Firefighters aren't the only federal workers needed to fight blazes
Successfully fighting a wildfire requires more than people digging line or cutting fire breaks with chainsaws. It also involves people who call grazing lessees to tell them to evacuate their cows, provide food for firefighters in the field and map the resources that the firefighters need to protect. People filling all these positions were recently terminated on one national forest — a problem that spans forests across the West.
“We lost the whole suite of support,” a Forest Service fire management officer, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from their employer, told High Country News. “It is leaving us woefully unprepared for fire this summer.”
Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency claimed that firefighters were exempt from its purge of at least 2,000 employees from the U.S. Forest Service along with 800 others from the Bureau of Land Management on Valentine’s Day and President’s Day weekend. “Hiring freeze exemptions exist for critical health and safety positions,” meaning wildland firefighters, U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesperson Audra Weeks told High Country News via email.
But public-land management employees say this is not the whole story, because it leaves out collateral-duty firefighter positions.
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https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2025/03/08/firefighters-arent-the-only-federal-workers-needed-to-fight-blazes/