The U.S. Forest Service, already struggling with understaffing, fired about 3,400 workers last monthroughly 10% of its workforceamid the Trump administrations efforts to shrink the federal government. Now, with Forest Service chief Randy Moore set to retire this week, the agency will be led by a former timber industry lobbyist. In a letter posted to the agencys website, Moore called the cuts incredibly difficult and urged remaining staff to rise to the occasion.
But current and former Forest Service employees warn that mass firings threaten public access to federal lands and increase wildfire danger for tens of millions. They also fear the Trump administration is moving toward auctioning off public lands to corporations interested in resource extraction. Federal workers and their unions are pushing backwith some success. A federal judge last week ordered the government to cancel its directive to lay off employees at six agencies. However, the ruling did not extend to the Forest Service, leaving some workers unclear as to its implications. Workers are also speaking up in hopes that their advocacy can reverse the administrations course and protect the public lands they say are at risk.
Tom Carvajals work duties as a lead river ranger in the Boise National Forest ranged from checking parking passes to guiding archaeologists on weeklong missions into the rugged Idaho wilderness. He said it was the greatest job in the world, but it came to an end in mid-February when he was fired alongside thousands of other Forest Service employees. I dont know if Ill be able to find something Im as passionate about, Carvajal said.
As upset as he was to lose his job, Carvajal was more concerned about what would happen to the public lands he had dedicated years of his life to preserving.
When you look at the other executive orders . . . our public lands are f**ked, Carvajal said.
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed the Unleashing American Energy executive order that called for reversing environmental protections on federal landsabout 28% of the countryin the name of resource extraction. Carvajal fears that move could lay the groundwork for reducing the size of public lands by auctioning off once-protected areas to private development.
It would not be the first time.
During his first term, Trump eliminated environmental protections from more public land than any president in U.S. history. In 2017, he reduced Utahs Grand-Staircase Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments by a combined 2 million acres after companies including Energy Fuels Resources (USA) Inc. lobbied his administration for access to the areas uranium, coal, and oil deposits. In 2020, Trump stripped protections from Alaskas Tongass National Forest, allowing logging and road development on hundreds of square miles of old-growth forest.
The Biden administration later reversed both decisions, but Trumps team is again looking to reduce the size of Utahs national monuments and allow logging in Alaskas protected temperate rainforests. Trump also moved to roll back regulations that required federal agencies to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, which mandates environmental review for actions like land permitting. Doug Burgum, Trumps secretary of the Interior, has also directed his department to encourage energy exploration and production on federal lands and waters, even though the country is already producing more crude oil than ever before. Following Moores resignation, the Forest Service will be headed by Tom Schultz, the former vice president of resources and government affairs at Idaho Forest Group, one of the largest private lumber producers in the country.
Capital & Main reached out to the Trump administration for comment but received no response. His Unleashing American Energy order characterized environmental protections of public lands as burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations, which impeded their development and stood in the way of making reliable and affordable electricity available to U.S. citizens.
Unlike the National Park Service, whose primary mission is the preservation of natural and cultural resources, the Forest Service balances conservation with other purposes like timber production and resource extraction. Forest Service employees fear that the balance will tilt too far in favor of industry and that vast tracts of public lands could be lost.
I think were going to lose our federal government land. I think in the next four years, the Forest Service just wont be around anymore, said Taze Henderson, a Forest Service employee in Washington states Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest until he was fire this month.
Hendersons job was to prepare the forest for private logging operations while prioritizing forest health and fire prevention. His efforts often drew legal challenges from local environmental groups, which, he said, complicated the timber harvesting process. Now he warns that the private contractors who could replace him will do far more damage to the forest.
Raymond Beaupre worked as part of the Okanogan-Wenatchees wilderness trail staff before getting fired. Profit-driven timber harvesters will be more bloodthirsty, potentially endangering the ecosystem, according to Beaupre. Its like letting the fox into the hen house, he said.
Beaupre warned that a downsized Forest Service would also limit recreational opportunities, as many trails require consistent upkeep to stay accessible. Without regular maintenance, fallen logs, and erosion ultimately lead to trail loss.
Even before the firings, staffing and funding shortages had already led to trail loss. Our district used to have 1,200 miles of trails. Now we fight as hard as we can to maintain 450 of those miles, Beaupre said.
Forest Service employees who were spared in the recent firings say the changes have already hurt the agency.
I didnt know morale could get any worse and then it did, said Madi Kraus, a wildland firefighter and union steward for the National Federation of Federal Employees in Colorado. We feel like were in a relationship with an abusive partner. We never know whats going to come next.
Many of those dismissed were responsible for managing firefighting logisticsa loss that could affect the agencys ability to protect communities, Kraus said. In fact, many employees whose main job wasn’t firefighting, but who were qualified to fight fires when needed, were terminated. Among them was Carvajal, who started his career as a wildland firefighter and continued to assist on crews after changing positions. Last summer, he logged more than 300 overtime hours fighting wildfires just north of Boise.
With wildfire risks rising as more people move into fire-prone areas and climate change leads to more extreme weather, the need for a strong firefighting force has never been greater. But the Trump administrations actions are eroding that capacity, said Riva Duncan, a former forest fire chief in Oregons Umpqua National Forest.
Even if the firings stopped right now, we know its still going to be bad, Duncan said. It means the existing workforce has way more exposure to risk. . . . Theyre not going to be able to suppress as many fires.
Workers have staged protests across the country, including inside national parks, and unions have filed lawsuits against the Trump administration, claiming that the mass firings violate federal law.
There are signs the pressure is working. Several Forest Service employees who were fired this month have since been rehired. Even though U.S. District Judge William Alsups order Thursday to rescind the directive firing probationary employees didn’t extend to the Forest Service, Alsup said he was going to count on the government to do the right thing by applying his ruling more broadly.
Carvajal, meanwhile, is dedicating his time to speaking up about the potentially devastating impacts of deep cuts to the Forest Service and the loss of public lands.
If we lose those lands to any other kind of development, thats really where the problem is going to last, Carvajal said. That can be avoided if people know that this is your land.
By Jeremy Lindenfeld, Capital & Main
This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
