Inside The DOGE Cuts To Valley Forge National Historical Park
by Melissa Jacobs
Lead photo by Fredy Ramirez
Valley Forge National Historical Park is beloved for its gorgeous, natural lands and historical buildings. But that serene landscape was suddenly and deeply disrupted on Feb. 14, 2025 when the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, which oversees the National Park Service, fired more than 1,000 employees. Among them were five key staff members at Valley Forge Park and Hopewell Furnace National Historical Site in Elverson, which falls under VFNHP’s purview.
The five staff members were “probationary employees,” a term defined by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as a trial period for Federal civil servants that averages about one year. According to OPM’s long-standing policy, the government “can swiftly terminate probationers who have not demonstrated their fitness for continued employment.”
Those sentiments were echoed and expanded upon in emails that the Dept. of Interior sent to probationary employees in the Park Service. As the emails made clear, their employment was terminated because they “failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment because your subject matter knowledge, skills, and abilities do not meet the Department’s current needs.”
But at Valley Forge, the terminated employees’ skill sets more than qualify them for their jobs. And at least two of the staff members were directly managing projects that would make Valley Forge money and improve its organizational operations.
Jessica Malarik Fair was the historical architect at Valley Forge and Hopewell Furnace. A one-woman band, Fair was hired in Sept. 2024 and tasked with the monumental job of coordinating historical restorations of multiple buildings with funding provided by the Great American Outdoors Act.
Passed by the Trump administration in 2020, GAOA created the Legacy Restoration Fund, which allocated $84 million to Valley Forge for deferred maintenance and repairs, of which $32,500,000 was earmarked for demolishing buildings that can’t be saved and rehabilitating those than can.
“The goal was to make these properties usable for leasing to restaurants or event companies in the same way that the Philander Chase Knox Estate now is,” Fair said. “The goal was to turn them into profit centers for Valley Forge.”
The GAOA Legacy Restoration Fund fact sheet issued by the National Park Service confirms that. “This project will return multiple historic structures to acceptable condition so they can be proactively maintained and support the park’s strategy to significantly increase the number of buildings eligible for leasing. Leasing revenue will contribute to long term operations, maintenance, and protection of these facilities,” the document states.
Kennedy Supplee Mansion is one of the potential leasing opportunities. Built in 1852, the Victorian mansion and its Italianate-style villa underwent renovations in 1987, then operated as a restaurant until 2005. Using funds from GAOA, Valley Forge Park intended to renovate the mansion and lease it as a restaurant, event space or office space. An RFP was scheduled to be released in Feb. 2025.
Overseeing renovations to the Kennedy Supplee Mansion was just one of Fair’s responsibilities. “My first day on the job was the kickoff for these huge restoration projects that the park was undertaking,” Fair remembered. “We went around the park to look at all of the buildings. I had never seen them because they were closed to the public. They were beautiful – at least to me. I could see past their disrepair to what they could be. Restoring them would be an honor.”
Fair is uniquely qualified for this work. After getting her undergraduate degree from Penn State, Fair earned a Master’s in building conservation architecture from the prestigious Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She has more than 17 years of experience in historic preservation, including working on the 30th Street Station restoration and on National Park Service sites like the Hamilton Grange Estate and Charlestown Navy Yard.
In fact, Fair is overqualified for the Valley Forge job and took a pay cut when she left her position at Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates in Philadelphia. It wasn’t an easy decision for the Malvern mother of three young kids under the age of 8. “But working at Valley Forge as part of the Park Service was a dream job for me,” Fair said.
That sentiment was shared by Heather, who asked that her last name not be used to protect her privacy. Hired in Feb. 2024, Heather had almost completed her probationary period when she was terminated in Feb. 2025.
An expert librarian who holds two Master’s degrees, Heather was an archives technician tasked with organizing decades of backlogged documents at Valley Forge and streamlining them on the park’s almost archaic computer systems.
“Records management was the majority of my work, and I will lovingly say that it was a mess when I got there,” Heather explained. “It was my job to identify what files and records the park needed to keep, where to store them and for how long so that employees knew where to access the files and information they needed to do their jobs.
“At Valley Forge, I was making significant improvements to the way the park operated and my colleagues’ work lives,” Heather said. “My work was measurable, it had purpose and would affect all of the dynamics of the park.” In other words, Heather was making Valley Forge more efficient, a mission that was not appreciated by the Dept. Of Government Efficiency.
Nor was Heather’s experience appreciated. While she was new to Valley Forge, Heather has a long career as a civil servant. She worked at the Library Of Congress, Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Conservancy and the National Park Service’s Southeast Utah Group Headquarters, which oversees Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, Hovenweep National Monument, and Natural Bridges National Monument.
“I loved working for the National Park Service,” Heather said. “The parks are special and the people who work at the parks are dedicated civil servants who work for the betterment of this country.”
But all of Valley Forge’s employees grew anxious when President Trump’s executive orders were enacted after he took office in Jan. 2025. “We were concerned as government employees in general, but specifically because we knew national parks were not valued by the new administration,” Heather said. “However, Valley Forge is part of America’s 250th anniversary and there was the hope that we’d be spared.”
Indeed, Valley Forge Park’s contributions to the local economy are significant and expected to increase as the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence approaches. A 2023 National Park Service report showed that 1.9 million Valley Forge visitors spent $27.2 million in neighborhoods around the park, supporting more than 400 jobs and generating a cumulative $44.7 million.
“Making these cuts doesn’t make economic sense,” said one Chester County Republican who is a Trump supporter. “I believe in smaller government. I believe that there is wasteful spending throughout the government. But there was no thoughtful evaluation of spending and therefore no thoughtful reduction of it.”
There was, however, leadership within the park. Both Fair and Heather credited their supervisors with supporting them by delivering news of their terminations in person. That was done at the direction of Superintendent Rose Fennell, the big boss of Valley Forge Park, Hopewell Furnace and Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail.
“Rose didn’t want us to be alone when we got the termination emails,” Heather said. “As soon as Rose got the list of names of who would be terminated, she sent supervisors to be with each of us.”
Executing the terminations fell to Fennell, who found herself between a rock and a hard place – or between a valley and a forge. On one side of Rose was a deep chasm of sadness at how this happened and on the other side was an iron-clad decision from her superiors that she had to carry out, said a source who, while not a Valley Forge Park employee, is familiar with the situation.
The terminations were effective immediately and employees were not eligible for unemployment. Heather’s health insurance continued for 30 days, but Fair’s did not. “Had they even given us two week’s warning, this would have been a little bit easier,” Fair said. “Why treat us so harshly?”
Heather confirmed that, saying that “above all, Rose wanted to protect the park and its resources, including her employees. Except, we’re not her employees anymore.”
“At Valley Forge Park Alliance, our thoughts are with all National Park Service employees who dedicate themselves to preserving the historic and natural treasures that hold deep meaning for so many Americans. As a proud partner to Valley Forge National Historical Park, we are closely monitoring impacts to our community, recognizing that a well-staffed park is essential to supporting visitors and the local economy. Together, we can safeguard this iconic site and ensure its stories endure for generations to come.” – Feb. 27, 2025
Heather described a hastily assembled post-termination meeting at Valley Forge. Power had gone out because of a storm, leaving the building without heat or light. Bundled against the cold and facing a dire situation, the Valley Forge staff inadvertently resembled Washington’s Continental Army during their encampment on the very same ground.
“Everyone was in shock and felt powerless,” Heather said. “The silence in the room was overwhelming. But I got to be there. I got to tell them how much I appreciated them and to hear how they appreciated me. I got to say goodbye.
“We talked about other cuts that may come to the National Park Service,” she said. “We worried less about ourselves, because we will survive. But what will happen to our national parks?”
Valley Forge National Historical Park did not respond to a request for comments on this story. Melissa Jacobs serves on the board of directors of Valley Forge Park Alliance. Opinions expressed in this story do not reflect those of VFPA.
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3 responses to “Valley Forge Park Wounded By NPS Cuts”
I was very concerned about their benefits for PA citizens. Per Sen Katie Muth there is a form on the Pa Gov site to apply for unemployment benefits.
This well-reported, well-written story importantly shines a light on the awful toll these extreme cuts are taking not only on Heather and her colleagues but on preservation efforts at Valley Forge. Fare thee well, Heather.
Thank you for reading the story. We’ll pass your regards to Heather.