Forest Service Firings Threaten Helene Recovery in North Carolina

Some of the 3,400 U.S. Forest Service workers fired in February worked on recovery efforts in the wake of last fall’s Hurricane Helene.

The Asheville Citizen Times reports:

Caroline Becker was on the phone with her mother when her supervisor called to let her know that she was on a list of probationary employees who would soon lose their job with the U.S. Forest Service.

Becker is just one of the estimated 3,400 U.S. Forest Service workers to be fired amid the Trump administration’s dramatic effort to gut the federal workforce…

Becker, like most employees the Citizen Times spoke with, also worked on storm response.

Before she was fired, Becker had been working on compiling data and mapping for engineers rebuilding roads destroyed by Helene, she said.

“It just makes me so angry that these people are losing their jobs through no fault of their own,” Becker said. “I was doing a fine job.”