Retired Forest Service employee shocked at Trump/Musk firings

As a retired Forest Service professional with 38 years of service, I was shocked last week as the Trump/Musk Administration fired 3,400 hardworking employees of the U.S. Forest Service with no notice starting in the middle of the night on Valentine’s Day and continuing through the holiday weekend. 

What’s worse is that the termination notices were delivered via email and stated either that the employee’s skillset no longer met the needs of the agency or that their performance was poor. Both statements turned out to be lies. 

Of the employees fired, 360 were stationed in Montana and 48-50 were on the Kootenai National Forest. I’m not sure of the exact number, since the Forest Service seems to be under a gag order. That’s 50 permanent jobs in Lincoln County’s small towns of Eureka, Libby and Troy and in the towns of Trout Creek and Noxon in neighboring Sanders County. 

The loss of these jobs is yet another hit to the economy and tax base of Lincoln and Sanders counties. In addition, there is the cascading effect of work that will not get done on the Forest this year such as timber sales, fuel reduction projects and road, campground, and trail maintenance, just to name a few things. While these positions may not have been primary firefighters, all Forest Service employees are expected to perform fire fighting or support duties when the need arises.

Of equal concern, is the apparent indifference of our elected federal, state and county officials. My repeated inquiries to the offices of Senators Daines and Sheehy as well as Representative Zinke have gone unanswered. 

Zinke did appear on local TV news to show his ignorance of what the Forest Service does and to state that he wasn’t even sure these jobs were necessary. He implied that somehow these fired employees were responsible for waste, fraud and abuse. 

That’s rich, coming from someone who was forced to resign his Cabinet post in disgrace due to 18 investigations into his corruption. He ended with a “don’t worry, be happy” message in which he assured us that there won’t be any unanswered forest fires this summer, and our National Parks will be open as usual. Daines and Sheehy have been keeping a low profile except to emerge from time to time to vote to confirm yet another unqualified Cabinet nominee.

Likewise, the silence of Forest Service leadership at the national, regional and Forest level has been deafening. My inquiries to the Regional Forester and Forest Supervisor have gone unanswered. 

Since they won’t do it, I’ll apologize to all of you fired employees on behalf of the part of the public that appreciates what you do and express my regret that you won’t be allowed to continue the career of public service that you had begun and that was so rewarding for me.

I doubt that these 3,400 positions are the end of the havoc that an unelected crazed billionaire wielding a fake chainsaw will wreak on the Forest Service. Now that they got rid of the old guard that was ready to retire by giving them eight months of salary to sit on the beach and do nothing and the new hires that were still in their probationary period, they will come after the early to mid-career employees through a formal Reduction in Force (RIF). 

Once those folks are gone, the politicians will complain that the Forest Service doesn’t accomplish anything so they might as well turn over our National Forests to the states and counties and ultimately to privatization. 

I, for one, don’t want to see the results of that.

I urge you to contact Daines, Sheehy and Zinke and express your outrage at this fiasco and demand that any reduction in force be carried out only after a careful analysis completed as part of a formal reorganization plan. 

Likewise, contact your county commissioners and ask them what they are doing to prevent this loss of jobs and the expected impact on the citizens of Lincoln and Sanders counties. 

Finally, contact Regional Forester Leanne Marten and Forest Supervisor Chad Benson (leanne.marten@usda.gov and chad.benson@usda.gov) and demand that they stand up for their employees and for the future of our National Forests.

Tom Maffei, Libby, Montana