Over the past few days around 3,400 Forest Service employees and 1,000 National Park employees have found themselves jobless but not yet hopeless. Decrease in staff has already led to visitor center closures and halts in booking availability for parks like Yosemite national park. Former Yosemite employee, Nate Vince sent his own message to President Trump from the summit of El Capitan. Vince spoke out about the signal he was sending when he unveiled an inverted flag on the rock face, which is a historical message of distress (SOS) that was adopted by supporters of President Trump last May when he was convicted of falsifying business records. Vince stated that he saw the gesture as a statement that would “disrupt without violence and draw attention to the fact that public lands in the United States are under attack.” Vince was able to successfully find former rangers and other employees as well as frequent climbers who were willing to help with the thirty-by-fifty-foot flag. One climber who was contacted even flew in from New Mexico.  

The group of 6 assembled by Vince headed up around 4 A.M. to the trail most commonly used by climbers on El Capitan. The mission was almost postponed due to extreme winds, but the crew managed to drop the flag successfully before bringing it back up at nightfall so as not to disturb visitors any further. “We’d made our point and didn’t want to interfere with people’s experience of firefall,” Vince said. “We brought it up right before the sun lasered the falls. It really had a ceremonial feel. I’ve been down there with the crowd for firefall, too, and the moment builds and everyone just cheers.”