Sunday, March 2, 2025 | 2 a.m.
Riley Rackliffe stared at the ceiling of his home and weighed the pros and cons of the federal government’s severance package offer.
The government offered Rackliffe health insurance for nearly 40 days in return for leaving his job as an aquatic ecologist at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
He would decline the offer — part of the government’s efforts to slash its workforce — reasoning that his work in public health was a valuable service and sensing he wasn’t at risk of having his position slashed.
More important: He had loved the 11 months on the job that brought him to Southern Nevada from Indiana.
But a few days later, Rackliffe — still a probationary employee — was laid off. It happened on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day.
Rackliffe is among a slate of federal employees caught in the crosshairs of the White House and the Department of Government Efficiency’s attempts to reduce the federal workforce, a nationwide initiative that eliminated positions of thousands of workers in Cabinet-level departments such as Education, Veterans Affairs and Energy.
Rackliffe said he was one of 13 workers at Lake Mead who was laid off. The National Park Service, which operates the national recreation area, hasn’t confirmed the total.
“My conduct was pretty good. My supervisors all liked me,” said Rackliffe, who said he learned of the news of his dismissal in a letter from the National Park Service. “My role was pretty important — public health-related.”
Rackliffe monitored water quality in the massive reservoir’s swimming areas to ensure bacteria left behind by swimmers wasn’t harmful. He said Lake Mead’s water is generally clean, but the lake is at risk of more germs being left behind after busy weekends and holidays.
“My role more protected people from getting diarrhea or something like that, or swimmer’s itch or ingesting toxic algae, which tends to be less lethal and more chronic,” Rackliffe said. “So, it seems like more long-term effects, or maybe the recreation isn’t quite as pristine as it would have been.”
Asked about the terminations, the National Park Service said in a statement it was “hiring seasonal workers to continue enhancing the visitor experience as we embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation in workforce management.”
For Theresa Ciraolo, who was laid off from her role as a park guide at Great Basin National Park in White Pine County, the highlight of her job was interacting with the community. This was her first full-time role with the park service after seasonal work in Oregon and Texas.
She had worked at Great Basin since November and is believed to have been one of five probationary workers who lost their job there; officials haven’t confirmed the number.
“There is an adventure in it to always be living in a new place and to always experience our beautiful landscapes every six months,” Ciraolo said. “But I decided to live here permanently for as long as possible, because in my head, and as I was told, permanent positions would give me the opportunities for my future.”
Workers who lost their positions at the park service received a letter, saying: “The Department determined that you have failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment because your subject matter knowledge, skills and abilities do not meet the Department’s current needs and it is necessary and appropriate to terminate, during the probationary period.”
Riley Rackliffe, a former federal employee at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, poses for a photo in Henderson, Nevada on Wednesday, February 26, 2025.
Terminated federal employees can file an appeal through the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, which has seen a large influx of cases since President Donald Trump returned to office in January and started cutting the federal workforce.
In December, former President Joe Biden’s final full month in office, there were 473 appeals filed; in February, there were more than 2,550 filings, including one from Rackliffe.
Congressional Democrats, who have focused much of their response to the first weeks of Trump’s second term on his political ally Elon Musk, have been critical of the firings. Musk, a civilian, was appointed by Trump to oversee the administration’s “efficiency” efforts and cut federal spending.
U.S. Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., advocated for the laid off workers at Lake Mead in letters she sent Wednesday to the Republicans leading the House committees that have oversight of national park employees.
“The terminations at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, unprompted and unsought by Congress, will not only upend National Park Service employees’ lives but quite literally endanger the lives of park visitors,” Lee wrote to Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, and Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, chairman of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee.
Who’ll handle the crowds
Marta Soligo, an assistant professor in UNLV’s College of Hospitality who studies visitor habits, found overcrowding and overtourism have trended at national parks and other outdoor recreation spaces since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2023, there were nearly 6 million visitors to Lake Mead, according to the National Park Service. Handling that flow of visitors, Soligo said, requires a strong workforce.
“Just to manage the crowd is not that easy, so we need people,” she said. “We need workers in national parks to manage that.”
She said it was important to have staff that oversees how people interact with visitors, ensuring that visitors remain on the right path and have the necessary support.
“We are in a very delicate setting in Southern Nevada,” Soligo said. “Let’s talk about water scarcity. Let’s talk about climate change, global warming, and all the things that we are already facing.”
In the aftermath of the layoffs, visitors to national parks might notice the restrooms are not cleaned, the roads are not regularly maintained or there is a slower response to medical emergencies, said Alan O’Neill, the former superintendent at Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
“You want to provide a level of service that’s commensurate with other places that they visit,” he said. “As you keep cutting the staff, how in the world are you going to meet those standards?”
In a letter to the Trump administration, Nevada Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen said terminating thousands of employees at the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of the Interior put the well-being of public lands in their home state at risk.
“The Trump administration has made the chaotic decision to fire thousands of hard-working federal employees who keep Nevadans safe from wildfires and protect their access to clean water,” Cortez Masto said in a statement.
One Lake Mead project that could be delayed is the extending of launch ramps at Hemenway Harbor and Callville Bay. If the lake drops 15 more feet, some of the launch ramps will not reach the water.
Money for the extension was included in the $32 million in federal disaster funding announced in 2023. Now, some of that funding is in doubt with Trump’s attempts to pause federal spending.
Regardless of how the remainder of Trump’s term plays out, park loyalists are hoping his influence won’t harm something they’ve long loved.
National parks, whether it’s Gettysburg to remember the turning point of the U.S. Civil War, the historic home of a president or stunning natural beauty, are icons for America, O’Neill said.
“Our public lands are an incredible asset we have as an American public,” O’Neill said. “The parks that we’ve protected in the areas that are protected are our symbols of democracy.”
Ciraolo said she hoped people realize the work at the park service is so much more than cleaning or refilling maps in a kiosk, adding that there is important research being done about wildlife protection and education for future generations.
“It’s America’s best idea and it’s my career,” Ciraolo said. “It’s what I’ve dedicated my life to, and it’s just a great thing to be a part of and something to fight for.”