Federal hiring freeze halts Forest Service and BLM firefighter preparations for seasonal help in summer

[essentialsaltes]

We've talked about the firings and the 'buyout', but apart from a few comments about FAA/ATC, we haven't talked much about the Trump hiring freeze.

As federal firefighting crews with the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management try to staff up for the upcoming fire season, they’re now having to wait and see if they’ll be able to hire seasonal help.

Luke Mayfield, a former federal lands firefighter, and president of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters says his organization is hearing from concerned firefighters.

One hiring manager on the federal level in Utah told KSL that their agency was already in the middle of hiring their summer workforce when the federal hiring freeze came down.

If it’s not cleared up, they could be left with two people per truck instead of four or five, and some trucks wouldn’t be staffed at all.

 

[Fantine]

Well, next time there is an unavoidable wildfire in California, the Pacific Northwest, or other areas, we'll know who to blame if it goes out of control, won't we?

 

[DaisyDay]

For al the whining about "too many" federal employees, every park has visitor centers that need to be kept clean and stocked. I guess if I visit a federal park this summer, I'm bringing my own TP - hopefully the toilets will be at least usable.

Maybe the idea is to outsource/privatize it all so big bucks can be made by cronies?

 

[Nithavela]

Probably just an honest mistake. They saw "BLM" and reflexively cut all funding.

 

[BCP1928]

He had to do it. Don't you know that the Forest Servce and the BLM are viper's nest of woke obstructionism?

 

[Aryeh Jay]

First BLM burns our towns and now they are burning the forests? This madness has to stop!

 

[BCP1928]

He had to do it. Don't you know that the Forest Servce and the BLM are viper's nest of woke obstructionism?

Don't worry Daisy, it was a Poe.

 

[Goonie]

We've talked about the firings and the 'buyout', but apart from a few comments about FAA/ATC, we haven't talked much about the Trump hiring freeze.

As federal firefighting crews with the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management try to staff up for the upcoming fire season, they’re now having to wait and see if they’ll be able to hire seasonal help.

Luke Mayfield, a former federal lands firefighter, and president of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters says his organization is hearing from concerned firefighters.

One hiring manager on the federal level in Utah told KSL that their agency was already in the middle of hiring their summer workforce when the federal hiring freeze came down.

If it’s not cleared up, they could be left with two people per truck instead of four or five, and some trucks wouldn’t be staffed at all.

No need if your planning to sell off all the federal land for real estate and mining.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

We've talked about the firings and the 'buyout', but apart from a few comments about FAA/ATC, we haven't talked much about the Trump hiring freeze.

As federal firefighting crews with the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management try to staff up for the upcoming fire season, they’re now having to wait and see if they’ll be able to hire seasonal help.

Luke Mayfield, a former federal lands firefighter, and president of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters says his organization is hearing from concerned firefighters.

One hiring manager on the federal level in Utah told KSL that their agency was already in the middle of hiring their summer workforce when the federal hiring freeze came down.

If it’s not cleared up, they could be left with two people per truck instead of four or five, and some trucks wouldn’t be staffed at all.

It doesn't surprise me that so many people don't see what Trump is doing. The funding freeze is temporary for a reason. It is bait to draw out the corrupt bureaucratic organizations in the government. How do you think they discovered the garbage in USAID? They put the freeze and looked to see which departments are violating and ignoring Trump's executive orders. Then those departments are targeted and audited because it is obvious that if they are willing to violate executive orders, they are likely violating a lot of other stuff as well.

 

[essentialsaltes]

It doesn't surprise me that so many people don't see what Trump is doing.

It doesn't surprise me that the post hoc rationalizations are do feeble.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

It doesn't surprise me that the post hoc rationalizations are do feeble.

It isn't "hoc rationalizations," it is exactly what Elon Musk stated on X.

 

[essentialsaltes]

It isn't "hoc rationalizations," it is exactly what Elon Musk stated on X.

Oh, the illegal and unconstitutional part, right, right.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

Oh, the illegal and unconstitutional part, right, right.

View attachment 360917

What does this have to do with my statement other than confirm what I said wasn't "hoc rationalizations?"

 

[Pommer]

What does this have to do with my statement other than confirm what I said wasn't "hoc rationalizations?"

“Post hoc”

Elon stops payments.

Court: “why did you do that?”

Elon: to stop fraud

Court: “there was fraud?”

Elon: we’ll know it when we see it!

 

[DaisyDay]

Probably just an honest mistake. They saw "BLM" and reflexively cut all funding.

I wish that were not the case.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Arizona and New Mexico’s fire season is set to begin, and Forest Service personnel have typically sent staff from California to help respond this time of year. But according to a Forest Service employee in the West, that’s not possible with these layoffs and the hiring freeze.
That means work — including mapping the spread of a fire, preparation for where it’s safe to conduct prescribed burns and even sending non-fire personnel in so-called “militias” to help combat a blaze — won’t happen.

Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, said that the Forest Service layoffs will have “devastating” impacts on wildfire mitigation efforts. “Fire safety projects are already frozen and being canceled all over the West,” he said. “We’re on track to lose an entire season of critical work, and this will only compound the problem.

--

Cuts of that scale [at the Park Service] wouldn’t just impact park-goers or workers who suddenly won’t have a paycheck. It could also imperil Trump’s own plans to boost energy production on public land if there aren’t enough employees in place to steadily process oil and gas drilling permits, said Steve Feldgus, Interior’s principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals management under the Biden administration.

One Interior employee said he was told up to 800 staff could be let go at the agency’s Bureau of Land Management, the branch in charge of overseeing oil, gas and other energy production on federal land.