC State and was finally offered the position as a program analyst, which she accepted despite it requiring her to frequently travel from North Carolina to Washington, D.C.

Already familiar with many of the agency’s climate change adaptation projects through her dissertation research, Hotchkiss met with the lead researchers and helped create several internal sites during the first month or two on the job. Then the Trump administration began offering deferred resignations to probationary employees.

Reas’ passion for protected area management was sparked by a summer-long road trip before starting her sophomore year at NC State in 2017. She visited more than a dozen national parks during the trip, and after, she established the National Parks Club to raise awareness of the importance of national, state and local public lands.

Though she was majoring in communications studies, Reas also began exploring the field of parks, recreation and tourism management. She served as a seasonal park attendant at Umstead State Park in Raleigh, North Carolina and visited Galapagos National Park in Ecuador where she helped park rangers and managers test camera traps for visitor management.

After completing her bachelor’s degree in 2020, Reas returned to NC State a year later to enroll in the Master of Science in Natural Resources program. Her research focused on visitor use management within protected areas and how to best utilize social strategies to promote connection to nature. 

Reas, also a Global Change Fellow, interned with the National Park Service at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming in the summer of 2022. She spent over 120 hours in the field, collecting data to help social scientists better understand visitor use in the Mormon Row Historic District.

Following the completion of her master’s degree, Reas joined the National Park Service’s Climate Change Response Program in July 2023, incorporating social science and storytelling to help decision-makers understand and plan for climate change.

Reas also began her search for full-time jobs, eventually discovering and applying for a position as a social scientist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in April 2024. She was awarded the position several months later after two rounds of interviews.

Parks and Professionals Face Uncertain Future

Now that Reas and Hotchkiss have found themselves without jobs, they’ve begun to think about their futures. Hotchkiss plans to pursue research opportunities with former collaborators while monitoring the job market. Reas hopes to find a job with a state agency or nonprofit organization focused on protecting public lands.

While Reas and Hotchkiss remain optimistic about their prospects, they share the same concern: a crowded job market. They will be entering a market filled with thousands of former federal employees who have similar degrees and work experience. Some may even have more experience since the layoffs not only affected new employees but also longtime employees who were under probationary status following promotions.

As for the future of America’s public lands, the Trump administration plans to hire thousands of seasonal employees to work at national parks during peak visitation months, though experts warn it won’t counteract the long-term impacts of firing full-time staff. The administration is also considering a 30% payroll reduction at the National Park Service. 

“I really fear for the future of our national parks and other public lands. I think these spaces have been taken for granted for a long time and that a lot of people will unfortunately have to experience the impacts of the layoffs firsthand before they respect and value them like they should,” Reas said.