By COURTNEY SHERWOOD/Oregon Public Broadcasting
The U.S. Forest Service says it won’t be hiring temporary seasonal workers next summer, citing a tight budget for the coming year.
The agency will still hire seasonal staff to fight fires, but temporary summer hires for all other roles — like building trails, conducting archaeological surveys and doing engineering work — are on hold.
The Forest Service has also rescinded some job offers it’s made, and is limiting decisions around other permanent staff positions, senior leaders told workers in a briefing recently.
The agency would typically hire more than 1,000 seasonal workers to staff 11 national forests in Oregon and five in Washington. It usually hires thousands of additional summer workers in other forests across the country.
Leaving those roles unfilled is a move the public could notice when warm weather returns.
“We just can’t get the same amount of work done with fewer employees,” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said at an agency-wide briefing. “So in other words, we’re going to do what we can with what we have. We’re not going to try to do everything that’s expected of us with less people.”
Mark Lichtenstein, budget director for the Forest Service, said he expects finances to be tight in the next fiscal year no matter who’s elected president in November.
Ongoing negotiations in Congress and the possibility of a government shutdown if lawmakers don’t pass a federal budget could complicate things. Despite the political uncertainty, Lichtenstein said, “I’m pretty confident what we’re seeing is that they will find a solution and we will start the year with funding.”
But he also expects the trade-offs inherent to the budget process to result in serious constraints for the Forest Service.
Forest Service leaders say they’re choosing to prioritize workers who are already on staff as they limit hiring. When positions do need to be filled, the agency will only consider internal candidates in most cases, said Mary Pletcher Rice, deputy chief for business operations at the agency.
“External hiring is going to be exception-based and focused on the most critical needs that cannot be met by current Forest Service employees,” she said.
And while the agency is committed to filling fire-related positions, it will be looking to hire those workers at lower general service levels, she said, referencing the system federal agencies use to determine pay for workers based on education and experience. People at lower GS levels earn less pay.
That decision to hire fire staff at lower pay levels comes at a time when numerous agencies say they’re struggling to recruit and retain firefighters because of burnout, stressful work and financial concerns.
Forest Service leaders said the agency does not expect any layoffs of permanent year-round or seasonal staff. But they are investigating federal programs that could allow people to take voluntary early retirement or to accept buyouts, though those options are not presently available to staff.
And other budget restrictions — like travel limits — could be imposed on workers in some regions.
“But we’re leaving a lot of decisions, to the degree that we can, to the regional foresters and station directors,” Moore, the Forest Service chief, said. “Not everywhere is the same.”
- This story originally appeared Sept. 19, 2024 on Oregon Public Broadcasting.
