Will Federal Politics Affect Local Jobs, Forest Access?
Reader’s have no doubt heard of President Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce, including the approximately 3,400 US Forest Service workers that were recently fired nationwide. Local logging companies and the local federal employee union representative were contacted in an effort to see how these changes may affect the local area. Two phone messages were left for the Council Ranger District Ranger Jeff Jones but these calls have not yet been returned.
An email to the Department of Agriculture, which requests for comment were initially referred to, went unanswered except for an automated reply. (The Forest Service is in the Department of Agriculture.) This statement was later received from a USDA spokesperson:
Secretary Rollins fully supports the President’s directive to improve government, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA’s many services to the American people. We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of the American people’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar spent goes to serve the people, not the bureaucracy.
As part of this effort, USDA has made the difficult decision to release about 2,000 probationary, non-firefighting employees from the Forest Service. To be clear, none of these individuals were operational firefighters. Released employees were probationary in status, many of whom were compensated by temporary IRA funding. It’s unfortunate that the Biden administration hired thousands of people with no plan in place to pay them long term. Secretary Rollins is committed to preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted.
Shawn Stanford wears a few hats in this community, one of them being the National Federation of Federal Employees union Vice President for Region 4. This is in addition to his full time job with the Forest Service working in timber sales and being Council’s Volunteer Fire Chief. He spoke in his capacity as a union representative.
According to Stanford 45 probationary employees were fired recently from the Payette National Forest. That number includes 11 from the Council and Weiser Ranger Districts. When asked what area or departments saw these cuts he said they were across the board including range, recreation, timber etc. but with the exception of fire fighting positions.
These jobs were on the lower end of the federal government’s GS pay scale, ranging from GS4 to GS7, according to Stanford. According to opm.gov a GS4 employee starts at $17.27 per hour and a GS7 employee starts at $23.94 per hour. Stanford provided a copy of a termination letter that one local forestry technician received. The stated cause for termination was individual performance.
The work that employees filling these positions would normally do include cleaning restrooms, maintaining and hosting campgrounds, road and trail maintenance and work setting up and marking timber sales for logging contractors.
Stanford predicted that we may see a slower or delayed response to firefighting efforts since many of these jobs can also help out on fires when there is a need. Again, no firefighting jobs were lost due to these cuts but he emphasized the support role that these employees can play and if they are not available to help, the firefighting operation would move slower. Some of the areas these employees help in are logistics, driving, warehouse, meals and water.
Jim Hileman of Hileman Trucking in Council didn’t seem too concerned about the affects these cuts might have on his logging operation. He said since timber sales are laid out a year in advance this year shouldn’t be affected. He added that they need to alleviate paperwork otherwise there won’t be enough staff to do the work.
Kim Mahon at Mahon logging said these cuts wouldn’t affect their operation. (Look for an Op-Ed from Mark Mahon on page 3.)
The day Stanford found out about these cuts was the worst day of his 37 year career, according to him. Working through the aftermath of these cuts as a union leader has taken a good portion of his time. He recently resigned from the Council School Board because, according to him, he couldn’t devote the time needed to the school board any longer.
