The national forests in Missouri and Illinois have fewer employees than they did last month thanks to the Trump administration. But the effect of those staffing changes are unclear.
Cuts to the federal workforce include 2,000 of the U.S. Forest Service’s 35,000 employees.
Sources at the Mark Twain National Forest in southern Missouri and the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois confirm there have been positions eliminated but did not provide information on the number or job duties of those employees. They referred all questions to the main office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service.
The USDA said in a statement that the terminations were part of an effort to improve government and reduce inefficiencies.
“To be clear, none of these individuals were operational firefighters. Released employees were probationary in status, many of whom were compensated by temporary IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) funding,” the statement said.
The USDA did not respond to questions seeking clarification.
Former Forest Service employees are speaking out and challenging the USDA’s assertions.
“Every single person at a national forest has fire training and has a role to play. To say laid-off employees aren’t firefighters is not the full story,” said Steve Ellis, a retired Forest Service employee and a graduate of Southern Illinois University Carbondale who started his career at the Shawnee.
Many forest programs are part of long-term strategies to reduce the frequency and severity of forest fires, he added.
“If we're going to get a handle on this catastrophic wildfire program, it's going to take landscape treatments on a broader scale and to reduce the fuel loading,” Ellis said.
While the reduction in staff will have long-range impacts on projects to combat forest fires and improve wildlife habitat, the more immediate changes will be in terms of recreation and the economy, Ellis said.
He suspects that there will be a reduction in recreational opportunities at the Mark Twain and Shawnee and that it will be felt in the smaller communities near the forests.
“These are real people that live in these communities. Their payroll circulates in these communities. They do volunteer work in the communities,” Ellis said, “The things they do on the ground keep mills open and smaller businesses like tour guides and equipment rental places.”
Ellis said he understands the goals of the reduction, but the way it’s being done is careless.
“Everybody likes efficiency in government. I do, too,” Ellis said. “We all want the government to be better. But you have to do that surgically.”
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