Mass layoffs, deferred resignation offers, and other policies from a hostile administration eliminated record numbers of Forest Service employees earlier this year. Firefighters were supposedly exempt from these job cuts, but Forest Service firefighters, already understaffed, have been left to take up the slack outside their firefighting roles.
Reporting for Capital and Main, Jeremy Lindenfeld writes, some firefighters “now clean toilets while others mow lawns around ranger stations.” Forest Service employees have commented (on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution), “Firefighters have been prevented from joining fire suppression efforts because of these new responsibilities.”
While agency leadership claims it has exceeded its hiring goal for wildland firefighters, internal data, first reported by ProPublica, reveals thousands of vacant firefighter positions across the country.
Former Forest Service employees with firefighting experience describe a demoralized workforce that is stretched increasingly thin by inadequate staffing and uncertainty caused by Trump policies.
Photo: Photographer Preston Keres captured this photo of Supervisory Forestry Technician Ben McLane while McLane was fighting fires on the Mt. Hood National Forest in July 2023 (Forest Service photo).
