Yosemite Scientists Assigned to Clean Toilets
The U.S. National Parks are facing staff shortages because the federal government fired hundreds of employees earlier this year
Due to the federal government reducing staff size in Yosemite National Park, scientists have been assigned to cleaning campground bathrooms. The scientists include biologists, hydrologists, archaeologists, and wildlife specialists.
As SFGATE reports, Ken Yager, founder of the Yosemite Climbing Association, argues that the move by the Trump administration demeans the work of park staff. “Yager said, “It seems to target the park service’s scientific community-the educated.” One employee said, “When our manager first informed us that we had been assigned this new task, I was a little outraged. We are already understaffed, mainly due to the hiring freeze caused by the new administration, and now we find ourselves handling a larger amount of work that, moreover, is not within our scope of responsibility.”
Olek Chmura was a National Park Service custodian in Yosemite who was fired on Feb. 14. On the day they were fired, they told the New York Times, “You have a clean pit toilet because of us, because I was just in there for 30 minutes with a pumice stone and a putty knife scraping all the excrement off the walls.”
Yosemite is home to some of the world’s most famous big walls, such as those found on El Capitan and Half Dome. To read more, visit Yosemite scientists now forced to clean bathrooms.
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