Widespread federal job cuts are impacting Idahoans, many of whom worked for the US National Forest in places like the Sawtooth National Recreation Area and Payette National Forest.
"Nearly every administrative position on our forest was terminated over the weekend, and we have no visitor service positions left on the SNRA," says Clare Vergobbi, who was recently caught in a wave of layoffs for federal employees over the weekend.
She worked for Sawtooth National Recreation Area near Stanley for 10 months, doing everything from helping visitors to administrative work.
"For the most part, everyone who is in their probationary periods was terminated. That is kind of a misleading statement because it makes it sound like it was just a bunch of new hires. But, many of the people who were terminated had been with the Forest Service for years. One person who [was] terminated from our office has 16 years of federal service," explained Vergobbi.
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She says any time you move from a seasonal position to a permanent position or into a supervisory position in the Forest Service, your probationary period starts over — even after years of service — making those employees vulnerable to cuts.
"So everyone I know who has been fired from the Forest Service has received the exact same letter; it's a form letter, with the exact same reason, which is poor performance," says Vergobbi.
She says a blanket statement of poor performance — without any specific evidence to back it up — was why she was terminated.
"And that is an incredible gut punch," she said. "Sixteen of us were fired or, terminated rather, which was 43% of our workforce."
Vergobbi worries losing nearly half of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area workforce will impact future visits.
"You can't come in and get trail reports or buy your stuffed animals for your grandkids, or come and hear a ranger program," says Vergobbi.
"The ability for all of us to be up there and have access and have a wilderness experience, a backcountry experience — any of that is going to be impacted," says Vergobbi.
Idaho News 6 reached out to the US Forest Service for comment on the job cuts, how many impacted Idahoans and the nature of those jobs. We received the following response:
“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.” - USDA Spokesperson.
