Andria Townsend: Not a Dime of Taxpayer Money is Saved Firing Me

By Andria Townsend

On Friday, Feb. 14th, as part of the large scale termination of probationary federal employees, I was fired from my job as the Carnivore Specialist for Yosemite National Park. I led projects doing research on federally endangered carnivore species.

I am devastated for myself, but also for the team of amazing biologists I supervised, the incredible programs we worked so hard on, and the resources that will suffer across the country because of this.

I want to add the administration is claiming they only fired “poor performers.” That is a lie. Myself and thousands of other fired federal employees were top performers in our respective agencies, and have official performance evaluations to prove it. I also want the world to know my position and my projects were all soft-funded, meaning they were paid for by grant funds I applied to receive each year from local nonprofits. Not a single dime of taxpayer money is being saved by firing me.

I share this not for sympathy, but in hopes folks will reach out to their representatives to voice their disapproval of these decisions. I am a hard working American just like the next, I have dedicated my life to my work like so many other public servants, and now I am unemployed simply because I was in my position for less than one year. This will have rippling negative effects across the country.

Today it is me, who will it be tomorrow?

This was originally posted by Andria Townsend on Feb. 16, 2025.