Forest Service Cuts Leave Firefighters Mowing Lawns While Morale Craters

After mass layoffs and deferred resignation offers hollowed out a large part of the U.S. Forest Service earlier this year, federal firefighters have been left to pick up the slack — some now clean toilets while others mow lawns around ranger stations. Some employees said firefighters have been prevented from joining fire suppression efforts because of these new responsibilities.

The Forest Service currently lacks the manpower it needs to manage the worsening wildfire crisis, according to its own website. But the staffing situation may be even more dire than advertised. The agency claimed it has exceeded its hiring goal for wildland firefighters. But internal data, first reported by ProPublica and reviewed by Capital & Main, showed thousands of vacant firefighter positions across the country — including in forests currently battling blazes. 

In a statement to Capital & Main, Larry Moore, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said “all critical functions of the department will continue uninterrupted” at current Forest Service staffing levels. The Forest Service is part of the Department of Agriculture.

Capital & Main spoke with a dozen current and former Forest Service employees, most of whom had direct firefighting experience, about the state of wildland firefighting seven months into the second Trump administration. They described a demoralized workforce that is stretched increasingly thin by inadequate staffing, uncertainty caused by Trump policies, and an intensifying climate crisis. 

Nearly 5,000 employees left the Forest Service earlier this year because of layoffs, deferred resignation and early retirement offers. That represents an exodus of more than 13% of the agency’s total workforce. The massive staffing reduction has put additional pressure on an agency that was already struggling with employee retention even before Trump took office.

With so many unfilled positions, wildland firefighters are now being asked to take on duties that had long been handled by nonfirefighting personnel, current and former Forest Service employees told Capital & Main. 

“It’s definitely not normal. What we’re doing — for instance, building trails — that’s never been something I’ve been asked to do,” said Madi Kraus, a USFS wildland firefighter and union steward for the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents many Forest Service workers, in Colorado. “Cleaning out campgrounds and [recreation] areas is not something I had ever previously been asked to do, but have been recently.”

One current fire crew supervisor told Capital & Main that a fire engine in the forest where he works was not allowed to respond to a request for assistance from another region because the district ranger had determined that staffing desks, helping out with landscaping and completing wildlife surveys took precedence over firefighting. The fire supervisor and several other current Forest Service employees spoke to Capital & Main on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution from agency officials. 

As fire season picks up, Forest Service employees said the agency is running low on staff members who can fight increasingly severe wildfires. In June, the agency asked 1,400 firefighting-qualified employees who had left the Forest Service earlier this year to rejoin. As of Aug. 12, only 100 employees who took deferred resignations had accepted the offer to return to their jobs, Moore said in a statement.

Internal Forest Service data reviewed by Capital & Main revealed just how understaffed the agency is. Despite the agency’s claims that it has exceeded its hiring goals for wildland firefighters, at least 5,000 firefighting positions in the Forest Service were listed as vacant as of mid-July. A Forest Service employee with knowledge of the data said the discrepancy exists because the agency sets its hiring targets well below its full staffing needs. 

Following initial reporting on firefighter vacancies by ProPublica and The Guardian, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Brooke Rollins, secretary of the Department of Agriculture, expressing concern about the Forest Service’s degree of preparedness for disasters and demanding that the agency provide the committee with information on its staffing levels and readiness to fight fires. 

Moore said in a statement that despite the vacancies, “the Forest Service remains fully equipped and operationally ready to protect people and communities from wildfire.”

But according to Riva Duncan, a former USFS fire chief who reenlists with the agency as a fire duty officer during fire season, the lack of adequate staffing is being felt on the firelines. Duncan, who has been working on blazes in the Southwest this year, said engines and crews are being brought in from farther away than in the past, adding delays during critical stages of fire suppression. 

Riva Duncan during her time as a Forest Service fire chief. Courtesy Riva Duncan.

Many current and former USFS workers worried that the effects of low staffing will be even more pronounced if and when the fire season intensifies. A fire crew supervisor who asked not to be named expressed concern about firefighters having to toil on the line longer without relief forces, a situation that could further dampen morale. 

Several current Forest Service employees said that wildland firefighters are no longer being granted the several hours of paid time off they received every couple of pay periods under former agency leadership. The practice had become so commonplace under President Joe Biden’s secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, that many in the Forest Service had taken to calling the awarded paid time off “Vilsack leave.”

Duncan, who is also vice president of the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, said she fears that long work hours without relief, combined with new nonfirefighting responsibilities, may put many wildland firefighters in danger.

“This workforce is already dealing with a lot of stressors and distractions,” Duncan said. “A distracted firefighter is a firefighter that’s not safe.”

Firefighters were under considerable physical and mental stress even before Trump took office. More than two-thirds of wildland firefighters who responded to a 2022 survey reported experiencing an injury or illness as a result of their work. In addition to the immediate hazards of out-of-control flames or falling trees, firefighters are also regularly exposed to harmful chemicals that significantly increase their risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. The stress of the work also weighs heavily on firefighters’ mental health, resulting in significantly higher rates of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal ideation and substance abuse compared to the general public. 

The Biden administration worked to make it easier for firefighters to access workers’ compensation and to receive health care coverage for certain firefighting-related cancers. But Trump administration officials undid those efforts, said Chris Godfrey, former director of the Office of Workers’ Compensation under Biden. The OWCP did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

But firefighters have also made gains the last several months. In March, Congress approved permanent pay raises for federal firefighters, the culmination of years of organizing. The raise “sneaked in” under the radar into a funding bill that averted a government shutdown, said Max Alonzo, Secretary-Treasurer of the National Federation of Federal Employees. Many, including Alonzo, expected the triumph to be a turning point for wildland firefighters.

“They’re finally getting decent paychecks,” said Alonzo, a former federal firefighter. “Morale should be at an all-time high.”

Max Alonzo stands in an Angeles National Forest burn scar in 2023. Jeremy Lindenfeld/Capital & Main.

Despite that victory, current and former Forest Service employees who spoke with Capital & Main said the mood among the workforce has worsened. 

“I didn’t think the morale could get much lower,” said Duncan, the former Forest Service fire chief. “But the morale is even lower.”

Alonzo echoed that sentiment. “People are worried that the house of cards is crumbling. With Trump at the wheel, they just don’t know what’s coming next,” he said. 

Adding to firefighters’ sense of unease is an ongoing Trump administration effort to reorganize the USDA. The administration said it hopes the reorganization will “streamline federal wildfire capabilities” by eliminating the Forest Service’s nine regional offices. 

But most current and former USFS employees who spoke with Capital & Main expressed skepticism, noting that the offices provide critical support such as allocating funds, monitoring operations and assisting in forest planning. It is unclear who or what will take on those responsibilities. 

“Getting rid of all nine regional offices has people worried,” Duncan said. 

But Moore said that any effects on wildland firefighting will be minimal.

“The USDA is committed to preserving critical public safety and other public services the American public relies upon. Reductions and impacts to wildland firefighting, inspection, and farmer and rural community front-line facing positions will be minimized,” Moore said.

The shrinking Forest Service workforce — and the rising uncertainty facing wildland firefighters — takes place against the backdrop of increasingly severe fire seasons. More people than ever live in high-fire-risk areas, increasing the need for a capable firefighting workforce. 

Some firefighters said they are unsure how long they’ll remain in their jobs. In Colorado, Kraus said they hope to stick with it as long as they can. 

“I’m on the ride, and I’m strapped into the seat,” Kraus said. “When it’s time to get off, my therapist will know.”

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