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Due to a devastating budget shortfall, the U.S. Forest Service will not be hiring seasonal workers for the next fiscal year, leaving thousands of people out of work and putting essential conservation and biodiversity work at risk.
The spending bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives gave the agency half a billion dollars less than it requested. Combined with recent cost-of-living increases for staff, the agency leadership was forced to make significant cuts to its budget. On a recent all-staff call, Forest Service Chief Randy Moore acknowledged that the agency will be forced to struggle without its seasonal workforce, saying, “I know that this decision will affect your ability to get some of the critical work done. It’ll also be felt deeply by managers and units all across the agency.”
The Forest Service relies on the dedication and local ecological and institutional knowledge of seasonal or temporary workers to complete essential tasks like cleaning bathrooms and campgrounds, emptying trash cans, maintaining trails, welcoming people at visitor centers, and doing critical research work on the environment. Next summer, most of these tasks will have to be added to the workload for other permanent staff, or simply not done at all. As one employee put it, “We cannot operate without our seasonal staff.”
This decision does not apply to the more than 11,000 temporary firefighting positions that the Forest Service hires every year. An agency spokesperson said the Forest Service hired more than 2,500 non-fire temporary employees in Fiscal Year 2024.
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We are committed to working closely with our federal partners but let there be no mistake—Traditional Knowledge must be at the forefront of managing Bears Ears. This sacred land, its buttes, and the life within it deserve nothing less than respect, reverence, and guidance by the wisdom of the Indigenous peoples who have cared for and blessed it for centuries.”
