The following is a report from Sierra, the magazine of the Sierra Club.
The Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, OCA–Asian Pacific American Advocates and Japanese American Citizens League filed a joint lawsuit over the “unjustified mass firings of federal workers.” Campaign Legal Center is representing all four groups. Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program is co-counsel representing the Sierra Club.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has executed mass layoffs within federal agencies that oversee national parks across the United States, including in Hawai’i, Alaska and the U.S. territories, and other federally managed public lands. The layoffs have sparked widespread protests over concerns about safety, conservation, wildfire prevention, resource management, wildlife protection, economic impact and more.
A new lawsuit against Musk and DOGE aims to force the Trump administration to change course before it’s too late.
“There is no law that authorizes a so-called Department of Government Efficiency to undertake a massive restructuring of American government,” Kate Huddleston, senior legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center and lead author of the suit, told Sierra. “Congress has not created such a department, and so Elon Musk has no authority to undertake any of these actions.”
The lawsuit highlights the broad reach of DOGE’s actions within the federal government, naming not only the NPS but also the Office of Personnel Management, Department of Education, Forest Service, BLM, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Agriculture, and even the Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health and others as defendants. The diverse group of plaintiffs is intended to represent the wide range of Americans affected by the layoffs.
According to Reuters, the Department of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), among other agencies, laid off approximately 2,300 employees. This included the termination of about 1,000 NPS employees and 800 BLM staff. Although the administration initially froze and then resumed seasonal hiring, many parks now report difficulties in filling these critical roles.
The layoffs come as the NPS faces a budget crisis, a housing shortage and record visitation. In 2024, the agency reported over 331.8 million visits to its more than 400 park units. Nearly 500 organizations recently signed an open letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to stop workforce reductions at land management agencies across the country.
During a Tele-Town Hall with her constituents last month, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski directly addressed the economic impacts of the layoffs on local and rural communities throughout Alaska. “It’s going to be important to make sure that not only do we have these folks back in our parks or out on our Forest Service lands, but that these areas are maintained, whether that’s the trails or making sure that restrooms are cleaned out,” Murkowski told her constituents. “But think about the impact to our gateway communities right outside the parks. Whether you’re Healy, or Cantwell, or Skagway, it’s important that our parks are going to be up and and operational for all of our visitors.”
Gloria Smith, managing attorney for the Sierra Club, said, “Frankly, I’m not sure the American people really understand the depth of this and what’s truly happening. Elon Musk and DOGE have been unlawfully seeking to throw people out of their jobs and freeze federal funding, all of which for Sierra Club’s purposes is harming our national parks and other public lands.”
“All of this will affect all Americans in the coming weeks,” Smith said.
The lawsuit is the latest escalation in tensions between environmental organizations and the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, who has used his platform X to call for the Sierra Club to be “defunded” (the organization does not receive any federal funding). The Sierra Club recently submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to access external communications from key figures at the Office of Management and Budget and U.S. DOGE Service, including Musk, director Russ Vought, and other known DOGE staff, to uncover details about Musk’s team, their influence, and any potential conflicts of interest. This is in addition to previous FOIA requests submitted by environmental organizations regarding funding freezes at the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy and to preserve environmental data removed from government records and websites.
“The harms from DOGE and Mr. Musk are not small, and they threaten to really create life-threatening conditions in the parks and national forests and BLM lands,” Huddleston said. “It’s really important that folks understand that this is not just an inconvenience but really a hazard that is being created by an unlawful, unchecked, unaccountable portion of the federal government that is not really a portion of the federal government at all or should not be.”
“Only Trump and Musk would try to threaten America’s best idea,” Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, wrote in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “We are taking DOGE to court to defend Americans’ ability to safely and freely access the landscapes that unite us.”
