By COURTNEY SHERWOOD/Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Bonneville Power Administration is attempting to rehire the staff it fired last month, after weeks of public outcry against the Trump administration’s cuts to the self-funded federal agency.

More than five people familiar with internal operations at BPA confirmed that 89 staff who’d been fired are receiving emails or letters asking them to return to work. About 35 were already hired back in mid-February.

A spokesperson for BPA declined to comment. But insiders confirmed that offers to return to work went out Thursday. Those staff asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation, but OPB has verified their identities. Some staff being asked to return work in civil rights.

Even after rescinding those terminations, the agency is still down hundreds of positions, after 240 resigned in exchange for a buyout offer and 90 people who received job offers had those offers canceled.

BPA operates 75% of the Northwest’s power grid, distributes hydropower from 31 federal dams, and plays a key role in ensuring reliable access to electricity for millions of people in the Northwest. It covers its expenses from revenue its operations generate, and makes annual payments to the federal government.

The Central Lincoln People’s Utility District, whose service area runs from Lincoln Beach in the north to North Bend in the south, receives its electricity from the BPA.

OPB broke the news that job cuts could affect a significant share of BPA’s workforce on Feb. 13, prompting a public outcry from utility experts and federal officials concerned that the cuts could affect the reliability of the Northwest power grid.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on Tuesday sent a letter to federal cabinet secretaries decrying the cuts.

“These positions were linemen, engineers, substation operators and power dispatchers, and multiple entities across the Pacific Northwest are raising real alarm about grid instability and power outages due to a shortage of staff who know how to manage grid events,” Kotek wrote. “As you know, BPA is a self-supporting entity. Ongoing workforce reductions by definition will not impact federal spending, but they do create instability for power availability and rates in the region.”

The people who are being asked to come back to BPA after being fired were all in their first year or two on the job, and so still in probationary status with fewer civil service protections.

The firings and rehirings at Bonneville mirror a sometimes chaotic approach to federal staffing that has played out at many agencies since Trump took office. The administration has fired tens of thousands of federal workers, including at least 2,000 Forest Service staff nationwide. Those cuts have raised concerns about wildfire preparedness in the Northwest.

Many of the firings have been challenged in court. On Wednesday, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to bring back nearly 6,000 workers at that agency.