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US Forest Service downsizes, loses 15% workforce

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Firefighters face shortages after 1,500 support staff

leave,

critics say

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USFS says firefighters ready for above-normal fire year

prediction

By Andrew Hay

July 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Forest Service faced

criticism from current and former employees who say federal

workforce reductions under the Trump administration have left

fire teams understaffed, as the country grapples with

decade-high U.S. wildfire numbers this year.

The agency, which oversees the nation's largest wildland

firefighting force, rejected those claims, saying it has

sufficient resources.

However, more than a dozen active and retired U.S. Forest

Service employees told Reuters that the agency is struggling to

fill critical roles after approximately 5,000 employees -

roughly 15% of its workforce - quit in the past five months.

Accounts from firefighters in Oregon and New Mexico, as well as

a fire chief recruiting support staff in the Pacific Northwest,

said the vacancies have led to personnel held back from

supporting frontline firefighting because of administrative

duties.

The crew leader on an Oregon blaze said her team went hungry for

several days, ran short of medical supplies and had to scrounge

for chainsaw fuel after support staff quit the agency during two

rounds of "fork in the road" buyouts.

"I had guys who were going to bed hungry after working 16

hours," said the crew leader on the Alder Springs Fire, who

asked not to be named for fear of losing her job.

National and local USFS officials say, however, the force is

ready for what is expected to be a worse than average fire year

in California, the Pacific Northwest and the northern Rockies,

according to National Interagency Fire Center forecasts.

"Our fire staff feels very confident in our staffing levels

going into this fire season," said USFS Public Affairs Officer

Isabella Isaksen, who represents USFS operations in central

Oregon.

Isaksen said food problems on the Alder Springs Fire were due to

a new caterer and were quickly resolved. She said medical,

chainsaw and other supplies were available on the 3,400-acre

blaze that triggered evacuations in two counties.

'THEY ARE READY'

The Trump administration pledged not to cut firefighting

positions and other public safety jobs in firings, voluntary

resignations and early retirements meant to raise efficiency at

the USFS which manages 193 million acres of land (78 million

hectares), roughly about the size of Texas.

USFS employees that Reuters interviewed for this story said

the loss of thousands of foresters, biologists, trail builders

and campground managers was having a knock-on effect on

firefighters.

Not only are firefighters having to cover empty positions at

ranger stations but they also have lost hundreds of peers who

each year switched from regular jobs to take on firefighting

support roles during the fire season, which typically runs from

spring to fall, these people said.

USFS Chief Tom Schultz on Wednesday told agency managers to make

all of these fire-qualified, so-called "red-carded" staff

available for what he called an "extremely challenging" fire

year, according to a memo seen by Reuters.

Year to date, wildland firefighters have been called to nearly

41,000 blazes, by far the highest number in federal data going

back to at least 2015.

Last month Schultz told a U.S. Senate committee he was

trying to temporarily hire back some 1,400 fire-qualified,

"red-carded" support staff who took buyouts.

"I do believe they are ready," Schultz said when asked

about preparedness for the 2025 fire year.

FIREFIGHTERS MOW LAWNS

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who oversees the USFS,

said in June at a meeting of Western state governors in New

Mexico that the agency was on target to hire 11,300 firefighters

by mid July, outpacing hiring over the past three years.

As of June 29, 11,236 or 99% of that number had been hired,

slightly below last year's level, according to the most recent

USDA data.

The USDA disputed claims that staff shortages are

endangering communities, forests, and firefighters.

"We are providing the resources needed to ensure the Forest

Service has the strongest and most prepared wildland

firefighting force in the world," a USDA spokesperson said.

New Mexico U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich has criticized the Trump

administration's firing and rehiring of 3,400 USFS probationary

staff, three-quarters of whom were red-carded, as well as what

he called its indiscriminate, agency-wide staff buyouts.

"Wildfire season is well underway, and thanks to DOGE and Donald

Trump, the U.S. Forest Service is being gutted, leaving

communities ill equipped to fight deadly wildfires," Heinrich

said in a emailed statement on July 11.

The Forest Service says it does not have enough wildland

firefighters for the country's "wildfire crisis" and relies on

red-carded staff to "boost wildland firefighting capacity."

Yet, not everyone close to the Forest Service sees

problems.

Steve Ellis, chairman of the National Association of Forest

Service Retirees, said his checks with fire staff in Oregon

turned up no reports of firefighters going hungry or other

support issues.

But Riva Duncan, a fire duty officer on a New Mexico blaze, said

even firefighters were being used to plug gaps left by job

losses, exacerbating longstanding shortages of personnel to

operate fire engines.

"They're answering phones at the front desk, or cleaning

toilets at campgrounds or mowing the lawn at administrative

sites," said Duncan, a retired USFS fire chief who reenlists

during fire season and helps run Grassroots Wildland

Firefighters, a federal firefighter advocacy group.

The fire staff officer in the Pacific Northwest said support

staff had been told by managers they had to meet the Trump

administration's increased timber sales and oil and gas

production targets, with fewer employees, before helping

firefighters.

"They can claim we get all the support we need, but in reality,

it isn't even close," said the fire chief, who asked not to be

named for fear of retaliation.