Protestors in front of Boulder’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration location on Monday, March 3, 2025. (Lila Nuttle/CU Independent)
On March 3, hundreds of people gathered in front of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facilities in Boulder to protest the recent firings of NOAA and National Institute of Standards and Technology federal employees.
The Department of Government Efficiency, as part of its plan to limit government spending by cutting thousands of federal jobs, fired more than 800 NOAA workers nationwide, including an estimated 10% of the workforce based in Boulder.
While a federal judge has since ordered the return of many fired federal employees, including all those in Colorado, the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to block the order, leaving many federal workers uncertain of their futures.
Probationary employees – those who had been in their positions for less than a year – were the targets of this firing. This included people who had recently been promoted, and as a result, some employees who had spent decades at NOAA were let go.
Demonstrator at the NOAA protest on Monday, March 3, 2025. (Lila Nuttle/CU Independent)
The protest was organized by former U.S. Congressman David Skaggs, who the NOAA research building is named after.
“Have no illusion that citizen protests alone will turn things around. However, speaking out can bolster the efforts of those in elected office who are opposing the incremental destruction of democracy,” Skaggs said in an email announcing the protest.
Police estimate roughly 1,000 people attended the protest. Their signs carried messages ranging from “Trust Science” to calls for the impeachment of Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Protestors included current and former NOAA employees, students from the University of Colorado Boulder and Boulder community members.
Clairy Reiher and McKenzie Larson are Ph.D. students in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at CU Boulder.
“Working at NOAA is like a dream job for us,” Reiher said. “We’ve been wanting to work for NOAA since we were in undergrad. It’s always been an end goal for us.”
Many people who had worked or currently work for the federal government either declined to speak or asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation.
They warned of the implications of the mass firing, including less accurate weather reports and warnings of natural disasters across the country.
“The data taken by the National Weather Service and the forecasts issued by the national weather service, which is a part of NOAA, is extremely important for issuing accurate forecasts to warn people ahead of natural disasters, like wildfires, which are a big issue here in Boulder,” Reiher said.
Former Boulder High School teachers, Eileen Gilbride and John Williams at the protest on Monday, March 3, 2025. (Lila Nuttle/CU Independent)
Former Boulder High School teachers John Williams and Eileen Gilbride also attended the protest with their dog Kiki.
“Everything that’s happening right now is ridiculous, and it’s nice to be able to show up and be with people who also felt the gravity of the situation,” Williams said.
“Ignoring what’s going on in the world is not the answer, and making a lot of money in the short term is not the answer,” added Gilbride. “We can’t lose our humanity in the process.”
This spirit was continued in other protests. On March 7, Stand Up For Science, a grassroots organization founded to support research and scientists amid Trump Administration policies, organized a nationwide demonstration.
Students at CU Boulder gathered at the University Memorial Center fountain at noon to protest the defunding of and mass firings within federal science agencies.
CU also has a unique connection to NOAA. The Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Studies at CU Boulder works directly with NOAA.
According to its website, CIRES was created in 1967 as a partnership of CU Boulder and NOAA, and about half of CIRES’ researchers work on the NOAA campus.
It is unclear how or if the university will be affected by the NOAA layoffs.
“There are no impacts to the university due to NOAA layoffs at this time,” Nicole Mueksch, a spokesperson for the university, said in a statement.
Mueksch said the university is continuing to evaluate federal actions and their impacts on the university.
For Reiher, the uncertainty of NOAA’s future is close to home.
“Both [Larson and I] would really like to use our Ph.D.s to support NOAA,” she said. “But we don’t know if that’s going to happen.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Lila Nuttle at lila.nuttle@colorado.edu
