Brian Gibbs lost his job as a national park ranger on Friday.

He was working as an environmental educator at the Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeast Iowa. It was his “dream job,” he wrote in a widely shared post on Facebook. The monument is the site of mounds made of earth, built by ancient Native Americans, that form shapes of animals.

The 41-year-old father learned of his termination on Valentine’s Day. “I am absolutely heartbroken and completely devastated,” he wrote.

Gibbs is one of about 1,000 National Park Service employees who were fired this past week. Parks advocates say the layoffs could leave national parks understaffed going into a busy spring break.

(…)

The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a nonpartisan advocacy group for the country’s national parks system, called the downsizing “reckless” and a decision that could have “serious public safety and health consequences” — for example, if the staff losses include wastewater treatment operators.

(…)

But he said the public will ultimately be the ones who will lose the most from these layoffs — costing them “education and awareness and value of our public spaces that are so part of the democratic idea.”