The termination letters that ended the careers of 2,000 US Forest Service workers mean that fewer people and resources will be available to fight the next wave of wildfires, fired workers and officials have warned. Hot on the heels of deadly blazes that ripped through Los Angeles last month — the latest terminations are part of a wave of federal layoffs and come as Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts reverberate nationwide.
However, workers who maintained trails, removed combustible debris, supported firefighters, and secured funds to protect wildlife say the cuts threaten public safety, especially in the West, where drier and hotter conditions have increased the risk of intense wildfires.
“I’m terrified of that,” said Tanya Torst, fired from her position as a U.S. Forest Service partnership coordinator in California last week. Ms Torst, whose probationary period was due to expire in March, worked with groups to bring in $12 million for removing dead trees and fuels in the Mendocino National Forest.
“This is 100% a safety thing,” she said, recalling the deadly Paradise blaze that killed 85 people east of Chico in 2018. “That’s why I’m speaking out.”
The US Department of Agriculture, which oversees the US Forest Service, said in a statement that Secretary Brooke Rollins supports Musk and President Trump’s directive to fire thousands of “probationary, non-firefighting employees,” which they said was for “efficiency’s sake”. Secretary Rollins, it said, remains committed to “preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted” but did not address the workers responsible for removing combustible fuels and other projects aiming to lower a wildfire’s intensity.
Already, the Trump administration has frozen funds for wildfire prevention programs supported by legislation championed by former President Joe Biden, with programmes not funded by that legislation able to continue, an Interior Department statement said. US Rep. Kim Schrier, a Washington state Democrat, said on X, “Forest Service layoffs are already hurting the state and will only worsen. Fire season is coming.”
The Washington State Department of Natural Resources said the firings have already forced them to develop contingency plans to deal with a “degraded federal force this coming fire season.” Melanie Mattox Green, fired from her land management and environmental planning job at the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana, said their fire-prevention efforts prioritised areas where towns border forest lands. Staffing cuts have now put those towns at risk. “If a fire breaks out now without these projects, that fire will be far more dangerous to our local communities,” Ms Green said.
“These cuts also mean fewer people will keep trails free of fallen trees and other debris. Maintaining trails is critical in remote areas that firefighters access by foot,” she added. “Without those trails being cleared, it means that now firefighters cannot easily and more effectively get to these fires to fight them.”
Many Forest Service workers who don’t occupy official firefighter positions still have firefighting certifications, known as a “red card,” that must be renewed annually. Josh Vega, who maintained 1,100 miles of trails as a forestry technician in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana before being fired, said his crew was the first to arrive at a wildfire that broke out in 2023.
Vega’s crew monitored the blaze for two days before firefighters arrived: “We spent the next few days keeping an eye on the fire, making sure that the trailheads were all closed and that the public knew what was happening so they wouldn’t find themselves in a predicament.”
Many Forest Service operations involve supporting firefighters beyond fire season, including surveying areas for prescribed burns or ensuring trail access, said Luke Tobin, fired from his forestry technician role in Idaho’s Nez Perce National Forest. “Everybody helps with fire in some aspect, some way, shape or form,” he said.
Gregg Bafundo, fired last week from his post as a wilderness ranger and wildland firefighter at the Okanogan Wenatchee National Forest, said the staffing cuts came at a critical time. “This is the time of year when they hire everybody,” he said during a press conference organized by Washington Sen. Patty Murray. “It’s the time of year when firefighters renew their red cards and practice redeploying their fire shelters. This is when they train to be ready to fight next summer’s fires.
“We can’t train while the fire is burning over the hill.”
- To learn more about Trump’s cuts to forest management services, including more than 800 jobs that were also axed from the Bureau of Land Management in the Department of the Interior, click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
