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Forest Service chief, Randy Moore, retires after thousands of layoffs, replaced by lumber industry executive

2/28/2025

Chief Randy Moore expressed 'frustration' over the Trump administration's cuts

Forest Service Chief Randy Moore of California announced he will retire March 3, according to a letter addressed to employees that was sent Feb. 26. In the letter, which was posted on the Forest Service’s website, Moore expressed frustration with the Trump administration’s recent actions to fire thousands of Forest Service employees and transform an agency that manages 193 million acres of land nationwide, including 20 million acres in California.

The past several weeks have been “incredibly difficult,” Moore wrote, noting that federal decisions to transform the agency were “being made at a level above our organization” and that he has been learning about these changes at “the same time” as many employees.

“If you are feeling uncertainty, frustration, or loss, you are not alone,” Moore wrote in the letter. “These are real and valid emotions that I am feeling, too.”

Moore’s retirement comes at the end of a 45-year career in the agency.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced that Moore’s replacement will be Tom Schultz, a former U.S. Air Force officer who was the vice president of resources and government affairs at Idaho Forest Group.

Moore became chief of the Forest Service in 2021, where he led 40,000 employees across the agency. He was the first African American to hold the role. Prior to becoming chief, Moore was the Vallejo-based regional forester at the helm of the Pacific Southwest Region, which encompasses 18 national forests in California that add up to a fifth of the state’s land mass. Moore’s retirement comes at the end of a 45-year career in the agency.

In the past several weeks, the Forest Service has fired thousands of employees. Many news outlets — from Politico to Reuters — report that 3,400 jobs were cut.

On a local level, the firings are hollowing out ranger districts that were already short-staffed.

The extent of the fallout from those layoffs — and what the impact of those lost jobs means for mountain communities, outdoor recreation and fire-fighting — is yet to be fully known.

“You and the work you do are meaningful, “ Moore wrote in the letter addressed to employees. “and do not let anyone make you believe otherwise.

To read this complete article in the San Francisco Chronicle, CLICK HERE.
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Former lumber industry executive named as new Forest Service chief
The Forest Service said in a press release Thursday that Tom Schultz of Idaho will lead the agency, which manages the nation’s national forests. The Trump administration’s pick to lead the Forest Service was previously an executive at a lumber industry company.
According to the press release, Schultz was previously the vice president of resources and government affairs at Idaho Forest Group, which sells wood.
The Forest Service makes a range of forest management decisions, including those related to industry logging, energy production in national forests and wildfire mitigation.
“Working with our partners, we will actively manage national forests and grasslands, increase opportunities for outdoor recreation, and suppress wildfires with all available resources emphasizing safety and the importance of protecting resource values,” Schultz said in a written statement.
Schultz has also served as director of the Idaho Department of Lands and worked in Montana’s Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.

“Naming a corporate lobbyist to run the agency tasked with overseeing the last old growth left in the U.S. makes it clear that the Trump administration’s goal isn’t to preserve our national forests, but to sell them off to billionaires and corporate polluters,” Anna Medema, the group’s associate director of legislative and administrative advocacy for forests and public lands, said in a written statement.

The announcement comes one day after the Forest Service announced the departure of President Biden-era chief Randy Moore. Moore expressed “frustration” with recent staffing departures at the agency.

To read this article in The Hill, CLICK HERE

Cows back at Hidden Falls

2/27/2025

Feb. 27, 2025 - Placer County Communication and Public Information
Approximately 100 cattle are now grazing in the park as part of a land management initiative that reduces wildfire risk, promotes biodiversity, supports ranchers, and enhances ecosystem health and supports the local agricultural and ranching community.

While sharing the trails with cattle may be a new experience for many visitors, these gentle grazers are an important part of maintaining the park’s natural beauty and safety.
To help hikers, bikers and horseback riders feel more comfortable, the Placer County Parks, Trails and Open Space Division offers the following tips for safely coexisting with cattle.

Cattle are not aggressive by nature. They will typically keep to themselves and move out of the way when approached calmly.
Always latch gates properly after passing through to ensure cattle remain in designated areas.
Keep dogs on a leash at all times. Do not allow pets to chase or harass livestock.
If cattle block the trail, approach slowly, speak in a normal tone and allow them to move away. If they do not move, provide a wide berth by walking around them off the trail if necessary.

Cattle grazing is a natural and sustainable way to manage vegetation, reducing dry grasses and brush that can fuel wildfires. This practice also supports native plant species and creates a more balanced habitat for wildlife.

“The grazing program at Hidden Falls Regional Park is a win-win for both the environment and the community,” said Placer County Parks Administrator Erika Seward. “Not only does it help reduce the risk of wildfires, but it also promotes a diverse ecosystem and keeps the park’s grasslands healthy. We encourage visitors to enjoy the park responsibly and respect the cattle as they do their important work.”  
Other things to know before going to Hidden Falls Regional Park:

Online parking reservations are required on weekends and other peak-use days.
Bring plenty of water and snacks to stay hydrated and energized.
Wear appropriate clothing and footwear for hiking, biking, or horseback riding.
Know your physical limitations and plan your visit accordingly.

Learn more about Hidden Falls Regional Park and make a parking reservation, if necessary, by visiting www.placer.ca.gov/hiddenfalls.

Recreation.gov has suspended reservations for Dru Barner, only first come first served basis

2/27/2025

Dru Barner Campground, a camp mainly used for horse camping, has suspended its reservation system through Recreation.gov, see HERE. "New reservations for Dru Barner are temporarily suspended. The campground is open on a first-come, first-served basis and generally has availability, even on weekends. Existing reservations will be honored."

Even though Dru Barner is mainly a campground used by equestrians, the lack of a reservation system will reduce its use by that group. From a horse camper,
"No reservation system? We can't travel a 100 miles with horses and a trailer just to find there is no place for us to park or camp. Because we have horses, we can't just go down the road a few miles to another campground. We have to use the few campgrounds that are set up for horse use. Because of the difficulty of finding other horse camps, we only use camps where we have confirmed reservations."

In case it's full, the closest camps from Dru Barner where horses are welcome are:
Loon Lake Campground - 1 hour drive
Wrights Lake Campground - 1 hour 30 minute drive
Caples Creek Campground - 1 hour 35 minute drive
Robie Equestrian Camp - 2 hours 15 minute drive

From the Eldorado National Forest website about Dru Barner Campground website:
The campground is ideal for equestrian use, with four water troughs, several pull through spaces, and access to trails. The park provides day-use facilities for staging non-motorized trails recreation.
Location: 7.5 miles east of Georgetown on Wentworth Springs Road (Forest Road 1), then 1 mile north east on Forest Road 13N16 and 0.5 miles northwest on Forest Road 13N58.

New segment of Donner Lake Rim Trail to begin construction in 2025, linking PCT and Pines to Mines

2/25/2025

February 25, 2025 - Sierra Sun News
TRUCKEE, Calif. – The Truckee Donner Land Trust is moving forward with a major expansion of the Donner Lake Rim Trail, a long-planned 23-mile route encircling Donner Lake. Construction on the southern segment will begin in 2025, adding 12 to 15 miles to the trail and connecting Coldstream Canyon to Donner Summit.

The expansion will improve trail connectivity throughout the region, linking to the Pacific Crest Trail, the planned Pines to Mines Trail extending to Nevada City, and Placer County’s Memorial Overland Emigrant Trail, which aims to reach Auburn.

This new stretch will start at the JP Trail and traverse the crest of Schallenberger Ridge, offering sweeping views of Donner Lake and Coldstream Canyon. The route will pass through Lakeview Canyon, climb Mount Judah via Sugar Bowl, and connect to the Land Trust’s Royal Gorge open space.

Once completed, the trail will fully encircle Donner Lake, further enhancing recreational access and regional connectivity.
“We’re really excited to get started on the new southern stretch. The Donner Lake Rim Trail has been a cornerstone project for the Truckee Donner Land Trust for decades,” Greyson Howard, the organization’s communications director, said. “It’s also something we couldn’t do without our partners at the Tahoe National Forest, Donner Memorial State Park, Placer County, and Sugar Bowl Resort.”

A longstanding priority for the Land Trust, the project enhances public access to the region’s landscapes while promoting conservation and recreation. It is a collaborative effort with California State Parks, the U.S. Forest Service, Placer County, Sugar Bowl Resort, and local trail nonprofits.
The expansion will improve trail connectivity throughout the region, linking to the Pacific Crest Trail, the planned Pines to Mines Trail extending to Nevada City, and Placer County’s Memorial Overland Emigrant Trail, which aims to reach Auburn.
Beyond recreation, the project also serves a critical conservation role. Well-designed trails help disperse users, reducing environmental impact while promoting stewardship and awareness of protected lands.
Placer County has contributed $565,000 toward the $1 million project, but an additional $435,000 is needed to complete construction.
Donors who contribute $1,000 or more will be recognized on trailhead kiosks along the Donner Lake Rim Trail. Donations will directly fund trail construction, covering contractor costs and staff time dedicated to building the route.To support the project, visit Truckee Donner Land Trust’s donation page.

To see the complete article in the Sierra Sun News, CLICK HERE.

Trail users protest adding vehicles to Sailor Bar trail

2/24/2025

February 24, 2025
FAIR OAKS – A community came together in Fair Oaks to protest against the county building a road along a popular walking trail. More than 100 people gathered to show they don't want a road built through a trail in the Sailor Bar area.
This area has been closed to cars and trucks since 2009 and people who use this trail want to keep it closed.
"This would be a devastating loss," Claudia Thorn said.
Thorn, the president of the Fair Oaks Historical Society, has lived near Sailor Bar for over 20 years. She wants the trail to stay the way it is. "For me, this place is like a sanctuary, it's almost spiritual. You come down here and it's a sense of serenity and nature," she said.
The county had plans to make the trail a road, but after the financial crisis of 2008, they had to put those plans on pause and the trail stayed. Now, with more staffing, the Recreation and Parks Commission plans to resume the road's construction.
The county says all this to make it easier for fishing. "Then how come fishermen aren't lining up in support of that," Thorn said. "This is not what the community wants, it's not about what Sacramento County wants." No major project changes or environmental testing has to be done.
"Protecting nature is really important to me, I really want to make sure that all of that is protected," Davin Ward said.
"I don't really feel like there needs to be cars out here," Ashlyn Ward said.
In total, the project will cost just over $200,000, but protestors feel they've been ignored.
"When they go to testify, it's been sit down and shut up," Thorn said.
There is a petition with over 5,500 signatures opposing the building of the road.
CBS13 reached out to the county but did not hear back.
The Recreation and Park's commission is set to have its next meeting on Feb. 27.

For more information from CBS News, CLICK HERE.

Local impacts of Forest Service firings, funding freezes and cuts

2/21/2025

February 21, 2025. - from YubaNet.net News
Local impacts of Forest Service firings, funding freezes and cuts.
Wildfire prevention, recreation, transportation projects potentially affected

Last week, twenty-one people were reportedly fired from the Tahoe National Forest’s workforce of roughly 200 people.

This has been described to us as Round #1 of reduction, leaving open the possibility of additional terminations. How do these firings affect people and projects in our area?

Executive orders and the resulting firings, funding freezes or cuts have local impacts that reach far beyond the people and their families terminated from their jobs. If you hope a fuels reduction project will be completed or even just think of using a bathroom in a campground, read on.

Fuel reductions and vegetation management impacts
Natural resources specialists and timber staff have been fired from the TNF. These people not only draw up the plans for fuel reduction projects, they go in the field to supervise work done on the projects. For example, areas designated as nesting areas may not be used by wildlife, natural resource specialists verify this on the ground and can then open these areas for timber harvesting or vegetation management. Otherwise, the operational periods to get this work done are severely reduced or projects can not be started or completed. Hazardous fuels reduction work may not occur without the work of biologists who ensure protection of species.

According to our sources:

A terminated wildlife lead was critical in planning projects, and scheduling and performing a large workload of surveys that are required for vegetation management activities.
A terminated harvest inspector came to this work without a timber background but stepped into the role on large projects in the Trapper project and others. With commitment to learn and excel, this person recently achieved the highest score in the region on the sale administration examination.
A terminated NEPA coordinator stepped into a large program of planned work and quickly aligned the natural resource team in priorities and tight timelines. Plans for work near Pike, Camptonville, North San Juan, and critical access roads for many communities near the South Yuba drainage were completed or brought close to completion with this person’s coordination and leadership.

Most of the 21 people fired from the USFS on the Tahoe National Forest have firefighting certifications, known as a “Red Card.” The certification must be renewed every year and now is the time when the recertification and training for high fire season occurs.

The TNF received $5 million from the Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program announced by the Biden-Harris Administration on Sept. 10, 2024. The Collaborative Wildfire Risk Reduction Program used hazardous fuels funds from the Inflation Reduction Act to treat additional areas of high wildfire risk where national forests and grasslands meet homes and communities, known as the Wildland-Urban Interface. The funding for timber operations and vegetation management projects like the South Yuba Roadside Fuel Break Project for vegetation management work along Hwy 20 near Nevada City has been frozen, according to our sources.

Recreation impacts
Typically, Forest Service campgrounds on the Tahoe National Forest (TNF) open from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend (late May through late October) in the lower to mid-elevations. High Sierra campgrounds may open later due to snow. The campgrounds are managed and maintained by TNF staff, generally 5-6 permanent employees and 10-15 seasonal employees for each of the four ranger districts. At this time, no new seasonal positions have been authorized.

This means no trash service, no campground hosts, no bathroom maintenance or repairs to water systems.

The reservation system at www.recreation.gov does not provide any information about possible closures and is accepting reservations.

We have received unconfirmed information that contracts with local companies have been halted or canceled by ‘a Washington office.’ These contracts reportedly range from services to campgrounds to vegetation management.

Local agency impacts
The USFS also works in collaboration with local government agencies and non-profit organizations.
Nevada County’s response to our query on the effects of funding cuts or freezes:
At this time, no specific County programs are known to be directly impacted by the federal funding freezes, but we are closely monitoring potential effects on critical services. Currently, we’re looking at several federal grant-funded projects that could be impacted like shaded fuel break projects, hazardous vegetation work alongside evacuation routes and zero-emission transportation projects.

There are many unknowns and we’ve been in contact with community nonprofit providers to assess how funding disruptions could impact access to resources for our residents. Nonprofits have raised concerns about the inaccessibility of federal agencies and uncertainty of funding sources.

In response, we are working with our federal lobbyist, and next week, Chair Hall and Supervisor Bullock will be meeting with federal representatives while in Washington DC to advocate for Nevada County residents and elevate these concerns. We’re committed to working with community partners to maximize resources and share information with our residents.

The Nevada County Resource Conservation District has two programs impacted by funding freezes at this time:

Community Wildfire Defense Grant $392,542 (USDA)
- The purpose of this project is to reduce hazardous fuels and restore frequent-fire ecosystems on private and residential lands through broadcast prescribed fire training. The primary goal is to enhance the capacity of Nevada County residents to conduct prescribed burns. This initiative is particularly critical as 90% of Nevada County lies within very high or high fire hazard severity zones. Two personnel staff have been put on furlough and the program is on hold until payment for services rendered is received and future funding is approved.
NRCS Technical Support $75,000 (USDA)
- In partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), NCRCD continues to provide technical assistance and project management across a range of natural resource conservation practices. These efforts support diverse land uses and promote sustainable resource management. This grant was funded with IRA funding. This current agreement is completely on hold. No payments received to date and no personnel allowed to bill. This grant affects the billing for one staff member.

Emily Blackmer, Director of Government Affairs for Sierra Business Council, commented:
The hiring freeze and firings put critical USFS activities at risk. As managers scramble to understand the order and which employees are exempt and which are not, all hiring has stopped and many long-term civil servants have already been fired. Seasonal firefighters, many of whom return to the BLM and USFS year after year, are left in limbo and are moving on to other opportunities. Years of experience, institutional knowledge, and community relationship-building have been thrown out the window.

Sierra communities depend upon access to federally managed public lands for a substantial portion of our economic activity.

If campgrounds, trailheads, National Parks and other recreation sites close because there is no one to maintain them, many small businesses will be hurt by a season of reduced revenue, and some may never recover. They need public lands to operate to thrive.

No unit-specific information available?
Officially, the various National Forests are not authorized to comment on the situation and refer all media questions to the Regional Office (RO) and the Washington Office (WO.) After several days, we received a reply to our request for comment, not from the Forest Service, but from a USDA spokesperson. No unit-specific information was provided. The statement has been the standard response to questions from journalists.

The response reads:
Secretary Rollins fully supports the President’s directive to improve government, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA’s many services to the American people. We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of the American people’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar spent goes to serve the people, not the bureaucracy. As part of this effort, USDA has made the difficult decision to release about 2,000 probationary, non-firefighting employees from the Forest Service. To be clear, none of these individuals were operational firefighters. Released employees were probationary in status, many of whom were compensated by temporary IRA funding. It’s unfortunate that the Biden administration hired thousands of people with no plan in place to pay them long term. Secretary Rollins is committed to preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted.

USDA spokesperson
Probationary employees are not just new hires, they can also be longtime employees promoted to a new position.

The funding allocation via the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was $36 Billion over 10 years for USDA alone. The Forest Service was set to receive $1.5 Billion to support urban and community forestry.
The term ‘operational firefighters’ does not exist in the USFS classification. According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) “Position Classification Standard for Wildland Fire Management” manual:
The basic title for positions that involve wildland firefighting operations is: Wildland Firefighter – For positions that involves performing, managing, and supervising wildland fire work to include pre-response preparation, engagement, mitigation activities, and post-response actions, engagement with pre-response mitigation or preparation, incident response and post-incident response for wildland fire incidents and all-hazard responses. Work may involve all manners of fire suppression, fire management, and fuels management duties to include fire preparedness, suppression, and/or fuels. Work may involve response to emergency medical incidents. Coverage additionally includes suppression work performed on organized Interagency Hotshot Crews (IHC) and work performed on organized Handcrews.

Firefighters need support services provided by many other branches of their agency. Logistics, fleet, planning, medical, facilities, finance, procurement, resources, planning are a few of the units involved in large fires via the Incident management Teams. Post-fire, Burnt Area Emergency Response (BAER) teams are responsible to mitigate the effects of a wildfire.

BAER teams are staffed by specially trained professionals: hydrologists, soil scientists, engineers, biologists, vegetation specialists, archeologists, and others who rapidly evaluate the burned area and prescribe emergency stabilization treatments. A BAER assessment usually begins before the wildfire has been fully contained. [source: USDA Forest Service]

Impacts on private landowners
Inflation Reduction Act Section 23003 authorized the U.S. Forest Service to engage private forest landowners by supporting:

Cost share for climate mitigation and forest resilience practices.
Participation in emerging private markets for underserved landowners and landowners who own less than 2,500 acres.
Payments for implementation of forestry practices that provide measurable increase in carbon sequestration and storage. [source: USDA Forest Service]

In California, $19.5 billion of IRA funds were allocated to support USDA’s conservation programs within Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), beginning in fiscal year 2023, and continuing over the following four years. This included:

$1 billion for the Conservation Technical Assistance Program
$8.45 billion for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program
$4.95 billion for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program
$3.25 billion for the Conservation Stewardship Program
$1.4 billion for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program [Source: USDA NRCS]

Requests for comment on NRCS funding availability have not been returned by publication time.

To see the original article in YubaNet.net news, CLICK HERE.

Federal employee cuts hit close to home: Tahoe National Forest confirms employees lost

2/21/2025

February 21, 2025 - edited, original article from The Union
As of yesterday, the U.S. Forest Service is expected to have fired roughly 3,400 federal employees across every level of the agency. Cuts have reportedly hit close to home as individuals working within the Tahoe National Forest have also lost their jobs. The move is in response to President Donald Trump and his administration’s plan to shrink the U.S. federal government.

Residents in Nevada County have been wondering how or if the cuts will affect the approaching wildfire season. Comments on social media have speculated the depth of those cuts and that they have eroded an entire Hotshot crew. Officials confirmed this week that no firefighting crews — including local Hotshot crews — have been impacted, though a public information officer has been let go. A Hotshot, or Interagency Hotshot Crew (IHC), is a highly trained group of firefighters who respond to the most dangerous wildland fires. They are considered one of the most elite firefighting teams in the world.

Lauren Faulkenberry, Public Affairs Officer for the Tahoe National Forest (TNF) has not made herself available for comment this week.

D’artanyan Ratley, Region 5 Public Affairs Officer for the Forest Service (USDA) has not returned requests for comment as of press time. “We just can’t speak yet,” Heather Noel, Acting Supervisor at the Tahoe National Forest in Nevada City said this week regarding which positions within the TNF have been let go.

“It’s a one stop shop right now for that so that everybody gets up to date information,” Noel said. “We’re getting information — the numbers — many times like you are.” “This is the process that we’ve been told to do,” Noel said. “Is route everything so you get the most up to date — and the public gets the most up to date — information.”

USDA employees in other areas close to Nevada County have also experienced sudden terminations.

Chris Buckley was a Public Affairs Specialist for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, and received a letter from the Office of Personnel Management, not from her bosses; “The agency finds based on your performance that you have not demonstrated that your further employment would be in the public interest.”

Friday was the first round of layoffs and another came around on Sunday, according to the article published by 2 News Nevada news outlet Feb. 17.

Federal agencies, including the Department of Energy and Small Business Administration, and the National Park Service are also dealing with Trump’s push to cut federal spending and bureaucracy.
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NOTE FROM MOTHER LODE TRAILS
Because of federal budget limitations, Tahoe National Forest has been short-staffed and unable to complete maintenance operations for years. These new cuts from the Trump administration will impact our national forests even further, resulting in shorter hours, fewer maintenance staff, possible closure of campgrounds and trails.
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To read the complete article in The Union newspaper, CLICK HERE.

Empire Mine SHP Hard Rock Trail and Penn Gate closed Tuesdays through Fridays Feb. 24 - March 17, 2025

2/20/2025

UPDATE: Heads-up: Hard Rock Trail AND Penn Gate parking lot will be closed for construction repairs for 3-4 weeks CLOSED Tuesdays through Fridays and OPEN WEEKENDS beginning Tuesday February 25, 2025. Trails access will be available from the main parking lot at Empire Mine State Historic Park.

The Empire Mine SHP Maintenance crew is spreading gravel, so has posted that the Hard Rock Trail will be closed starting Monday, Feb 24, for three weeks, until March 17, 2025.

Forest Service in Lake Tahoe facing uncertainty in staffing

2/19/2025

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – As federal jobs are being lost across the county, and there is a freeze on new hires at national parks and forests, Lake Tahoe is not immune to the same issues. The Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTBMU) of the USDA Forest Service covers 156,335 acres around Lake Tahoe. There are full-time staff that work for LTBMU as well as many seasonal workers, including firefighters. These are positions that keep the recreation areas open and safe for tens of thousands of visitors annually.

This is the time of year LTBMU starts to interview and hire seasonal workers for the various positions around the lake. The local office cannot answer any questions for the media and all inquiries must go through Washington, DC.

“USDA is reviewing all executive orders signed by President Trump and expects to share guidance on implementing them to agencies and mission areas as soon as possible,” a USDA spokesperson told South Tahoe Now. “We do not have additional information to share at this time.”

The further information we are waiting for is (1) how many seasonal workers are normally in the Lake Tahoe Basin; (2) how many of those are firefighters; and (3) how many full-time employees are working for LTBMU.

There are only two law enforcement officers with USFS working in the entire Lake Tahoe Basin, and it is unconfirmed that one of those is leaving – which would leave one for the entire Basin.

A new public affairs specialist with the Humboldt-Toiyabe Forest lost her job Friday as she’d only been on the job for a few months. So far, the LTBMU public affairs specialist is still on board.

Besides the current USDA directives, Congress is still working on an agreement to fund the government with a March 14 deadline looming.

To see the complete article in the SouthTahoeNow.com CLICK HERE.

Forest Service Layoffs and Frozen Funds Increase the Risk From Wildfires

2/16/2025

New York Times - February 16, 2025
The Trump administration’s decision to fire 3,400 U.S. Forest Service workers and pause funds used for wildfire prevention comes as wildfires are growing more dangerous and frequent.
Despite being in office for less than a month, the Trump administration has already made the United States more exposed to catastrophic wildfires in ways that will be difficult to reverse, current and former federal employees say.

On Thursday, the administration fired 3,400 employees from the U.S. Forest Service, which manages 193 million acres of land. This comes on top of a funding freeze also ordered by the administration that has interrupted work designed to clear national forests of vegetation that can feed wildfires.

That work has grown increasingly important as wildfires become more frequent and intense because of drought and other conditions linked to climate change.
The job cuts, which amount to roughly 10 percent of the agency’s work force, could hobble the Forest Service, which was already struggling to remove vegetation across its vast land holdings at a pace that matches the growing threat from fires, according to current and former federal employees, as well as private companies and nonprofit organizations that work on thinning forested lands.

“The forests were already in crisis,” said a person who manages wildfire prevention projects in California and spoke on the condition of anonymity out of a fear of reprisal. He noted that Congress had given more than $2 billion in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act for forest management, including wildfire prevention, through 2031. “This is pulling the rug out from that entire endeavor.”

The Trump administration has said reductions in staffing and cuts in spending will improve government efficiency. But several of these actions are leaving the country more exposed to disasters, ultimately driving up costs, experts say.

For much of the past century, the Forest Service aimed to protect land by stopping forest fires. That approach failed to take into account that fires clear out vegetation, and it allowed trees and brush to build up over decades. Now, when a fire does ignite, it burns larger and hotter. High temperatures and drought driven by climate change mean more dried-up vegetation, or fuel, for wildfires.

During the Biden administration, Congress invested in efforts to remove vegetation on federal lands, through a mix of thinning forests and deliberate fires known as prescribed burns. But the work is expensive and labor intensive — and with millions of acres in need of attention, the Forest Service and other agencies were only just beginning to address the need.

Even if the Trump administration resumes wildfire prevention efforts funded by the 2022 law, the window for that work may have closed in some areas, experts said. That’s because forest management projects like prescribed burns can only happen safely during specific months, when the risk of those fires getting out of control is low.

The cuts at the Forest Service and other agencies targeted employees who were still on probation and therefore had less protection against termination. But wholesale removal of probationary employees meant the cuts were not focused on poor performers, as a more strategic effort might have been.

In fact, firing newer and younger employees could mean the Forest Service is losing the people with the most up-to-date knowledge about forestry, Ms. McCarthy said. “Some of them may have reached a good modern skill set because they just graduated,” she said. “That is the work force that could help meet the administration’s goal of efficiency.”

In California, the Forest Service’s efforts to remove underbrush are on pause, according to a person who manages an organization that runs wildfire prevention projects in the state and who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern of reprisals.

That’s notable, given the way President Trump has criticized California for failing to remove dried vegetation in forested areas, saying that poor management of the forests contributed to the wildfires that devastated Los Angeles last month.

The Forest Service isn’t the only federal agency whose efforts on wildfires have been hampered.
At the Interior Department, where 1,000 employees were laid off Friday, a manager has been unable to hire a seasonal crew to work on fire prevention projects following the Trump administration’s freeze funds from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

Regional managers are also scrambling to figure out how to pay permanent employees, the person said. “We’ve been understaffed for many years, so when those B.I.L. and I.R.A. funds came through, it filled vacancies that had been sitting open,” said the manager, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “But we were just told to stop moving forward with hiring.”

The impact can be seen even in small things. A fire truck, for example, that would be fully staffed with six people only has one full-time employee, so it can’t be used to help fight wildfires.
“When we get to July and August and we have forest fires, how are we going to manage those?” the person said.

The effects of the mass layoffs could be long lasting, according to current and former employees.
Many of the provisional employees who were laid off this week were frontline workers, the people working in forests, rather than behind desks in Washington.
If and when the Forest Service tries to refill positions to work on fire prevention, the nature of this week’s firings — abrupt and without obvious logic — could make recruitment difficult.
“Who in their right mind is going to want to come back?” one person said. “This is going to ripple for years.”

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