National Park Service & BLM Employees Are Now Being Fired, Says USA Today

Nabesna NPS Visitor Center (Photo, Country Journal, Summer Of 2014)

 Impact Of Federal Cutbacks In Alaska, Other States Apparently Not Yet Known 

USA Today Says 10,000 Federal Workers Were Fired Across the U.S. In "The Last Few Days" 

Copper Valley Has Federal Workers 

Saturday, February 15th, 2025 

In an effort to make good on its promises to voters, the U.S. government has begun firing National Park Service & Bureau of Land Management employees – along with major layoffs in many other federally-funded organizations across Alaska and the rest of the United States. 

USA Today wrote about recent firings in a story called, "Department of the Interior: National Parks Service hit with firings." 

According to USA Today, in the past day or so

"At least 2,300 federal workers had their positions terminated. Among them were 800 Bureau of Land Management employees and about 1,000 National Park Service workers." 

The Copper Valley, with its very small population and extremely large land base, has a relatively strong BLM and NPS presence. 

The Journal has received no information from local government workers on their personal situations in these cutbacks. 

Who Are The Federal Workers Who Work Here?

Looking At The Phone Book...

 

The Copper Valley Telephone phone book has listings of four basic "United States Government" organizations in the Copper Valley section. 

In the Copper Valley, according to the phone book (other than the Post Office) our listed official U.S government organizations include...

Bureau of Land Management

Commerce Department of NOAA (The National Weather Service)

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park

U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation (FAA) 

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT  

According to BLM'S website, as viewed on February 15th, 2025, the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska manages 70 million surface and 220 million Federal mineral estate subacres. The government website said BLM had almost 4,000 Alaska employees. 

BLM manages nine National Conservation Lands Units, the official website says. Two of these – 62 miles of the Delta Wild & Scenic River, and 181 miles of the Gulkana Wild and Scenic River – directly impact the Copper River Valley.

Glennallen Field Office (Photo, Country Journal) 

In addition to the Campbell Creek Science Center in Anchorage, BLM helps monitor public information centers in Anchorage and Fairbanks; Alaska's Resource Library and Information Services (ARLIS); Public Lands Information Centers in Anchorage, Fairbanks, Tok and Ketchikan, and the Yukon Crossing Contact Station on the Dalton Highway. It has many other duties, too.

BLM manages 185,321 acres of this Denali Highway ancient archeology area used by Native Americans over 10,000 years ago. This is the most important early human migration route into Alaska. 

BLM also implements Federal subsistence management hunting and fishing regulations and permits, the U.S. government website said. Federal subsistence hunts are important to Copper Valley people. 

 It manages subsurface mineral rights to the National Petroleum Reserve.

And, it oversees the Trans-Alaska Pipline, monitoring the pipe and checking environmental compliance, the website says. 

NOAA 

Googled on the web on February 15th, 2025, the official government website indicates that in addition to regular weather forecasting, NOAA warns of tsunamis, sending out alerts on threats and earthquakes, and conducting tsunami research, the U.S. government website says.

Weather forecasting is considered very important in rural Alaska, due to very long road distances, bad highways, the number of small airplane pilots, boaters, and the possibilities of severe, extreme and rapidly changing weather conditions. 

The National Tsunami Warning Center of NOAA is in Palmer, and was established there in 1967 after the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964, which forced the town of Valdez to be leveled and moved to its current location.

WRANGELL-ST. ELIAS PARK 

America's largest National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias covers 13.2 million acres. The Wrangell Mountains in the park, across the Copper River, are visible from throughout the Copper Valley. They are: Sanford, Drum, Wrangell and Blackburn. 

National Park Visitor Center (Photo, Country Journal) 

The headquarters of the park are in Copper Center,  the core of the Copper Valley. 

The park is bigger than nine U.S. states – and larger than 47 of the smallest American parks combined, according to Wikipedia. The park has lands which allow subsistence hunting, trapping and fishing by local rural residents. Sport hunting by the general public is also allowed at the park. 

There are 1,700 square miles of glacial ice in Wrangell-St. Elias Park. 

 FAA

Gulkana Airport is a remnant of the World War II Lend-Lease Program, and lies between Glennallen and Gulkana on the Richardson Highway.