Dozens of people rallied in support of public workers and land in Seward on Saturday. Multiple attendees said they knew people who’ve been impacted by federal staff reduction initiatives and are worried about what those impacts could mean for the environment and economy.
It’s a cloudy day in Seward, where a statue of a breaching humpback whale towers over protesters who cluster on the narrow sidewalk outside the Kenai Fjords National Park visitor center. The six-hundred-thousand-acre area is famous for Exit Glacier, deep fjords, the Harding Icefield and wildlife viewing.
“I know glacier ice for people from Alaska might not be that unique, but international visitors and people from the Lower 48 – a chance to see glacier ice is huge,” said Colleen Kelly.
Kelly was a seasonal park ranger for more than a decade. Her job as an interpreter involved narrating boat tours to places like Aialik Bay and leading hikes to Exit Glacier.
“It means so much to our community – our national park and our forest lands that, you know, surround our neighborhood,” she said. “And if we don’t protect those, we’re not protecting our community.”
Efforts by the White House to reduce the federal workforce have impacted employees around the state and on the Kenai Peninsula. The Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area estimates 32 Forest Service employees were laid off from the Chugach National Forest. The organization’s executive director Rachel Blakeslee says that’s based on conversations with Forest Service staff, who they work with closely. Blakeslee gathered those stats from Forest Service workers on the condition that she would not name them.
Dave Paperman was also protesting Saturday in support of climatology and glaciology employees he’s heard were fired or resigned from Kenai Fjords National Park.
“It’s been a tragedy lately to see so many folks who have dedicated their lives to improving the world and maintaining these public lands that really belong to all of us – to see these people trashed on for no reason,” he said.
Paperman says he wants people to know the impacts of federal staffing decisions have local impacts.
“There's so many people who just see some things on the news and don't really understand that this is specific positions and specific public agencies and specific public lands,” he said. “Unfortunately, people don't realize until it hits home.”
Mareth Griffith lives in Seward and works in tourism. She moved to Alaska two decades ago because of the environmental opportunities. She says she’s worried about cuts to agencies that maintain public lands, which were already understaffed, like the U.S. Forest Service’s Seward Ranger District.
“We are on public land every single day of the summer, and if that area is no longer being maintained, if we don't have safe trails, if the people that are issuing permits to my company are no longer doing so in a timely fashion, that affects my employer and that affects me,” she said.
Tara Butcher says her concerns are as much about economics as anything else. She says it’s hard to understand the full scope of the impacts because the summer tourism season hasn’t started yet.
“That's what brings a lot of people here to visit,” she said. “There's already talk with businesses and people that live here, like, without this access to it, if something happens to that access, are we going to have the tourism that funds this town? Are we going to have the tourism that, like, supports everyone here to live here?”
Though Saturday’s demonstration was organized around support for public land, the mosaic of cardboard signs called attention to other policies implemented by President Donald Trump since he took office in January. Some indicated opposition to the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, while another said simply, “Everything Could Be Better.”
Marc Swanson’s sign voiced support for immigrants, some of whom have been the target of mass deportation efforts by the Trump administration.
“You send people to a prison, whether it's Guantanamo or off to foreign, foreign place, then what?” he said. “Then what? Then what. They won't be able to come back. They won't be able to go to their country. They'll stay and rot in prison no matter what they did, whether it was wrong or not. No, that's wrong. We aren't that kind of country. We are not that kind of country.”
Kenai Fjords National Park is open year-round. But, most of the fjords can only be accessed by boat or plane. The road to Exit Glacier isn’t maintained in the winter and hasn’t yet opened for the 2025 season. The Kenai Fjords National Park visitor center opens Memorial Day weekend.
