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by jacobjjacob 476 days ago
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.
2 comments
nxobject 476 days ago
A surprising amount of work involves law enforcement - all sorts of public land, from NPS to BLM, is used for drug manufacture and cultivation.
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93po 476 days ago
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?

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nxobject 476 days ago
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.)

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whamlastxmas 474 days ago
Abroad programs is plainly stated on their 2025 financials page

Why can’t they just hire the probationary people? I find it impossible to believe there isn’t a solution here

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nxobject 474 days ago
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.

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