A rallying cry at Effigy Mounds: Stand up for parks

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns called our national parks “America’s Best Idea.”

As distinctly American as they are, however, to me our national parks are personal.

Although our family has visited dozens of parks from Maine to California to Utah to Montana to Florida to Texas, one of our favorite places in the National Park System is Effigy Mounds National Monument, north of Marquette, only a half-hour drive from our home.

I first visited Effigy Mounds more than 60 years ago on a 4-H bus trip.

We’ve since hiked and photographed the trails countless times, feeling the spirituality the sacred, centuries-old mounds built by our Indigenous predecessors. We’ve watched birds and identified wildflowers and gazed across the Mississippi from the blufftops.

We’ve joined crowds of visitors to spot migrating hawks soaring past.

I’ve written about efforts to reestablish peregrine falcons on the park bluffs.

I testified before Congress in support of expanding the monument.

I’ve paddled up the Yellow River through Effigy Mounds to the site where I could see original timbers from a dam and sawmill built in 1831 by Jefferson Davis, who was then a young soldier stationed across the Mississippi River at Fort Crawford.

Those are just some of the connections that lured us to Effigy Mounds on a recent cold March morning to protest the abrupt layoffs of park staff by the Trump/Musk administration. We joined more than 100 other people from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota who probably had their own personal stories and passions about Effigy Mounds.

The rally was the brainstorm of Scott Boylen, a sixth grade science teacher at the Decorah Middle School, and a former summer employee at the monument. As a veteran of previous protests on social and environmental issues, Boylen wanted to follow the rules. When he contacted Effigy Mounds officials beforehand, they said no special permission was needed for gatherings of fewer than 25 people. Boylen figured the impromptu event would be lucky to attract that number. He obviously underestimated the public’s passion for parks and for Effigy Mounds!

I doubt, however, that many have as deep and passionate a connection as our friend Brian Gibbs, who on Valentine’s Day was fired from his dream job as an education park ranger at Effigy. Another colleague at the monument also was let go. Brian’s Facebook post pouring out his anguish went viral. Local and national media retold the story. He was invited to speak at an Iowa event with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

There’s no reason to believe that Brian, who is a skilled and knowledgeable naturalist, a talented nature photographer, and an eloquent speaker and writer, will not bounce back from this irrational, nonsensical action by politicians.

But the attacks on government programs and services affect far more than the federal workers who lose their jobs. What about families planning vacations to see our country’s natural wonders? Or school children curious about the history of the people and the land? Or tourists searching for a scenic overlook along the Mississippi River?

The reckless cutting and slashing is being felt by real people, by you and your friends and neighbors

The politicians don’t care about people, Boylen lamented. He said the government downsizing of everything from park staff to veterans health care to bird flu research to the National Weather Service to agricultural conservation programs amounts to destroying an ecosystem. All the parts are connected — and the system — meant to serve the American PEOPLE — unravels as more ties are cut.

Did Americans really vote to give up their opportunities to enjoy natural and historic areas and a safe, healthy environment just to save a little money that would go to tax cuts for billionaires?

“People in Washington are trying to steal from us. They’re picking our pockets to line their own,” declared Brian Bruening of Elkader, who was an unsuccessful candidate for an Iowa State Senate seat in 2024. “But we are angry and we are strong and we are not afraid!”

Larry Stone is a semiretired outdoor/conservation writer, photographer and lecturer. He lives in the boondocks of Clayton County near Elkader and is active in volunteer conservation efforts/issues. His writings can be found at his Substack page, “Listening to the Land,” which is part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.

https://substack.com/@lstone

https://iowawriters.substack.com/