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STORY: Kathryn Brainerd was only days away from her dream job as a U.S. park ranger before it disappeared."On January 23rd, I got an email stating that my job position had been rescinded due to the new executive order that the new administration put out.”It was one of the thousands of federal jobs axed by U.S. President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk's campaign to radically cut back bureaucracy. :: Badlands National Park ServiceBrainerd, seen here wearing the blue jacket, had just a day left on her internship at Badlands National Park in South Dakota, when the offer for her new job as a park ranger at Appomattox Court House National Park in Virginia was taken back in an email. “I read it. I let it sink in. And then I started crying. Because, you know, I was looking forward to moving down there. I had all that stuff all set up to go, and then I got the e-mails saying, you know, the job was rescinded.”:: FileThe National Park Service is terminating about 1,000 people according to people familiar with the cuts. That’s five percent of the employees who work in America’s 63 national parks. The Trump administration has defended the cuts saying the federal government is too bloated. But Brainerd says the NPS has no fat to trim. “Everybody that's working in the parks are needed in the parks.” :: Kathryn Brainerd“It's catastrophic. Everybody that was cut was Interpretive Rangers, Rectechs. They're the ones that staff the entrance booths to each park. They're the ones that hand out the daily passes, the annual passes, the disabled veteran passes. It's going to impact maintenance. So, they're the ones that obviously clean the toilets, plow parking lots, plow the roads, fix trails, fix signs, law enforcement.” :: Kathryn BrainerdBrainerd is a Navy veteran who had already rented an apartment and bought furniture for her move to Virginia. Now she’s moved back home in Minnesota, and she’s not sure where she’ll ultimately land. But she’s looking for new opportunities to apply her degree in park management and the rich experience she gained through her internship at Badlands. “As far as what happens now, I am applying literally everywhere with state entities. There's quite a few like nature centers and such. Anything that has an interpretation side to the job, I'm applying for.”