Some officials are claiming that the termination letters that dismissed 2,000 probationary, non-firefighting employees of the U.S. Forest Service mean fewer people and less resources will be available to help prevent and fight wildfires.
The Forest Service firings are part of a wave of federal worker layoffs, as President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting measures reverberate nationwide.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, said in a statement that Secretary Brooke Rollins supports Trump's directive to fire about 2,000 “probationary, non-firefighting employees," which he said was for efficiency's sake. Rollins is committed to “preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted,” the statement said.
In Nevada, the Forest Service manages about 6 million acres, including in Lake Tahoe, the Ruby Mountains within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, and the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area near Las Vegas. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) told the Reno Gazette-Journal that Forrest Service support staff were an “essential resource” and said the mass terminations demonstrated a lack of understanding.
Many Forest Service workers who don’t occupy official firefighter positions still have firefighting certifications, known as a “red card,” that must be renewed annually. Josh Vega, who maintained 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) of trails as a forestry technician in the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana before being fired, said his crew was the first to arrive at a wildfire that broke out in 2023.
For about two days, Vega’s crew only monitored the blaze before firefighters arrived. “We spent the next few days keeping an eye on the fire, making sure that the trailheads were all closed and that the public knew what was happening so that they wouldn’t find themselves in a predicament.”