Fired worker worries about future of local national forests after federal job cuts
Published at | Updated at
ASHTON — Austen Stevens woke up Monday employed and excited to continue his life’s work of preserving Idaho’s national forests.
“My heart and soul are up at Island Park,” says Stevens. “That place is my sanctuary. I love it to death, and I would do anything to protect it.”
Coming up on his third season as a forestry technician for the U.S. Forest Service in the Ashton/Island Park area, Stevens was recently promoted to a permanent position with the Forest Service, which he was told would guarantee him a job every summer.
But by 10 a.m. Monday, Stevens was unemployed and told that he had “not demonstrated that (his) further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.”
“I got an email that said, basically, we’re sorry about the situation, but they’re gonna be letting me go,” says Stevens. “One of the letters they sent me was saying that I didn’t perform my job duties correctly, basically making me feel like it was my fault.”
Just minutes after reading the email, Stevens received a call from his supervisor.
Stevens says she was trying to reach him before he read his email – but it was too late.
“She called and was just like, ‘Hey, I want to let you know before you read the email that we’re gonna have to let you go, and I want you to know it has nothing to do with your performance whatsoever,'” says Stevens.
EastIdahoNews.com reached out to the supervisor for a comment to confirm this, but we did not hear back.
Stevens says hearing the hesitancy around telling him why he was fired was “like putting salt in the wound.”
“Not only are you taking my job, now you’re making me feel like it was my fault,” says Stevens.
According to NPR, over 2,000 probationary National Forest Service employees were let go this week, and the Associated Press reported that over 1,000 newly hired National Park workers were fired as well.
“The Trump administration has fired about 1,000 newly hired National Park Service employees who maintain and clean parks, educate visitors and perform other functions as part of its broad-based effort to downsize government,” according to an article by the AP.
Since President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, his newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, run by Elon Musk, has reportedly fired more than 200,000 federal workers at more than a dozen agencies.
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued a statement Friday, according to ABC News, saying she “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 people, not the bureaucracy.”
According to Next Steps Idaho, Forestry Technicians are responsible for a plethora of essential tasks like thinning and spacing trees, controlling weeds and undergrowth, training forest and conservation workers, planting tree seedlings, putting out forest fires, and maintaining recreational facilities.
They also provide information to the public and work to enforce regulations concerning environmental protection, resource use, fire safety and accident prevention.
Stevens says many of his coworkers in the Ashton and Island Park area were also fired, drastically cutting the workforce and leaving many worried about the future of our national forests areas, specifically Mesa Falls, where Stevens was assigned.
His daily tasks were opening public buildings in the morning, cleaning bathrooms, maintaining the trails and keeping public lands accessible and as natural as possible.
“I was also doing a bit of public safety. We took a first aid course with CPR and stuff, so if anything happened, we’re kind of the first responders at Mesa Falls because there’s no service,” says Stevens. “I don’t even know if they’ll be able to open Mesa Falls. If they do, they definitely won’t open the bathrooms because they have no one to clean them.”
EastIdahoNews.com contacted the Ashton Island Park Ranger District, which declined to comment and told us to speak to Acting District Ranger Kyle Moore.
We reached out to Moore, and did not hear back. We did receive a call from Jared Fisher, spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, who said he has not heard anything about Mesa Falls remaining closed and told us to email our questions to him and he will send them to the Washington, D.C., U.S. Forest Service office. We are still waiting to hear back.
Stevens says he is worried about the condition of the forests and what they will look like without the care of the recently fired employees, many of whom have wanted to be rangers since childhood.
“I’ve always wanted to (work) with the Forest Service, ever since I was little,” says Stevens. “I’m really worried about our public lands and the places I love, like Mesa Falls. That place, especially in June and July, just gets decimated. … I’m hoping the public will step up, but I don’t have a whole lot of faith in that from the things I’ve seen.”
EastIdahoNews.com comment boards are a place for open, honest, and civil communication between readers regarding the news of the day and issues facing our communities. We encourage commenters to stay on topic, use positive and constructive language, and be empathetic to the feelings of other commenters. THINK BEFORE YOU POST. Click here for more details on our commenting rules.