Mass firings hamstring federal land agencies and wildfire response

Federal agencies that play crucial roles in administering conservation, recreation and resource development across roughly than 640m acres of the nation’s public lands were thrust into a state of chaos this week after the Trump administration fired thousands of federal workers, leaving key operational gaps in its wake.

The agencies are also on the frontline of mitigating the escalating effects from the climate crisis and concerns are mounting that the depletion of already thinned ranks will only hamper efforts to respond and recover from extreme weather events.

From dispatchers to radio operators, trail crews to scientists, fired employees worked a range of important jobs needed to plan prescribed burns, organize suppression efforts and protect landscapes and communities against the growing threats of catastrophic fire.

The cuts made to staff were also not strategic or uniform, according to several sources within the agencies who spoke about how the destabilising actions showcased that the administration understands little about the specialist work being done behind the scenes.

In a letter reviewed by the Guardian and issued to firefighters with the United States Forest Service (USFS), the new Department of Agriculture secretary pledged her support and assurance they would have “the tools and resources [they] need to safely and effectively carry out [their] mission”. At the same time, dismissal emails were arriving in their colleagues inboxes.

The loss of so many important positions is expected to have a resounding ripple effect on the agencies’ ability to respond and recover when emergencies arise.

USFS firefighters in Altadena, California, on 17 January. Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Blazes burning hotter and faster “are already beyond what humans can manage”, said a firefighter and dispatcher working for USFS, whom the Guardian is not identifying for fear of reprisal. “Now we have fewer humans to manage them,” she added. “Fire season will get worse.”

Agency leaders have given specific orders to workers not to share information with the public or the press, but she is among roughly a dozen federal employees, including some who recently lost their jobs, who spoke to the Guardian this week about how the widespread reduction in force will derail urgent work.

USFS was among the hardest hit by the sweeping cuts, losing at least 3,400 people, or roughly 10% of its workforce. Another 2,300 staffers were fired from the Department of the Interior, which includes the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management.

The orders for these firings took aim at employees in probationary status, a categorization that applies to new hires or those moved or promoted into new positions, which typically lasts from one to two years. Many of those fired had dedicated years to public service work and were in good standing when they were dismissed, according to managers who spoke to the Guardian.

While workers whose roles are focused on public safety, including firefighters, were supposed to be exempt according to the administration, some in roles considered essential and supplemental to emergency response and mitigation were dismissed.

“There are an enormous number of people critical to the organisation who aren’t firefighters,” a USFS staffer familiar with emergency response said. “These are not poor performers,” she added, countering the claims made in boilerplate emails announcing the dismissals.

“Our capacity to just get things done, including the projects and acres we can treat, will be hit,” said a USFS specialist familiar with forest-resilience treatments. She lost everyone on her small team in the last week, including workers who had recently been given awards for their performance. One was just two weeks shy of the end of their two-year probationary period.

With fewer people who can oversee the complicated and delicate work, she’s worried more mistakes will be made and litigation risks will rise. The teams were already understaffed and underfunded, and they are now being asked to do even more for less.

Several staffers shared fears that this action is part of a broader move toward privatization of US public lands. Some said holes in the work may have to be filled by costly contractors or concessionaires who aren’t dedicated to protecting the landscapes. Others were concerned that the agencies won’t be able to function as they once did, giving weight to arguments that the lands should be turned over to states or sold.

“They haven’t addressed our program of work and how we will adjust,” the scientist said. “It just feels like they want us to fail.”

The cuts also extend far beyond fire, creating holes on search-and-rescue teams and emergency response crews that have become increasingly crucial as more people pour into parks and forests for recreation.

In a now-viral post on Instagram, one ranger who’d lost his job shared that he had been the only EMT on staff at his park.

“I honestly can’t imagine how the parks will operate without my position,” he said. “We are not the excess. We are essential to maintaining access to parks.”

While the drawdown is expected to have resounding effects on agency work, it’s done little to reduce the budget.

When the Congressional Budget Office looked at the issue, it found the government spent $271bn annually compensating civilian federal workers – less than 5% of the federal budget – and about 60% of that total goes to workers employed by the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs.

Many of the workers who were let go had been paid low wages, with some barely able to make ends meet; they had been driven to do the work out of dedication.

“Almost everyone who does this job, and does it as a long-term career, does it because they love it,” a USFS staffer in wildfire management said. These firings, she added, haven’t just taken jobs from dedicated public servants: “It’s taking away their purpose as well.”

Unions and labor advocates are preparing to go to court, hoping to prove the cuts were illegal. Legislators, meanwhile, have begun calling on the administration to rescind the firings.

“The return on investment for the American people from USFS employees is enormous,” a cohort of Colorado representatives and senators wrote to the USDA secretary, Brooke Rollins, this week, urging her to reinstate fired workers. They highlighted that national forests produce nearly $400,000 in economic activity for every USFS employee, based on visitation data.

“This significant reduction in staff has occurred even as the country’s population grew by over 100 million people, visitation to national forests exploded, and wildfire risk increased drastically,” they added.

This is still expected to be just the first step in several rounds of firings. Donald Trump signed an executive order last week that told agency leaders to plan for “large-scale reductions in force.”.

There has been little response or direction from agency leadership on how departments will move forward. The actions have also exacerbated a culture of fear and confusion that has emanated through the agencies since the start of Trump’s second term.

In district offices the civil rights posters, which are typically hung in breakrooms to educate workers, were removed from the walls in the aftermath of the firings, a sobering sign, staffers said, of where the agencies now stand.

“It’s really dark and uncertain,” a USFS scientist said, describing how colleagues were scrubbing personal information from computers and bracing for more grim news.

“With this new round of shit happening, it is going to add a lot more stress to a job that’s inherently stressful,” a dispatcher said. “Now when we look at extreme staffing shortages it feels like there is this knife hanging over our necks.”

She added a word of caution for the public, who have long taken the work being done on their behalf for granted.

“People living in fire-prone areas need to be aware,” the dispatcher said. “There might not be people to come help you anymore – you are going to be more on your own than you’ve ever been.”

Associated Press contributed reporting