Many seasonal campgrounds never open due to lack of staffing. Fire risk can’t be sufficiently managed and creates massive fuel buildups.
Illegal dumping at the edges of the national forests is also a big problem that they can’t keep up with, as well as preventing other illegal activities like poaching or unlawful harvesting of resourceg.
the US forest services has a budget of 9 BILLION dollars a year. in 2023 less than a billion of that was salaries. if they're understaffed it's entirely a management problem, not a funding problem. especially because in 2024 they got a $500 million increase to this, bringing it to $1.4 billion, nearly the entirety of which was justified under hiring firefighters.
the US forest services also maintains forests in over 80 countries. why are we spending money there? i don't understand why they don't focus on keeping their employees if its such a devastating loss of goodwill and loyalty and expertise.
their 10% reduction in workforce saved them 1.5% of their total budget. they really can't save 1.5% somewhere else?
No. No amount of slashing programs would have saved the USFS from a government-wide campaign of firing probationary staff, from the CFPB and NIST to the USFS.
(A citation on their programs abroad would be nice, too.)
To be fair, I currently don't think anything currently makes sense about the administration's "move fast and have other people fix the consequences later" approach towards slashing government programs by mass layoffs, other than private equity logic.
I don't think the current administration is currently politically incentivised to have a rationally-thought through solution, or plan, to making the USFS lean that keeps it doing the things we think are important.
underfunded by the metric of the service needing more resources for the following:
> The federal agency does more than ensure that Americans have a place to hunt, hike, fish, or paddle. In the South, forest workers played a key role in helping western North Carolina and other communities recover from impacts of Hurricane Helene. In the West, they’re taking on fire risk mitigation and fighting wildfires. They’re also involved in fisheries management in places like Alaska. Across the country, agency biologists and foresters are busy working to strengthen the over 150 national forests and 20 grasslands it monitors in the face of changing climate.
> “That means you’re going to see those campgrounds close, the trails go unmaintained, roads closed, you’re going to feel the effects of wildfire and hurricane recovery work that’s just going to remain undone,” said Reynolds. “Communities are going to struggle.”
the US Forest Service maintains our parks, ensuring the safety and longevity of the park system. this involves emergency response and critical research in the face of climate change, among many, many other responsibilities.
> It seems to be working as far as I can tell.
... because overworked and underpaid public servants have been quietly making it work. how is this different from "we don't need an infosec team, we haven't had an incident in years!"
the average forest service salary is over $100k. salaries are barely 15% of their total budget. if they're overworked and underpaid then it's a management issue, not a funding issue.
