FILE - Former National Park Service Director Chuck Sams speaks at the Fort Vancouver Historic Site on March 17, 2022. It was Sams's first trip back home to the Pacific Northwest since he was sworn in as the first Native American to lead the public lands agency.
April Ehrlich / OPB
When Chuck Sams was sworn in as director of the National Park Service in 2021, he became the first Native American to lead the agency. Sams previously served as a member of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council and as executive director of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
Not long after Sams returned to Oregon after leaving the agency last year, the Trump administration fired nearly 1,000 park service employees without warning. The agency lost nearly a quarter of its permanent staff in the following months.
Sams has denounced the loss of institutional knowledge within the National Park Service. He joins us to share his thoughts.
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