The Forest Service Is Catastrophically Slashing Its Workforce—Here’s What That Means for Hikers and Travelers

A significant challenge looms over the future of the outdoors spaces that many hikers and nature lovers cherish. The U.S. Forest Service, tasked with protecting these natural wonders, has announced unprecedented staffing cuts that threaten not only the well-being of the environment but also the safety and enjoyment of the millions of outdoors enthusiasts. The agency this week announced the largest single-year staff cut in recent memory of employees who do everything from maintaining forest roads to servicing public restrooms.

The USFS is a branch of the USDA, and manages public lands, including national forests and grasslands, to ensure their health, diversity, and productivity. The agency recently stated that they simply can’t maintain its operations with the budget shortage, which will result in fewer employees. For two decades, the government agency has shed approximately 8,000 jobs, a trend that has increasingly strained its ability to manage the vast and diverse lands under its care.

Thomas J. Story

Seasonal employees—who patrol treacherous rivers, maintain rocky climbing routes, and care for critical salmon fisheries—form the backbone of essential fieldwork and research, and are at the forefront. With fewer hands on deck, the repercussions have the potential to be severe: Forest roads will fall into disrepair, campgrounds will become neglected, and emergency firefighting efforts, especially in the increasingly vulnerable wildlife-adjacent areas like the Central Coast of California, may falter at the very moment they are needed most. The impending cuts also cast a shadow over specialized services like avalanche centers, which rely on Forest Service funding and expertise to keep winter adventurers safe.

Though it seems that the organization will come up short on the funding it aimed to secure in order to continue operating, Congress has filed for an extension of the current budget through December 20.

“We are working closely with individual partners to explore creative solutions to fill gaps where we can,” said Scott Owen, national press officer for the Forest Service, wrote in an email to Backpack. “We hope to have more hiring options in the coming year if additional funding becomes available.”