Workers at Acadia National Park and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration were laid off last week as part of a mass firing of about 10,000 federal employees to slash government spending.

The eight Acadia National Park employees laid off last week represent a 10% reduction of year-round staff for one of the state’s busiest tourist attractions. One SAMSHA employee was also let go. As of Wednesday afternoon, it was unclear whether there were more layoffs of federal employees in Maine who are not political appointees.

The terminated Acadia workers are among 1,000 National Park Service employees who were fired as President Donald Trump and the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk, make dramatic cuts to the federal workforce.

Friends of Acadia, a nonprofit that promotes stewardship of and raises money to support the national park, said the eight employees were all probationary, meaning they were within their two years of work with the park service or had been recently promoted to a supervisory position. The employees worked primarily as fee collectors and trail maintenance staff. The trail maintenance staff were partly funded by Friends of Acadia, and their positions could have been fully supported by the nonprofit.

“Acadia’s staff work tirelessly to protect the park, keep trails in great shape, and ensure every visitor has an unforgettable experience,” said Eric Stiles, president and CEO of Friends of Acadia. “We are incredibly disappointed to see these cuts, particularly in areas like fee collection that help bring in revenue for the park.”

The federal government has been under a hiring freeze since Jan. 20, leaving many concerned about the impact on seasonal staffing. Acadia National Park — which has a year-round workforce of up to 100 but was operating with about 75 before the layoffs — hires around 150 seasonal workers to support the park during the busy summer and fall seasons.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a statement Wednesday that the national parks are now exempt from the seasonal hiring freeze, which could have kept the park from hiring the staff needed to collect entrance fees and perform “other essential tasks such as maintaining trails and providing first responder services to visitors.”

But before that announcement, at least 35 seasonal job offers, including 27 fee collector positions, had been rescinded. It was unclear whether the park will need to restart the hiring process for those positions, which can take six months or longer to fill.

Acadia National Park has received nearly 4 million visitors annually since the pandemic, and last year, it brought in over $475 million in visitor spending and contributed $685 million in economic output, according to the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce.

Everal Eaton, executive director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce, said it’s too early to speculate on the full effect of the layoffs but that the organization is “cautiously concerned” until it hears of any impacts to visitors’ experience.

Collins said she is continuing to work with Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum “on the remaining problems caused by the sweeping hiring freeze and the elimination of probationary workers.”

Scott Gagnon, New England regional director for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said he was laid off on Saturday by the Trump administration.

Gagnon, of Gray, said he started in his role in June 2024, and his job was to coordinate and direct behavioral health services throughout New England. He would work from a home office and an office in Boston but would spend most of his working time traveling in the six New England states.

He said the pretext of the firings is to make government more efficient, but “my role was to help the New England states be effective and efficient with the funding they receive.”

Gagnon, who in 2016 led the unsuccessful opposition to Maine’s cannabis legalization ballot initiative, said the form email he received on Saturday said the layoff was for performance-related reasons, but he has an “exceptional” evaluation.

He said he’s fighting the termination, including sending a copy of his performance evaluation to the Trump administration, and appealing his firing through an internal process. He said his understanding from other people who were laid off is that “performance” was a blanket reason given for the firings.

“They are lying about why they are firing us, and that does not sit well with us,” Gagnon said.

Maine has over 12,000 federal workers, according to the Congressional Research Service, over 8,000 of which work at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. Collins and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire last week asked the U.S. Navy to exempt shipyard workers from Trump’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce by incentivizing resignations.

The two senators said the shipyard needs to hire hundreds of workers each year — not shrink the workforce — to combat increasing military threats.

A spokesperson for Collins’ office said Wednesday that they have not heard any update about the letter or whether any shipyard employees will be targeted in future rounds of layoffs.

A spokesperson for the National Park Service did not respond Wednesday to questions about the layoffs or potential impacts.