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President Donald Trump’s executive order to reduce federal workforce has a notable exception for public safety staff, including those fighting wild fires. However, continuous cuts, fundraising freezes and employment suspensions have weakened the country’s already tense firefighting power by storming support staff, who play a key role in preventing and fighting the flames.
Most notably, about 700 Forest Service employees, which ended in the Valentine’s Day Massacre in mid-February, are staff carrying red luggage, and agency spokesmen confirmed by ProPublica. These workers have other full-time jobs at agents, but are trained to assist firefighters crews, including providing logistics assistance during the flames. They also support prescribed burns to reduce flammable vegetation and prevent larger fires, but burns can only move forward if there is a certain number of staff who can contain them. (Employees other than those who do not use the red card will not be able to perform such tasks.)
Employees carrying the red card are the “backbone” of firefighters, and their losses “have a huge impact,” said Frank Beum, a retired board member of the National Forest Service, who spent more than 40 years with the agency and ran the Rocky Mountain area. “There are not enough major firefighters to do the full work that needs to be done when the fire season is high.”
Propublica spoke to Forest Service employees who manage areas of nearly twice as much land as California, including staff working in firefighting, facilities, timber sales and other roles, and learned how changes in personnel are affecting the functioning of the agency. Employees say cuts hit by agency recreation, wildlife, IT and other sectors show that the Trump administration is changing its focus on environmental management and industry and firefighting.
But despite the guardrails Trump said, the cuts have affected strong firefighters with over 10,000 people from the Forest Service. Hiring has slowed as fewer employees are working to speed up new workers and confused about which job titles they can hire. Other cuts cancelled some training programs and prescribed burns.
“It’s all chaotic and really confused. It’s kind of a point,” a Forest Service employee told Propublica.
“This agency is no longer serving its mission,” another added.
Employees asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.
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The Forest Service did not answer questions about the impact of cuts other than clarifying the number of employees fired. A Forest Service spokesman said about 2,000 probations (usually new staff and recently promoted people, groups with fewer workplace protections) were fired in February. Others with knowledge of termination, including representatives of federal union and representatives of Senate staff, said the original number of employees who were terminated was 3,400, which fell, but perhaps as workers were returned to departments such as timber sales.
Representatives of the White House and government efficiency did not respond to requests for comment.
In early March, an independent federal committee considering employee complaints was forced to revive more than 5,700 fired probation employees for 45 days by the Department of Agriculture, the Forest Service’s Parent Department. During the first few weeks of returning to pay, many people, including Forest Service officials, took paid administrative leave and were not given jobs.
The administration and Doge continue to work towards layoffs amid the court’s challenges for their moves. According to some workers, the term spread throughout the Forest Service in March, a list of departmental leadership compiled a list containing the names of thousands of additional Forest Service employees who could be fired immediately.
Additionally, the lack of staff at the agency’s information technology units is threatening firefighting operations, according to agency employees. In December, the branch chief oversaw it for the engine’s fire and air division. The Ministry of Agriculture has posted a job offer that explains the department will provide “supporting the technical needs of the Wildland Fire Community between agencies.” This includes oversight of the software firefighters use to request equipment. This requires everything from the agency’s warehouse to fire-resistant clothing to hoses.
The day after Trump’s inauguration, the Department of Agriculture deleted the IT job offer. According to employees who know the situation, the position remains unfulfilled.
Forest Service staff said the employment of new firefighters has shook amid a massive flood of sometimes conflicted orders from the administration and Doge.
“We’re really, really late to have employees onboard now,” a forest department firefighter told Propublica.
The issue of staffing exacerbates the challenges before the second Trump administration. To address a massive budget shortage, the Forest Service under President Joe Biden last year suspended employment of seasonal workers, except for those working on wildfires. (Firemen saw a permanent wage increase codified by Congress in the recently approved spending bill.)
Still, many full-time employees, including many firefighters, work seasonally and have unpaid status for several months each year when there are fewer jobs. Uncertainty within the federal government has led many of these employees to give up government work and look elsewhere.
“Some of our people do other jobs,” a forest department employee told Propublica. “People aren’t going to wait.”
The cuts in the agency’s legal department will also curb the country’s ability to care for the country’s forests and combat wildfires, employees told Propublica. Large-scale regulations burns and other vegetation removal projects require environmental reviews. This is a process that involves green groups who are concerned that the process targeted by the green groups are working to remove the trees.
A small number of legal staff could reduce prescription burns and increase the risk of catastrophic fires, according to a Department of Agriculture lawyer who worked on the Forest Service project. The lawyer was fired in mid-February as a probation employee.
“Every time we file a lawsuit west, that means the Forest Service is at least temporarily unable to carry out the project,” the lawyer said.
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“They’ll be sued more, they’ll lose even more,” the lawyer said. He was revived in March after he ruled that the Ministry of Agriculture’s mass shootings were illegal.
The employee received repayment but was immediately taken administrative leave. It was only weeks before many returning employees reissued government laptops and badges and were allowed to work, in order to cuts to support staff.
“The highest government efficiency,” the lawyer said.
