How DOGE Threatens the Forest Service and Public Lands

[Brenda]

How many people were on Matt Ross’ trail team at the U.S. Forest Service? He doesn’t know the number off the top of his head, so he rattles off the names in his tight-knit circle of colleagues: Michael, Scotty, Mark … 19 people altogether. That includes himself as well as the seasonal workers — “the backbone of the workforce,” according to Ross. But when asked how many are left on the team after widespread terminations within federal lands agencies over Presidents Day weekend, Ross doesn’t hesitate. The answer is one.

Ross worked as a wilderness manager for Washington’s Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, coordinating maintenance for over 600 miles of trails. Thirteen projects had been planned for 2025, among them fixing up what he calls the gnarliest section of the 2,650-mile-long Pacific Crest Trail. The work would have required Forest Service workers to helicopter into the Mica Lake area to clear trails by hand so horses could get through to provide stock support for volunteers to conduct repair work. But the abrupt culling of Ross’ team has sent two years of project planning down the drain.

Overall, fired workers dispute that the federal purge would save the government money in the long run anyway, citing the irreversible impacts the firings would have on public lands. Moreover, some workers, including Ross, say their paychecks actually came out of recreation fees or state money rather than federal dollars. For all the gritty work they do, most entry-to-mid-level technical Forest Service workers earn an average of $20 an hour or less. “None of us do it for the money,” said Victoria Winch, a laid-off trail maintenance worker in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. “We’re the best deal out there.”

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/how-doge-threatens-the-forest-service-and-public-lands/