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Ben Vizzachero's phone rang Saturday while he and his girlfriend were on a whale watching tour in Monterey Bay, celebrating the Valentine's Day weekend. It was his supervisor with news he'd been bracing for.
"I'm fired," Vizzachero more stated than asked. His supervisor confirmed what he already knew.
Their boat was still about an hour from port. Vizzachero spent that time watching the Pacific roll and the sea birds glide overhead as his new reality sank in.
"As soon as I got the news, I felt like I was going to vomit," he said.
Vizzachero, 29, had worked as a federal biologist in Los Padres National Forest for just over a year. He is among the roughly 3,400 U.S. Forest Service workers who were laid off as part of President Trump and billionaire advisor Elon Musk's push to reduce the federal government.
Vizzachero was emailed his termination letter shortly after the call.
"The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest," Deedra Fogle, director of USFS Human Resource Management, wrote in the letter.
Vizzachero told me he feels angry, betrayed and reduced to "a pawn in this political game." He followed a childhood dream to be an ornithologist and hit the biodiversity jackpot when he landed a position in Los Padres, which spans more than 1.7 million acres over four counties from the Monterey coast southeast to the Grapevine.
As he grieves a job he loved and figures out what's next, he has a warning for the public: National forests and the communities around them will be less safe from fires, landslides and other hazards. And with thousands of his colleagues also out of work, Vizzachero said forest visitors and wildlife will suffer.
"These are the people that make sure the roads are drivable, make sure that the trails are hikable, make sure that the campgrounds are operating properly, report maintenance issues, make sure that our wildlife is safe -- especially the threatened and endangered species," he said.
"The forest is going to get caught with its pants down."
Having fewer workers doing land management will hinder public safety and wildlife protections, Vizzachero said.
In his role as a compliance officer, he ensured that all USFS actions in Los Padres followed the law and took the necessary steps to reduce harm to the forest ecosystem.
That included the agency's work to fight fires -- both active blazes and proactive work that helps reduce the risk of severe wildfire and protect land and "homes within the wildland urban interface," according to USFS officials.
One of Vizzachero's priorities was to make sure firefighters were not disturbing California spotted owls and other vulnerable species during strategic firefighting and fuel thinning projects.
"Everything that I do as a biologist, as a compliance officer, was supporting those projects," Vizzachero explained. "Now that I'm out of the picture ... it's going to be that much harder for these projects to continue and it is going to directly impact the safety of our communities from wildfire."
Vizzachero had also recently gone through training to be a resource advisor for teams that monitor land during and after a wildfire to identify additional hazards, such as landslides.
"The government had already spent the money to train me up, to bring me on those teams so that I can help keep America safe, keep our resources safe, our wildlife and plants," he said. "And now all of a sudden, I can't do that."
A U.S. Forest Service employee confirmed Vizzachero's termination. They declined to provide further comment and asked not to be named for fear of putting their own job in jeopardy.
What's next?
Vizzachero told me he's fortunate to be part of a federal workers union that's now preparing legal action.
"My understanding of what makes this firing illegal is that, being on my probationary period, I could only be fired if my performance is unsatisfactory, and I can clearly demonstrate that my performance is satisfactory," he said.
Vizzachero sent me his first-year evaluation, in which he was deemed "fully successful" in meeting his performance goals.
"When the Wildlife Program lead position became vacant, Ben worked even harder to take on additional responsibilities," his evaluator wrote. "Over the year he has invested time to learn the policies, apply that knowledge to requests, and provide guidance to leadership. He is receptive to feedback, driven to meet deadlines, and learns quickly. His hard work has been greatly appreciated!"
Vizzachero told me he plans to file for unemployment this week and start looking for another job, which he expects will be much more competitive with so many fellow biologists also on the hunt.
As he deals with all that, he also worries what's next for the nation's public lands, which he said are truly what makes America great.
"Those are the places that are open to exploring and ... bring people together, create memories, create a sense of connection," he said. "The fact that Donald Trump wants to gut our public land system, the fact that corporations and billionaires are gaining increasing control and power over what happens on our public lands is hurting America in a way that all of us will feel."
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On Feb. 20, 1967, John Glenn became the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth. In his first historic flight, Glenn circled Earth for nearly five hours in his Friendship 7 spacecraft.