These park rangers oversaw Florida’s only manatee refuge. Then they were fired.

CRYSTAL RIVER NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE — Brier Ryver had just spent the workday with five dozen schoolchildren on the shores of Kings Bay, teaching them the importance of Florida’s wild places, when the rumors began.

Talk had spread that job cuts could be coming to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that oversees the nation’s only dedicated refuge for manatees where Ryver was hired in April as a park ranger.

Eight full-time employees, including Ryver, managed the 32,000 acres of wildlife refuges on Florida’s Gulf coast, which draw hundreds of thousands of annual visitors. Any cuts would be detrimental to the team already juggling permits, manatee rescues, outreach, volunteer coordination and whatever else the day might bring, Ryver thought.

Being a Florida park ranger was a dream job. As rumors swirled, Ryver, who helped keep the refuge running amid back-to-back hurricanes, gathered months of glowing performance reviews and complimentary letters from supervisors.

The next day, Ryver was invited to a work call with hundreds of other federal wildlife service staff. They were all being let go.

Ryver was one of two full-time refuge employees — a quarter of the staff — fired amid the Trump administration’s push to trim the federal workforce and get rid of “waste.” Also let go was Emily Jung, who helped oversee visitor services. All told, the Interior Department has laid off roughly 2,300 people in recent days.

“I want people to know that we were important,” said Ryver, 26. “We were working hard trying to do what we felt was right: connecting people to the environment, and protecting this place. It was not wasteful.”

The cuts at Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge come during peak manatee season, when the animals gather by the hundreds at the park’s warm-water Three Sisters Springs to fend off the cold. For the staff, it’s an all-hands-on-deck period when visitors arrive from across the country to catch a glimpse of the hunkered manatees.

“Losing these employees couldn’t have come at a worse time,” said Beverly Carr, a refuge volunteer who worked with Ryver and Jung. “These two were essential to operating the refuge. They were both instrumental in keeping things running smoothly.”

On top of managing peak manatee season, Ryver was four weeks into a six-week program to teach hundreds of Citrus County students about local springs restoration. Ryver was also overseeing a permit to bring people with intellectual and developmental disabilities into the refuge.

“They were the glue that held things together,” said Carr, who has started an online fundraiser for both former employees. As of Thursday evening, about 50 people had chipped in $5,500. All proceeds will go to Ryver and Jung as they hunt for jobs.

Ryver was making roughly $61,000 a year and was fired about a month before an anticipated pay raise after a probationary period was set to end.

There’s been no termination paperwork, and the only official document Ryver and other staff received was a memo forwarded to their personal email five days later.

“The Department (of Interior) has determined your knowledge, skills, and abilities do not meet the Department’s current needs, and it is necessary and appropriate to terminate, during the probationary period, your appointment to the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service,” the email read.

Health insurance coverage will expire in less than 30 days, Ryver said.

The news rattled the tight-knit network of staff and volunteers at the refuge, home to the last undeveloped spring habitat along the river’s headwaters.

“I write this email with a heavy heart,” began an email written by Joyce Palmer, the park’s manager, sent to staff and volunteers. “I regret to inform you that both Emily Jung and Brier Ryver were currently on probationary status and their positions were terminated as of today.”

The decision was out of the hands of park staff, Palmer wrote. The cuts weren’t based on performance. A spokesperson for the Department of Interior has not responded to emails from the Tampa Bay Times seeking comment.

The staff managing the five national wildlife refuges — including Crystal River, Pinellas, Passage Key, Chassahowitzka and Egmont Key — is now half the size it was a few years ago. In 2015, there were a dozen employees.

There are more than 500 refuges across the nation created to protect and conserve threatened and endangered species, provide wildlife-oriented recreation and shield natural resources from expanding human development.

At the Crystal River refuge, staff enforce seven manatee sanctuaries, conduct regular wildlife surveys, lead educational lessons, rescue injured manatees and study how visitors interact with the park.

“We weren’t fully staffed, and now the remaining employees are struggling to cover it all,” Ryver said.

“Everyone always pitched in and everyone does great work, but there is a limit to how few employees can reasonably be expected to run a refuge effectively.”

On Thursday, Ryver returned to the park for the first time since being fired. Volunteers donning bright orange vests offered hugs and well wishes.

“I’m so sorry this happened to you,” said one volunteer.

“I wish you were back,” said another.

Rick Irvine, 76, said he never worked with an employee with such effective communication and appreciation for others. Volunteers are “expecting chaos” with Jung and Ryver being gone, he said.

As hundreds of visitors marched the boardwalk surrounding Three Sisters Springs, gazing at the manatees nearby, Ryver found a quiet place to take in the view.

Park rangers spend hours here spouting off interesting manatee facts to guests.

So it wasn’t surprising when Ryver turned to a man leaning against the boardwalk nearby.

Springs can tell you a lot about the health of a watershed, Ryver began, and the manatees here need a healthy habitat.

More than anything, they rely on this place.

Want to help?

If you’d like to donate to the fundraiser benefitting Ryver and Jung, visit tinyurl.com/4n9nea6s