Local park ranger fired over email due to federal budget cuts
VENN
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The impact of budget cuts and firings is being felt by federal workers across the country and right here in Central Virginia. As of Monday, Feb. 24, more than 200,000 federal workers at more than a dozen agencies have had their roles eliminated.
You may recognize Avery Lentz from our Honoring Black History special, where we highlighted Lentz's work as a park ranger at the Richmond National Battlefield Park and Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site.
As of Thursday, Feb. 27, Lentz is no longer a park ranger after being fired over email on Feb. 14.
“In a way my career was dying," Lentz said in an exclusive 8News interview. “I wanted to be a National Park ranger. National park service was the goal. What I keep asking myself is, 'How do you decide what you want to do with the rest of your life when you’ve already done that?'”
Thirteen days ago, on Feb. 14, Lentz received an email from the United States Department of Interior firing him.
The termination letter said he “failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment," and that his “abilities do not meet the department’s current needs.”
Avery Lentz's termination letter from the United Sates Department of Interior. He was fired over email on February 14, 2025.
But in his performance review, his scores show his performance “exceeds expectations” and he’s “fully successful.”
Avery Lentz's performance review.
“It was not my performance that lost me my job," Lentz said. "It was just powers that be and things that are out of my control. I think that makes it even harder.”
Lentz entered this line of work as an intern at Gettysburg National Military Park in 2013. He bounced around to a few other parks and worked jobs in marketing and sales, before becoming a park ranger in Central Virginia.
Lentz is one of three that were fired in his group of co-workers. All of them started their jobs in April 2024.
"I’d like to say there’s solidarity in not being alone in this, but it’s still tragic," Lentz said. "It’s still heartbreaking for them.”
Since they’d been at the parks for under a year, they were in what’s called a “probationary position,” making it easier to fire them. Lentz said that in January, the United States Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, was asking for a list of all probationary employees but didn’t say why.
“That was kind of the start of the trepidation and the worry about what this list was for," Lentz said.
A few weeks later, Lentz got the email saying he was fired.
“The one thing I will say that came out of this, that was somewhat positive, was the amount of support that the affected had gotten," Lentz said.
Lentz said more people have offered to let him crash on their couch than ever before and that he’s had support from his former co-workers and family.
“It was just very...Unorthodox is, I think, the best word to describe it," Lentz said. "No one is safe."
Lentz said he's applying for jobs, but that he and one of the other fired employees were both denied unemployment without reason. He said it’s too expensive to move and doesn’t want to do that after building a life here in Central Virginia.
