Days after shedding thousands of workers, the US Forest Service is rehiring a (small) number of employees lost during the February 14 mass cull. That is according to an employee with direct knowledge of the department’s actions, revealing to Politico that a “small number” of terminated employees had been rehired to deal with timber management – with managers having the opportunity to bring back staff.
The employees who described the agency’s latest moves aren’t authorised to speak publicly – however, several rehired foresters have since published the news of their rehiring through social media. Already, the administration has come under fire for the terminations, with losses of hundreds of timber-related personnel contradicting the administration’s goal of harvesting more trees in national forests.
The mass cullings also countered a promise made by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to Senate Majority Leader John Thune during her confirmation hearings – where she promised to increase timber output in National Forests.
The U-turn comes after other federal government agencies have concluded that the mass firings – instigated by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) had gone too far – beginning a process of rehiring staff that worked on critical matters. That includes at least 50 people in the National Park Service, with the department promising to hire 7,700 seasonal positions – an increase over past years after the department laid off 1,000 workers in the downsizing efforts.
Yesterday, Wood Central reported that Trump’s cuts to the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are a recipe for far more destructive wildfires. “These cuts also mean fewer people will keep trails free of fallen trees and other debris,” said Melanie Mattox Green, an environmental planner in the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest. “Maintaining trails is critical in remote areas firefighters access by foot,” she added. “Without trails being cleared, it means that now firefighters cannot easily and more effectively get to these fires to fight them.”
- To learn more about Trump’s cuts to forest management services, including more than 800 jobs axed from the Bureau of Land Management in the Department of the Interior, click here for Wood Central’s special feature.
