THE GORGE — “The Forest Service and all our other land management agencies will just not have the staff to deal with things as they have been,” said Morgan Gwynn, a former public affairs specialist for the Deschutes National Forest near Bend. “The last few years I was with them, I think they could’ve used even more staff and more support.”
The United States Forest Service (USFS) fired Gwynn — and roughly 3,400 others without civil service protection — in mid-February under direction from President Donald Trump’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to terminate probationary employees who fail to prove their “qualifications for continued employment.”
Announced last September, USFS also won’t hire any temporary seasonal employees this upcoming summer, around 1,000 of whom fill ranks in federal forests across Oregon and Washington each year, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“I was communicating for the public to the forest and for the forest to the public,” said Gwynn. For instance, she managed the Deschutes National Forest Facebook account, shared information about road closures and monitored closed trails during prescribed burns. Gwynn estimated that 20 people lost their jobs at Deschutes, everyone from field rangers to those working the front desk.
She recalled how nervous coworkers talked in hushed tones, and others cried, as probationary firings cascaded through other agencies. Clearly outlined in Project 2025, the administration’s policy blueprint, Gwynn had already prepared for mass terminations, but she’s still struggling to adjust.
“Even though I have a part-time job, it’s not enough to pay the bills or to survive,” said Gwynn. She’s called the unemployment office multiple times a day since being let go and has yet to receive as response.
Last week, District Judge William H. Alsup of California ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), USFS’s parent department, to reinstate its total of 6,000 probationary employees, along with five other agencies. Alsup questioned the performance issues that supposedly justified these firings and OPM’s authority to issue such a mandate, reinforcing an earlier ruling by the Merit Systems Protection Board, a quasi-judicial agency that protects federal workers, according to the New York Times.
“The Department will work quickly to develop a phased plan for return-to-duty, and while those plans materialize, all probationary employees will be paid,” USDA said in a statement.
Gwynn reported, however, that her former supervisor has not been instructed to re-hire employees as of press deadline, and more changes are coming.
OPM required all federal departments to submit large-scale “reductions in force” and “agency reorganization plans” focused on the “maximum elimination of functions that are not statutorily mandated” by March 13. While Alsup called OPM’s probationary dismissals a “gimmick” and a “sham,” he allowed reductions in force to proceed so long as they follow the proper laws.
These plans were not available as of press deadline, nor was the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area immediately able to respond for comment.
While it’s unclear when and how many former employees USFS will bring back — or whether they’ll just be fired again — the effects have moved beyond workers themselves to a network of groups that supplement personnel gaps at USFS, along with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, National Park Service and others.
The Mt. Adams Institute (MAI), based in Trout Lake, is one such group. Through its VetsWork and Land Stewards programs, MAI matches around 45 people with high-level entry positions at those offices across the Pacific Northwest and nationwide every year. In 2024, MAI’s interns raised over 1.5 million hatchery fish, maintained 2,308 miles of trail, and treated more than 47,000 acres of forest for invasive species in 11 states.
“With all the mass firings that have been occurring, our partner organizations have been reaching out to us and saying, ‘Look, even if the agreements come back online, even if the funding starts back up, we now don’t have the capacity to support interns in a development program,’” said Aaron Stanton, executive director of MAI.
MAI renegotiates these internship agreements with partner organizations annually, and the institute’s funding depends on positions being filled. Now receiving no federal dollars, MAI was forced to pull eight interns who were still working and had to let five of nine staff members go.
“Every one of them, at some point in that conversation, expressed how bad they felt for me ... they were still thinking about the organization,” Stanton said of his staff. “It’s absolutely heartbreaking to have to deliver that message to people who are so kind and thoughtful.”
Pausing the VetsWork program was particularly difficult for Stanton, not only because of the future effects on our forests, but because it limits the pathways available for veterans. He described how MAI actively bridges the divide between the culture and skills reinforced while serving in the military and that of environmental stewardship.
“This isn’t just about giving veterans an opportunity for a job ... We’re not just putting interns on somebody’s lap and just dropping them — we’re facilitating a full career transition,” said Stanton. “They [were] doing the things that Americans need to access public lands.”
Based on his calculations, Stanton and his reduced staff can operate for nine more months on MAI’s cash reserves. He’s cautiously optimistic that MAI will pull through and doesn’t expect the institute’s other program, Sense of Place, to fail either.
Recognizing that MAI needs more resiliency — that it can’t wholly depend on the federal government — Stanton plans to spend the coming months exploring state and local partnerships with his team. MAI is going to change, but Stanton believes it will grow stronger.
“I think the situation is dire. I don’t think it’s hopeless,” he said. “The hardest part right now is that there’s no predicting. There’s no way to predict what’s going to happen in the next nine months.”
As for Gwynn, she emphasized that Americans now have a greater responsibility.
“The public really needs to step up and help support our public lands and do their part to leave no trace. They need to do their part to ensure their own safety,” said Gwynn. “These forests are working at bare minimum staff, and they need to be able to respect and support their lands if they want to continue recreating on them.”
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If you’re a federal worker who recently lost your job or would like to share what these past few weeks have been like, please email Nathan Wilson at natew@gorgenews.com.
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