Fanning the Federal Flames
Recent federal layoffs create uncertainty for public land management agencies, and a lack of communication has exacerbated employee fears.
A sign at the February 17th “50501” protest in Seattle. Employees of public land agencies stood together to protest the Trump administration’s “Valentine’s Day Massacre” layoffs.
Story and Photos by Liam Pratt
March 20, 2025
There is a fire within the federal government. Land management agencies are experiencing unprecedented layoffs before they get the chance to fight it.
On Sept. 17, 2024, the United States Forest Service announced that it would not be hiring seasonal workers for the time being. While panic arose for trail crews and those in the recreation sector, there was an explicit exemption for wildland firefighters.
Adam Gentry, a former Darrington Forest Service trail crew member, was surprised when the announcement went out.
“It was definitely a shocking decision to not bring back your boots on the ground. Your tools for actually doing the work,” Gentry said. “Even if you’re facing a budget crisis, to basically say that you’re no longer going to do the work that needs to be done seems kind of backward to me.”
The decision to not bring back seasonal workers was shocking to many, as the agency was already struggling to meet staffing needs.
A 2024 Wildland Firefighting Capacity report illustrated hiring 11,300 wildland firefighters was not enough to meet the increasing dangers of wildfire. This necessitated non-fire Forest Service employees to help with fire management procedures.
“To give some context of how deeply understaffed the Forest Service is, we only have one law enforcement officer from the [Canadian Border] down to the edge of our forest down south,” Gentry said. “So not exactly well equipped to deal with some of these issues.”
A sign at the President’s Day Protest in Seattle, noting that federal fire response will be hindered after layoffs hit federal land management agencies.
This notice would be the first of many administrative moves that would shake public land management agencies. On Jan. 21, 2025, a federal hiring freeze without exceptions further complicated the staffing landscape of the Department of Agriculture. The Forest Service falls under the Department of Agriculture and consequently is bound by the hiring freeze.
There was no explicit exemption for wildland firefighters, leading to concern over whether there would be enough first responders come fire season. In January, 2025, California saw two of the state’s most destructive and deadliest wildfires in its history. In 2024, Washington State saw over 300,000 acres burned by wildfires. In 2014, the Carlton Complex fire burned over 250,000 acres alone.
Fires are getting bigger and faster. Firefighters are becoming less equipped to address them. Typically it would be the responsibility of the Washington State Department of Natural Resources to combat wildfires on state land, with the Forest Service assisting on federal land.
State officials are left wondering how to prepare for the fire season given the uncertainty surrounding fire response at the federal level.
According to Dave Upthegrove, Washington State’s public lands commissioner, communication from the federal government has been sparse.
“We’re getting our information about the federal impacts from the media,” Upthegrove said, “No one in the federal government is communicating with our agency.”
For agencies like the Washington Department of Natural Resources, that lack of communication can have tremendous impacts. Together, the Forest Service manage over two million acres of working forest. The federal government owns 43% of the state’s public lands. With little-to-no communication from the federal government, state agencies are uncertain about what the future of collaboration will look like.
An informational placard at the Glacier USFS Public Service Center, highlighting the collaboration between the United States Forest Service and the National Parks Service. Both agencies are tasked with overseeing federal lands, although differing in purpose.
Funding from the federal government, or lack thereof, has also created tensions at the Washington Department of Natural Resources.
“We get a lot of money from the federal government for wildfire prevention.” Upthegrove said, “We just go into the computer system and we've been shut out, and we've been told we can't access it right now.”
That money, approximately $185 million in federal grants according to Upthegrove, goes towards vital fire prevention work, such as training firefighters.
In light of these budgetary and communication challenges, interagency partnerships will become increasingly important as fires become worse.
The Department of Natural Resources is one of many agencies that belong to an interstate mutual aid network, specifically focused on supporting one another with disaster relief. This partnership, known as the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, allows Washington state to rapidly mobilize various first responders to aid other states and territories.
After the Palisades and Eaton fire sparked in Los Angeles earlier this year, the call for aid circulated throughout the West Coast, and Washington was there to support.
“We sent 85 people and four strike teams down there,” Upthegrove said, “These partnerships are critical to making [fire] suppression work well.”
Too Close for Comfort:
In addition to state agencies, municipalities are also handling fires that were once the responsibility of the federal government. Whatcom County is no exception. Following the fires in Los Angeles, the mutual aid network was utilized after the disaster exceeded the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Forest Service’s capacity. On Jan. 9, 2025 a request for assistance went out to California’s partner states.
“Our agency just happened to be able to respond,” Mitch Nolze, chief of the South Whatcom Fire Authority, said. “They left at about 4:30 a.m. to get down to Olympia, and then they were gone from there.”
The South Whatcom Fire Authority was one of 11 Washington State municipal fire strike teams that responded to Los Angeles’s request for aid.
Nolze said these fires will get closer to home. Whatcom County faces increased fire risk, caused by hotter and drier summers, and as conditions worsen, collaborative efforts to combat fire will become necessary.
Local agencies like the South Whatcom Fire Authority are being forced to expand their resources and training to include wildfire preparedness. This uncertainty surrounding whether or not the federal government will be able to effectively prevent wildfire, much less respond to it, has created strain on smaller departments.
According to former federal wildland firefighter Oliver Simic, Whatcom County is not alone in doing this.
“It's becoming more common for municipal structural departments to start having wildfire divisions,” Simic said.
Increased fire risk is not the only consequence of these layoffs. Simic worries that the culture within federal fire response will change and that individuals will be less inclined to come back and work for these agencies if given the chance.
This sentiment rings true as hundreds of protests have erupted across the United States in response to the mass layoffs. Federal employees, alongside their friends and families, have taken to the streets to fight back.
A sign at the Seattle protest, characterizing Smokey the Bear as a symbol of resistance.
Leaving the Forest, Taking the Streets
It’s President’s Day in Seattle. Thousands of protesters brave the rain outside the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building on 2nd Avenue. Individuals from all backgrounds are gathered in solidarity for one explicit purpose: to voice their anger over the federal layoffs that came on Feb. 14, 2025.
For weeks, federal workers have been watching with bated breath as President Donald Trump has signed executive orders reducing the size of the government. After what has been called the “Valentine’s Day Massacre” by protestors, federal workers who were unceremoniously fired began voicing their discontent.
Former US Forest Service employee Amanda Monthei holding a sign calling upon the federal government to stop laying off her friends.
Former federal employees chanted in opposition to the executive orders. Many agencies faced their own significant layoffs.
Amanda Monthei, a former wildland firefighter who was at the Seattle protest, spoke to the impacts being felt across public land management agencies.
“I got real fired up this weekend, as around 5,000 people from federal land agencies got fired since Friday, it's now Monday,” Monthei said. “A lot of these folks are friends of mine.”
Several speakers detailed the risks posed by the executive orders, including a lack of essential support staff for agencies like the Department for Veterans Affairs. Speakers verbally displayed their resumes, showcasing the importance of their work and the risks posed by their termination.
Federal employees are not the only ones hurt by layoffs, rural communities depend on agencies like the Forest Service. Monthei speculates that they will be among the most affected.
“Just thinking about my friends in Glacier and the folks in Darrington,” Monthei said, “who finally were able to find a way to make their lifestyles in these rural communities sustainable, and now they're losing that income stream.”
Each new executive order places public lands on the chopping block. With seemingly no end in sight, federal employees are left with no other choice but to take to the streets.
While the executive branch burns its way through the federal workforce, these employees are used to facing fire and intend to do so resolutely.
“We want to be good stewards of the land.” Simic said, “We want to take care of what we have so other people can enjoy it.”