The Forest Service is beginning to rehire some of the probationary employees it shed in the mass firings of Feb. 14, according to people within the agency.
An employee with direct knowledge of the Forest Service’s actions said the agency has compiled “small” numbers of terminated employees to be rehired, including for timber management, and that managers may have an opportunity to request bringing back additional staff.
The moves mirror those of other agencies that have concluded the mass firings may have gone too far in decimating staff working on critical matters or on policies that support the Trump administration’s agenda.
At the Forest Service, the loss of probationary workers all but eliminated a timber “strike team” in the Rocky Mountain region as well as the disaster recovery team working on the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina, heavily damaged by Hurricane Helene last September.
