“Greetings from Death Valley National Park,” the billboard reads. “Heat deaths rise, safety staff cut. Made possible by DOGE.”
This Las Vegas billboard, unveiled in May, is one of 300 similar signs put up across the United States by More Perfect Union, a nonprofit media outlet that aims to “build power for the working class.” According to the group, the billboards are a response to the severe budget cuts and layoffs leveled on the National Park Service by the Trump Administration.
The 300 billboards each have quippy slogans to describe the impact of the cuts. “More trash and dirty restrooms,” reads one for Shenandoah National Park. “Reduced staff, increased danger,” reads the one for Voyageurs National Park. “Six campgrounds shut down,” reads one for Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Why is a labor advocacy group erecting billboards about the defense of public lands?
“Working class people need national parks,” More Perfect Union’s founder, Faiz Shakir, told Outside. In Shakir’s opinion, all Americans, regardless of economic class, deserve access to parklands.
“Going to national parks is not like going to Disney World,” he continued. “They aren’t profiting off of your attendance. They preserve and maintain beautiful spaces for all of us. Whether you made $10,000 last year or $10 million last year, you get the same level of enjoyment visiting a national park. That’s what it means when something is a public good.”
Approximately 5,000 workers employed by the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Forest Service have been laid off since February. Other employees have taken buyouts, early retirements, or deferred resignations, further increasing the staffing shortages. Their ranks include NPS rangers and other staffers, as well as wildland firefighters and janitors to cooks and locksmiths and trail crews.
“By attacking park rangers, you’re attacking the best of America,” Shakir said. “These are not people out to make money. These are people who care deeply about the public experience, and about maintaining these places for future generations.”
More Perfect Union’s billboards aren’t just targeting well-known parks, like Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, but also lesser-known ones, like Biscayne National Park in Florida, Saguaro National Park in Arizona, Valley Forge National Historical Park in Pennsylvania, Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, and Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio.
“We’re looking for well-trafficked parks combined with well-trafficked roads and communities,” Shakir explained. “For example, in Yosemite, the cost of putting a billboard up is higher, because it’s more remote, and also the only people driving up there are probably visiting the park.” The Death Valley billboards, for example, aren’t placed at the entrance to Death Valley, but in the metropolitan hubs of Las Vegas and Reno, a few hours away. “We’re not just trying to get people who are already visiting a national park, but also everyday commuters.”
Some of the billboards highlight blunt, unquestionable facts, such as “Reduced Visiting Hours” or “Park Rangers Fired.” Others make minor assumptions: “More Trash and Dirty Restrooms” or “Reduced Staff, Increased Danger.”
The billboards are slated for a one month run, until the end of June, but Shakir is hoping to get funding for continued messaging. “One of the things we are assuming here is that the impact of the reduced staff is only going to get worse through this summer,” Shakir explained. “The worst of this has yet to come. It’s going to grow through June, July, and August. So, I’m hoping we can get to a ‘Phase Two’ of this billboards project where we can be more specific about the harms that were experienced. Right now, a lot of the effects are anticipatory.”
The project, Shakir said, was funded by the same set of donors who have funded More Perfect Union from the beginning (the organization was founded in early 2021). “This is our highest profile advocacy venture,” he said, “both in the sense that it’s the most public thing and the biggest expenditure of dollars. We spent a couple million dollars to do this.”
He said that although the billboards have only been up for a couple of days, they’ve already received “wild amounts” of positive feedback and support. “I did not anticipate this level of interest,” Shakir said. “There’s always a small percentage of people who respond negatively, but it’s been overwhelmingly positive. The support hasn’t just come from the left side of the aisle, either.
“The prevailing sentiment, from both sides, has been that these cuts and layoffs are wrong, and we need to come together to protect our public lands,” Shakir said.
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