Yosemite Demonstrators Protest NPS Job Cuts, Hang Upside-Down Flag

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Nate Vince, a former National Park Service (NPS) employee, was among those who protested the recent federal job cuts to the park service by hanging a large American flag upside-down from the top of El Capitan on Saturday. El Capitan is one of the key landmarks in California’s Yosemite National Park, the park at which Vince worked until he received a termination email on February 14th, along with around 1,000 other NPS employees.

The upside-down flag was on display for the many visitors who flocked to Yosemite to see Firefall—a natural phenomenon that occurs at Horsetail Fall each year between mid and late February. When conditions are right, the setting sun reflects off the waterfall in a way that makes it glow orange and red, as if it were on fire.

Vince posted about the protest on Instagram yesterday, making a jest at the five-bullet-point request recently made to federal employees and inferring that he was among those who helped coordinate the effort. The San Fransisco Chronicle reports that another ex-employee, Garin Carpenter, a former maintenance mechanic at Yosemite, was also part of the effort.

The protesters call their efforts “peaceful” and an “exercise of free speech.” By unfurling the upside-down flag, they hope to raise awareness about the hardships the NPS staff cuts could create for the remaining staff, for visitors, and for the land itself.

See Vince’s post about the flag protest at Yosemite here:

Vince was Yosemite’s locksmith. Here is the social-media post he shared after receiving a termination email from the NPS on February 14: