Elizabeth Villano is a former national park ranger who worked for the National Park Service for six years. This year, after the Trump administration conducted mass layoffs in the agency, her contract was not renewed.
Although she had posts in various parks and monuments over the years, most recently, Villano was a climate change training ranger, whose duties included helping the NPS create materials to integrate climate science into its operations, land management, and public educational programming.
Now, she’s manning bake sale tables.
Last week, Villano represented the advocacy group Resistance Rangers — made up of on- and off-duty national park rangers advocating for the protection of the NPS and public lands — at a bake sale in Denver, Colorado.
She was joined by another advocacy group, Mountain Mamas, which mobilizes mothers living in the Rocky Mountains to advocate for the climate, clean air and water, and public lands.
“We’re here today at a bake sale for public lands, we are here because the youth have said, ‘we have seen the danger to public lands and we’re going to fight for them,’” Villano told the Colorado Times Recorder.
“The youth are doing more than our politicians are doing. We’re here because there is a $267 million cut that has been taken from the National Park Service and they’re proposing to take $1.2 billion more from it.”
The Trump administration has indeed proposed a 30% cut to NPS funding in the next fiscal year, which would be the largest in the service’s history.
The National Park Conservation Association said that these cuts would jeopardize the “protection, maintenance, and operation of our more than 430 national parks across the country,” and added that the proposal also includes the potential to turn some national park sites over to states and remove them from the NPS entirely.
“This is the most extreme, unrealistic, and destructive National Park Service budget a president has ever proposed in the agency’s 109-year history,” Theresa Pierno, the president and CEO of the NPCA, said in a statement in May. “It’s nothing less than an all-out assault on America’s national parks.”
The bake sale, which most certainly would not raise those billions of dollars, was more of a symbolic gesture to spread the word about these proposed budget cuts and garner support for public lands.
Family members and local kids connected to Mountain Mamas joined Villano with treats and informational pamphlets along Denver’s South Platte River. They called it the “Public Lands Can’t Run on Crumbs” Bake Sale.
“While we hope everyone enjoys some treats today, we are here for a very serious reason because our public lands are under attack,” Sara Kuntzler, the Colorado State director of Mountain Mamas, told attendees.
“These are historic cuts and, as you will hear today, these agencies are already underfunded and understaffed.”
The group expressed their desires for elected officials to stand up for national parks and public lands, but they also encouraged attendees to take a stand in their own way — even with efforts as small as a bake sale.
“The number one thing that needs to be done is by the average person,” Villano said. “The average elects representatives who are supposed to follow our lead, and the average person, no matter if you lean blue or red or independent, loves public lands.”
She pointed to the example of senators removing a provision to sell public lands in the recently passed “Big Beautiful Bill,” after elected officials were met with pressure from constituents across the political spectrum to protect these natural spaces.
“We want these places protected, and our politicians are selling our inheritance,” Villano continued at the bake sale. “They’re leaving the leadership up to the kids who are trying to run a bake sale for a $1.2 billion budget deficit. … You can’t just feed the National Park Service crumbs and expect us to run a marathon on it. That’s what they [this administration] are trying to do.”
Young people who were part of the bake sale effort also spoke up, addressing a crowd from behind a chocolate chip cookie-laden table.
“I’m here today at the ‘Public Lands Can’t Run on Crumbs’ Bake Sale because I think everyone here has some kind of fond memory that center around the beautiful outdoors,” high schooler Claire Naumer said, adding that climate change is one of the “biggest worries” of her generation.
“Everyone should have the chance to grow up outside and experience the natural beauty we’ve been blessed with,” Naumer continued. “Unfortunately, because of environmental, economic, and political factors, many kids in this country may not be able to explore the outdoors.”
She also added that the outdoors cannot be protected without the “amazing” NPS rangers, U.S. Forest Service workers, and other federal employees.
Although it’s unclear how much money the bake sale raised, attendees and hosts left with a mutual respect and renewed hunger to protect public lands.
Villano told Denver7 News that she is hopeful that their message will reach more young activists in future generations.
She said: “Those are our future stewards.”
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Header image courtesy of F. Delventhal (CC BY 2.0)
