DOGE Slashed 3,400 Forest Service Jobs
It's Time to Take them to the Woods
“Maybe you weren't born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but like every American, you carry a deed to 635 million acres of public lands. That's right. Even if you don't own a house or the latest computer on the market, you own Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and many other natural treasures.”
— Rep. John Garamendi
These past couple of weeks have seen mass layoffs in the fields of public health, veterans affairs, education, nuclear security, energy, and so many more. They’re calling it the Valentine’s Day Massacre, when the Trump administration unilaterally slashed tens of thousands of jobs across the country. 3,400 of those jobs were at the U.S. Forest Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
About 350 of those Forest Service jobs were in Montana, where I live.
I’ve spent hours between Friday and today talking to frustrated, desperate, and scared people who lost their jobs. A couple who just bought their first home. A mom-to-be who is due in a couple of weeks. A woman with cancer. A forester who moved to Montana so his wife, a teacher, could live in the same community she grew up in. Many of them worked on a meager $40,000 a year salary, which is impossible to live on in one of the most expensive states in the nation. All of their lives upended by DOGE’s cruel and haphazard firings.
One man told me, "I have put my blood, sweat and tears into what I do, at the sacrifice of my body, my health, my relationships and my friends."
Over and over and over again, I heard the same things: These foresters have given their whole lives to the land they serve. They've unflinchingly performed their duties despite the danger -- often dropping everything to run toward wildfires. They've navigated impossible conditions, steep terrain, volatile weather, frigid waters.
Even though they were classified as "probationary employees" most of them had worked for the Forest Service for years, even decades. That is because when they are promoted, their employment status returns to “probationary” for two years. Essentially they were punished for their dedicated work, excelling and advancing, the way we all hope to do in our jobs.
Worst still, the email they received from the federal government listed “poor work performance” as the reason for their firing. One by one, they told me the same tragic story. That the reasoning was a lie — their work performance was flawless and they have the immaculate performance reviews to prove it. They were able to advance in their careers because they were such high-quality employees in a competitive field. Only to be rejected in such an unexpected and calloused way. One woman named Crystal was fired after 19 years of service. I asked Crystal to put her experience in writing and got permission to share it here:
On Saturday afternoon, I received a phone call from my Forest Supervisor saying how sorry he was that I got wrapped up in the probationary terminations for the United Stated Forest Service. With one phone call, my life was turned upside down. My career, the one I had spent 19 years building, was gone in an instant. I received a promotion in the fall of 2023, finally earning me a permanent position with the agency. Due to the fact that I was on Schedule A when I got this promotion, I was put onto a 2-yr probation. Because of that, I no longer have a career.
What angers me most is the reason stated on my termination letter. It says I am being let go because of “poor performance.” I have always received outstanding performance reviews, without ever receiving any negative marks or comments. I will not stand by and let my name be sullied by anyone wishing to use a comment like that as a scapegoat. I loved my job, and I did it very well to the fullest extent every day. I wore my badge with pride and looked forward to a future with the agency. Now, all I feel is shame. Shame that my country’s government is willing to not only treat it’s employees like this, but to use a lie like that just to cover up the illegality of this decision.
As we spoke, she mentioned that she works at Lake Como, and I crumpled. I cupped my hand over my mouth to stifle my sobs, hoping she wouldn’t hear me over the phone.
If you've never been in love with a place, you'll never understand. Lake Como is that place for me.
Toward the end of my grandmother's life, her caregivers became like family. I saw the way my mother cherished them like they belonged to us. I feel that way about the people who care for Lake Como.
But the Forest Service workers who were laid off aren’t even the ones who will be the most devastated by this decision. It will be the American people, who will have to watch one of our most sacred treasures, our public lands, deteriorate right before our eyes.
I was a professional photographer for a decade. In Montana, where clients prefer portraits in the great outdoors to a stuffy indoor studio, that industry is fully reliant on access to public lands and open space. People traveled from all over the world to have me take their photos in Montana’s pristine landscape.
Access to our shared forest is crucial to Montana’s economy in other ways as well. Our tourism industry is dependent on the millions of travelers who flock to our trails. Hunters fill their freezer with meat from animals they harvest on public lands. Outfitters make a living guiding visitors and newcomers on public lands. Ranchers rely on weed management and grazing allotments for their livestock. Anglers need river access.
Forest Service workers serve another critical role: They mitigate wildfires. As a Montanan, the threat of wildfire never leaves my mind. Even has I’m shoveling scoops full of wet, heavy snow, as I did yesterday, I’m reminding myself that the moisture will hopefully stave off a destructive wildfire season. I’ve lived here 16 years, and the worst wildfire season I’ve experienced by far was in 2017 when lightning struck dry vegetation on Lolo Peak on July 15, 2017.
Flames quickly spread, igniting the mountainside in the Bitterroot Mountains near my home. The fire blazed for two months, threatening homes and livestock. My in-laws and many of my friends had to evacuate their homes for weeks. Fire crews staged their operations at my kids’ elementary school, delaying the start of the school year. The atmosphere was painted a garish yellow-gray color, and ash covered the streets. The air was too hazardous for anyone to enjoy the great outdoors. Our summer was over before it had even begun.
Forest service workers douse campfires before they flare out of control. They use chainsaws to quickly clear paths on the ground to beat back flames. They build lines to stop a fire in its tracks. They perform prescribed burns to manage fire danger zones.
“You can come up with a lot of ways in which this goes sideways very quickly for mountain communities, for forest communities,” said Aaron Weiss with the Center for Western Priorities.
As my friend Kyle Johnson, who has been a professional forester for 18 years, said, many people in forestry chose that job as a way to demonstrate their patriotism. In a video, Kyle explained that he considered entering the military at the start of his adult life, but changed his mind after his dad reminded him,” Son, there is more than one way to serve your country.”
Elon Musk doesn’t understand the type of patriotism and risk it takes to protect and manage the forest. He does not respect public lands. He never spends time in our treasured national parks. He has never set up a tent, never hiked a trail, never fished a river — he’s never even fished a beer out of a Yeti cooler. He doesn't touch grass. His Italian leather shoes go from the Carrara marble floor of some five-star hotel to a limousine to a tarmac where he boards a private jet to another limousine to another five-star hotel to the White House, and that’s how he is spending his pathetic empty life while he dismantles so many others.
That is the only way I know how to explain his cruelty and carelessness.
Would a walk through the woods change him? Would DOGE understand that sacrificing our precious public lands on the alter of efficiency isn’t worth it? While Musk picks what type of leather interior he wants to put in his rocket ship to Mars, the rest of us have an Earth to fight for.
And let’s be honest. Earth is a hell of a lot prettier.
Onward, Democracy Defenders!
So VERY welcome!!! A timely, concise, caring reminder that Wildness is the place of renewal, strength, and sanity. Thank you for this most excellent article.
I agree, Earth, our only home, is pretty and made to order for us and our fellow inhabitants. As to Mars, just follow the money . . .