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The Trump Administration is hollowing out the Forest and National Parks services, leaving residents of the Copper Corridor vulnerable to the vagaries of wildfire as well as reduced services at recreational sites.
Many of the people leaving—whether by coercion or voluntarily—are taking years, if not decades, of institutional knowledge out the door with them as thousands of jobs evaporate overnight.
The cuts, many taking place on February 14, Valentines Day, were announced two days after the deadline to respond to the “Fork in the Road”—deferred resignation—email sent to more than 2 million federal employees on January 28 in an attempt to get them to resign with the promise of several months of pay in exchange.
The unprecedented, and possibly illegal, action will impact every function of the agencies from park operations and law enforcement to firefighting, across the Western U.S.
The targeted employees perform vital research to protect natural and cultural resources; perform search and rescue operations; clear trails, clean bathrooms and ensure the parks are in serviceable condition for tens of millions of yearly visitors.
Given the difficulties maintaining a trained and competent workforce, Trump’s recent efforts to slash the number of federal employees is creating a ripple effect that will impact populations across the U.S., particularly in vulnerable communities like the Copper Corridor, for years to come.
In early February, in its efforts to “cut waste” in federal spending, the administration announced that the USFS would cut about 3,400 jobs and the National Park Service would cut about 1,000. The cuts will affect mostly probationary employees, some with years in service who may have been transitioning to other positions.
Locally, the cuts could have dangerous effects in a region with an annual fire season and surrounded by about 3 million acres of national parks and public land in the Tonto National Forest alone.
While the cuts exclude law enforcement and fire personnel, as well as 5,000 seasonal workers, the reduction represents about 10% of the USFS and about 5% of the NPS workforces.
“When taken together, the cumulative impact of these actions and orders on our national parks and park staff could be devastating and long-lasting,” National Park Conservation Association President and CEO Theresa Pierno said in a widely distributed statement. “In the long term, buyouts could lead to a loss of expertise and experience. And when national parks struggle, gateway communities and economies feel the effects too.”
The cuts come as recreational usage of public lands has increased in recent years. There were 325 million visits to national parks in 2023, an increase of 13 million from 2022. At the same time, staffing in parks is down 20% since 2010, while visitation has increased 16% over the same time period.
As for the USFS, Tonto National Forest cut 24 “probationary” employees in one day from Payson to Globe to Cave Creek to Mesa, some of them specialists in their fields or longtime employees in the process of being promoted. Five of them served in the Globe Ranger District.
The Globe office has also been weakened by the departure of longtime employees for jobs in the private sector. Interns have been furloughed too, adding to the workloads of those left behind.
In addition to the effect on public lands, the cuts will have an economic effect on Globe, as more than $200,000 in salary just vanished.
The cuts could also affect the Cobre Valley Institute of Technology’s Wildland Fire Information and Technology program. While the program does not receive federal funding, instructor availability might be an issue in the future. According to CVIT Superintendent Mike O’Neal, the next series of classes is moving forward.
“The plan is to continue to offer Wildland and other Fire Science courses during the 2025-26 school year,” O’Neal stated in an email to GMT. “At this time, I don’t have all the information to describe what that will look like and who will be teaching the courses.”
On the first day of the new administration, Trump signed an executive order requiring remote workers to go back to the office full-time, adding more strain to already stressed employees.
Globe Miami Times spoke to an individual familiar with the inner workings of the USFS who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for retribution from the Trump Administration.
This person says that working conditions have been “hell” since January 20, with daily harassment coming from unfamiliar offices, and that Elon Musk’s Department if Government Efficiency (DOGE) has likely infiltrated the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which oversees human resources for federal employees.
There has also been a gag order put in place in an attempt to filter information through the OPM and cover up the effects on the agencies. Remaining employees in local areas have been informed they must help maintain recreation sites in the Tonto Basin and Mesa ranger districts as visits to public lands enter seasons of heaviest usage. Any shutdown of recreational sites for any reason must first be approved by the USFS Washington office. There has been a halt put on controlled burns as well, which are critical to preparation for fire season.
Our source said that since January 20, employees have been under fire from Musk and DOGE on a daily basis, with calls to quit or be fired. The OPM is also encouraging employees to turn each other in if they criticize Trump, Musk or what’s happening throughout the federal government.
“Pretty much since January 20, it’s been an absolute nightmare being a federal worker,” our source says. “We’ve been getting bombarded with, ‘you should quit’ emails from the OPM at least two or three times every day saying, ‘fork in the road, you should quit. If you don’t quit, we might fire you. You could be more productive in the private sector’.”
Our source, a longtime employee of the USFS, says that morale in the decimated offices is low and will likely impact performance or even the will to go on as a government employee.
“I have the feeling that I will be next,” says the employee. “It’s just devastating for me, because this was supposed to be my lifelong career. I wanted to help people.”
On February 23, a Saturday evening, the OPM sent out an email to all employees ordering them to list at least five bullet points of accomplishments from the previous week. The federal judiciary informed recipients they should not respond to the email, as may violate the Constitution’s mandated separation of powers.
The implications of the cuts on firefighters, many of whom are seasonal workers making $15 an hour in base pay as is, are huge.
Wildland firefighters work under significantly strenuous conditions that can lead to mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, PTSD and suicidal ideation.
It is often difficult to recruit and hire individuals for low-wage positions, particularly in remote rural communities such as Globe.
In contrast to Trump’s actions—he has also threatened to withhold funding from California after its recent devastating wildfires—in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, former President Joe Biden attempted to raise firefighters’ pay by $20,000 or 50%, whichever was less. The action was taken to improve retention in places that have difficulty recruiting and retaining a trained firefighter workforce.
That was followed by the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act of 2023, introduced by Senators Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) in an attempt to enshrine the pay raises in legislation.
The act would guarantee the pay adjustments remain in place but would also create an updated pay structure, including a new “Incident Response Premium Pay,” or 450% of base pay rate daily after 36 hours for all employees engaged in wildland firefighting, as well as introducing Rest and Recuperation Pay for after a wildfire incident.
The bill went nowhere in 2023, but was reintroduced in 2024, once again sitting idle in a Republican controlled Congress. It is now awaiting the passage of the 2025 budget, which is already four months late.
A query to the USFS regarding the status of funding—including the 638 Agreement with the San Carlos Apache Tribe intended to reduce excess vegetation and other fuels throughout the Tonto NF and Apache lands—was forwarded to the Washington Office of the USDA Office of Communications.
A USDA spokesperson replied with the following, through the office of Communications Coordinator Larry Moore:
“Secretary Rollins fully supports the President’s directive to improve government, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA’s many services to the American people. We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of the American people’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar spent goes to serve the people, not the bureaucracy. As part of this effort, USDA has made the decision to release about 2,000 probationary, non-firefighting employees from the Forest Service. To be clear, none of these individuals were operational firefighters. Released employees were probationary in status, many of whom were compensated by temporary IRA funding. It’s unfortunate that the Biden administration hired thousands of people with no plan in place to pay them long term. Secretary Rollins is committed to preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted.
“Hiring freeze exemptions exist for critical health and safety positions. Over 1,000 U.S. Forest Service firefighter positions were approved last week, with more currently under review. Protecting the people and communities we serve, as well as the infrastructure, businesses, and resources they depend on to grow and thrive, remains a top priority for the USDA and the Forest Service. We are incredibly proud of our firefighters, and we will ensure they have the training, tools, and resources they need to work alongside our state and local partners, as well as private landowners, to continue the work to protect lives and livelihoods.
“While working with OPM, the agency did push some entry dates for wildland firefighters at the outset. However, now that processes have been established, delays have been minimized. Wildland firefighting positions continue to be exempt from the hiring freeze and operational readiness is not impacted. The USFS, along with our other federal, state, tribal, and local partners continue to prepare for and respond to wildfire incidents as needed.”
Journalist, writer and editor who has worked for community newspapers for more than 15 years. After four years at Davis-Monthan AFB and a few years living in Tucson, moved to California to find his fortune. He is happy to be back in Arizona, in the mountains he loves.
