Second Phase of Trump’s Campaign Against Public Lands Begins

An oft-heard description of the tens of thousands of federal job cuts that the Department of Government Efficiency made over the last several weeks is “cutting muscle when they mean to cut fat.” In the case of the US Forest Service, National Park Service, and other public land agencies, Elon Musk’s department sliced through to the bone. But after a round of likely illegal mass firings, DOGE is now turning to increasingly legal—and effective—ways of undermining essential services. DOGE directed all federal agencies to submit plans for Reduction in Force (RIF) layoffs by March 13. But as of March 17, USFS and several other agencies had not submitted their plans. This time, Musk is clearing the way to lawfully dismiss workers.

On March 12, under orders from the Merit Systems Protection Board, the US Department of Agriculture reinstated the 6,000 probationary workers it had fired. These workers, mostly from the ranks of the Forest Service, included a large portion of the country’s backup firefighters who serve in the wildland fire “militia” when needed. DOGE hastily determined that probationary employees, including career civil servants who had been promoted to new positions within the last year or two, would be a target. The reinstatement of these employees within the Forest Service (with back pay) was a result of the haphazard tactics that have defined the first months of the Trump administration.

But the Great Firing continues. The next wave of RIF layoffs will give us a glimpse into how far DOGE and the Trump administration will go to cede power to corporations and shirk its responsibility to manage the country’s public lands.

The United States’ vast network of federal public lands are supported and maintained by public servants who, on budgets totaling less than 0.5 percent of total federal spending for the USFS and the Bureau of Land Management combined, care for and protect more than 430 million acres of the country’s most precious ecosystems. Removing federal employees from their jobs prevents the functions that keep the land intact. From clearing downed trees from trails and campgrounds to ensuring that all land uses comply with federal laws, public lands employees are the backbone of “America’s best idea.”

Gregg Bafundo, who was laid off last month from his position as lead wilderness ranger for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington State, was nearing his 11th season as a ranger. Last year, he was promoted to the lead position, initiating a one-year probationary period. Bafundo applied to the wilderness ranger position through a veteran preference program after a career in the Marine Corps. When he was considering what to do after the military, he asked himself “‘Gregg, when you were 8 years old, what did you want to do with your life?’ Well, I wanted to be a Marine, and I checked that box. What else? I wanted to be a park ranger.”

At work, Bafundo assisted on search-and-rescue operations, led a team of rangers that maintained trails and public-use sites, and educated visitors about safe and responsible wilderness recreation. For him, despite living in a trailer away from home during the field season and the regular missions to haul out human feces by helicopter-load from popular areas near Leavenworth, the job was a dream. “Working in public service and working for the federal government is an opportunity, regardless of race, creed, or orientation,” he told me. “It gives [an] opportunity for everyone to succeed.” As of March 17, five days after the USDA said the reinstatements would take effect, Bafundo had not heard anything from his former employer. Even if he is hired back, it doesn’t mean his job is secure. He said in a text message, “RIFs are on the horizon.”

The mass layoffs clear the way for for-profit extraction to go on unsupervised and in increasingly destructive ways. If conservatives get their way, public land will be sold into private hands so it can be mined, logged, drilled, and walled off however corporations and the ultra-wealthy see fit. The public’s access could be revoked and the land destroyed. Trump’s secretary of the interior, Doug Burgum, who has deep financial ties to oil-industry tycoons and a history of suing the department he now runs over its environmental…”