What firing Forest Service, National Parks staff means for public lands, trails, communities
Last week, thousands of hard-working Forest Service and National Park staff, including hundreds in Washington and Oregon, were fired by the current administration. The impact to public lands, recreation and communities across the state are immediate and far-reaching. Learn what's at stake and join WTA in calling for Congress to reverse the decision.
March 11, 2025 update: The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that all probationary employees who were fired will be rehired with back pay. This follows a March 5 decision by The Merit Systems Protection Board — an agency that considers federal employee's complaints against the federal government — that the fired employees should be returned for their jobs for 45 days.
Feb. 21, 2025 update: In January, the White House eliminated thousands of temporary seasonal employees for the Forest Service, National Park Service and other public lands, making an existing Forest Service crisis worse. Today, the administration backtracked on some of the National Parks temporary positions. The eliminated seasonal hires for the Forest Service remain in effect. The news also does not affect the thousands of permanent staff who were cut last week and still leaves major staffing shortages for both National Park and Forest Service lands. Please learn more about the impact of those cuts below and take action today. Our public lands, and especially the Forest Service, need you.
Feb. 19, 2025 update: On Feb. 13, the Trump Administration began the termination of approximately 1,000 National Park Service and 3,400 U.S. Forest Service employees across the country. This is the second reduction in staffing the Forest Service has faced in the past six months on top of years of declining funding. This move is short-sighted, unsustainable and leaves our public lands unsafe and underresourced as outdoor recreation continues to grow in popularity.
Take action: We need Congress to step up and reverse this decision.
In 2023, a Wenatchee Ranger River District trail crew of six people cleared between 2,500 - 3,000 trees in just a few days on Minnow, Finner and Basalt Ridge, and then shared the latest trail conditions for hikers and bikers in a trip report on wta.org.
The real people who have lost their livelihoods
The people who were fired are not nameless individuals — these are hard-working folks who maintain our trails, campgrounds and wilderness areas. They are people who WTA has worked closely with over the years. Many of them have worked at the Forest Service for more than a decade. They were not inexperienced or low performers, which is how their terminations were relayed to them. Most had recently moved into new positions due to their expertise and ability to provide crucial services to our public lands.
Last week’s round of layoffs cut hundreds of employees in Region 6 of the Forest Service, which includes Washington and Oregon. We're still learning about some of the specifics about those cuts in forests and parks across the state, but in one example, by our count, the recreation team that manages the Enchantments, one of the most treasured and popular areas of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, has been cut from 13 people to 3. That was in addition to prior cuts to seasonal staffing.
The impact to public lands, recreation and towns who depend on the recreation economy
The vast majority of Forest Service staff affected by these cuts are essential to keeping our trails safe and accessible. Hikers rely on their work every single day.
They build and maintain trails, manage campgrounds, clean facilities, assist visitors, issue permits, support search and rescue operations, respond to emergencies and so much more.
Eliminating these roles will directly impact the quality and accessibility of outdoor recreation. Entire wilderness and trail crews are now gone. Many of these people work on wildfire crews during the height of the wildfire season. The loss of these individuals will be felt for years to come.
Maintaining toilets is an extremely important part of the job of a wilderness ranger. Here, a 2023 Leavenworth Wilderness and Climbing ranger stirs a vault toilet in the core Enchantments area to maximize the capacity of this 40-gallon fiber-glass vault. Each year, the Forest Service maintains and then flies the vault toilets out of the core, totaling an average of 8,000 pounds of human waste removed from this alpine environment a season. Photo by trip reporter Leavenworth Rangers.
With more than 9,000 miles of trails in Washington, the Forest Service manages more public lands here than any other government agency. These cuts mean that many of the trails in Washington will not be cleared or maintained in the year ahead — or even longer.
Ninety percent of Washingtonians get out for a walk on trails each year, according to the Washington State Recreation & Conservation Office. The effects of this decision will be far-reaching and will have a significant impact on our state’s $26.5 billion outdoor recreation economy.
It only takes a season or two for a trails to become entirely impassable to hikers or stock without staff at the Forest Service and National Parks Service to coordinate and prioritize maintenance. Trees cover a trail in the Pasayten Wilderness in the Okanogan-Wentachee National Forest. Photo by Zachary Sklar.
At stake: everything from WTA trail work to hiker safety
Washington Trails Association partners regularly with the Forest Service to complete the maintenance that’s needed to keep trails safe and accessible. We are seeing the impacts of these cuts already — gone are the Forest Service staff needed to coordinate our trail work projects.
Gone are the staff who provide WTA with the essential pack animal support we need to get materials and tools into the backcountry. Gone are the wilderness rangers who patrol the backcountry, providing hikers with the necessary information to enjoy their trips and ensuring our cherished wild places are protected from illegal activities. The harm this causes to public lands and trails will be immediately felt by hikers and will get increasingly worse as time goes on.
These cuts are ill-conceived, irresponsible, and potentially catastrophic for our trails and public lands.
- Congress must reverse this rash and dangerous decision and ensure the Forest Service and National Park Service have the staffing and funding support they need to serve the people who are out experiencing our public lands.
Join WTA in speaking up and taking care of our public lands and each other
WTA relies on the staff of the Forest Service to coordinate much of our work on public lands. Here, a staffer out of the Entiat Ranger District works alongside WTA volunteer crew on the Chelan Lakeshore Trail. Photo Dawn Rorvik.
WTA is looking for ways we can help fill some of the gaps in maintaining trails in the short-term, but we cannot do this work alone. We rely on the expertise and high-level coordination that Forest Service staff bring to make our work possible. WTA will continue to advocate for long-term funding solutions to help get the Forest Service the resources it needs to steward our public lands.
Hikers and people who love Washington’s outdoor spaces can help by contacting their members of Congress and letting them know that we must keep our public lands safe and accessible and that means reversing these staffing cuts. Hikers can also support public lands and the employees by recreating responsibly: respect road or trailhead closures and take pressure off remaining staff by heading to one of our incredible state, county or local trails.
We're deeply grateful to the many members of our community who have already taken action, generously donated and signed up to volunteer. Thank you for supporting the Forest Service, the National Parks staff and our work here at WTA.
Comments