After Finding A $750M Budget Hole, Forest Service Regions Start Shutting Down Seasonal Employees. It's Worse Than Most Realize.
After Finding A $750M Budget Hole, Forest Service Regions Start Shutting Down Seasonal Employees. It's Worse Than Most Realize.
Memo goes out announcing October 1st will be the end for seasonal employment.
It’s worse than most realize… Since I reported on the Forest Service audit that found a $750 million hole in their budget two weeks ago, Regional Foresters have started to send out all employee memos saying they need to start cutting positions.
In the Rocky Mountain Region, they announced that all seasonal positions or 1039 appointments will be cut, and no extensions will be offered starting October 1st. On top of that, I’ve heard there are conversations about perm staff cutting hours if a 2025 budget is not passed by October as well.
This comes after years of pressing the workforce to stay on longer to complete prescribed burning that was funded in the billions of dollars by the Infrastructure Bill. It seems that will take a back seat now, as it was announced October 1st will be the cutoff, no matter the funding source for the employee’s wages.
Here is the memo that went out to the Rocky Mountain Employees:
Good Afternoon All,
As an agency it is our responsibility and number one priority to pay our employees. In working through the budget challenges, we are currently facing; a decision has been made that no 1039 appointments will be extended beyond the end of the fiscal year regardless of funding source. This applies to all 1039 appointments in the Rocky Mountain Region with no exceptions.
This is a shocking step for the Forest Service to take to try and plug the massive financial shortfall. Just this week, the National Federation of Federal Employees sent out a letter to the Forest Service accusing them of falling short of promises for the new firefighter job series in order to try to close the financial gap as well.
Will someone finally take responsibility for these seemingly massive problems within the Agency? How did this happen? Where is the accountability? Remember when I was called a conspiracy theorist for saying there was a hiring freeze three months ago……?
It has snowballed into a massive mess.
Update: Folks in Region 1 say temp employees are done as of Sept 30th. 18/8s and 13/13s cannot exceed their minimum tour of duty. And they've announced there may not be any fall burning because they can't afford to pay the overtime.
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THANK YOU again for your update(s)!! It's all laughable and predictable. Spending money, like writing checks with no money in the bank at a grandiose level. In 1978' there was the "Hotshot Massacre" and several other budget short-falls, later in the 80's and 90's, but who wants to work for an organization that lies to you; "caring for the landing and people",... sounds like bullshit to me. My heart goes out to all those families that are struggling.
There is no humanity in USFS HR.