The Mountaineers
The Pacific Northwest is defined by its U.S. Forest Service lands. The agency manages nearly 25 million acres of public lands in Washington, Oregon, and Northern California, from the dizzying heights of Mt. Baker to the awe-inspiring Multnomah Falls. Much of the important on-the-ground management work - maintaining trails, cleaning bathrooms, and fighting wildfires - falls on the shoulders of seasonal or temporary employees.
Today, the Forest Service’s seasonal workforce is in jeopardy. The agency recently announced that they will not hire seasonal or temporary workers next fiscal year due to a sweeping budget crisis, leaving thousands of people out of work and putting vital conservation and recreation work at risk.
This hiring freeze is the latest cut in over three decades of consistent underfunding of our national forests. Our agency partners do the best they can to maintain our national forests with limited resources, but there is only so much they can do without a complete workforce. We expect this hiring decision will have an impact on recreation in the state of Washington.
Seasonal Hiring Freeze - Why Now?
The decision to pause the hiring of seasonal and temporary employees is partially in response to anticipated agency budget cuts. The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a spending bill that gave the agency around half a billion dollars less than it requested. The Senate version provides more funding for the Forest Service, but it remains unclear how the agency will fare in the final spending bill.
The Forest Service was already cash-strapped before these proposed cuts. Since the 1990s, the agency’s staff has been cut nearly in half due to chronic underfunding. That’s one reason why the agency has grown increasingly reliant on seasonal and temporary workers to carry out their mission to conserve and protect our national forests.
Impacts on our Forests: What We Know
The Forest Service’s seasonal hiring freeze - which went into effect on October 1 and will run at least through September 30, 2025 - will profoundly impact the management and preservation of our public lands. Seasonal employees play a vital role in managing our forests and protecting natural and cultural resources, particularly during peak recreation seasons and periods of heightened wildlife risk.
The good news is that the Forest Service will still be able to hire more than 11,000 temporary firefighting positions nationwide next year. As the intensity and frequency of wildfires continues to grow in Washington, we’re glad the agency will continue to fund these critical positions.
Unfortunately, most other seasonal positions are not exempt from the hiring freeze. Next year, the Forest Service will have fewer staff to do a vast array of vital recreation work, including trail, bathroom, and campground maintenance. That capacity squeeze will extend well beyond recreation, and the agency may have to prioritize emergency responses over essential long-term forest health, biodiversity, and conservation work.
We could see impacts of the hiring freeze on recreationists as early as this winter. The Northwest Avalanche Center (NWAC) depends on seasonal Forest Service employees to provide critical weather and avalanche data in Oregon and Washington. Fortunately, regional Forest Service leadership has made an exemption for NWAC seasonal employees due to the essential public safety nature of their work. However, flexibility on overtime and extension of the forecasting season remains in question. That may mean that backcountry riders have to contend with reduced avalanche and weather data this season.
Importantly, there’s also a human element to this story. Many people will lose their jobs and livelihoods. It’s no wonder that one Forest Service staff member we heard from shared that the agency is in a “cycle of grief” right now.
Expected Impacts on our Community and Programs
While it’s too early to know what the impacts of the hiring freeze will look like, we expect that the loss of seasonal employees will have wide-ranging impacts on our community, courses, and programs.
For one, Randy Moore, Chief of the Forest Service, has already shared that the agency will scale back services, rather than demand more of its already reduced and over-burdened workforce. On a day-to-day operational level, reduced services could lead to limited or closed access to recreation sites, unmaintained trails, and even less ranger presence in sensitive backcountry areas. Considering the majority of our courses take place, at least in part, on national forest land, closures stemming from staffing challenges would directly hamper our community’s ability to teach and learn outdoor skills.
A diminished seasonal workforce could also impact our ability to obtain essential recreation permits from the Forest Service. These permits allow us to do things like teach introductory TRAD climbing skills in Leavenworth, practice crevasse rescue on the slopes of Mt. Baker, and lead backpacking trips for youth in the Goat Rocks. Staffing limitations already impact our ability to obtain permits and lead courses - the agency does not currently have the resources they need to keep up with demand for new permits. We’re concerned that a reduction in seasonal staff will make it even more challenging for us to meet growing demand for outdoor education on Washington’s public lands.
How We’re Responding
Forest Service funding is one of our top advocacy priorities. When the seasonal hiring freeze was announced, our ongoing partnerships with Forest Service staff and recreation partners helped us to spring into action. We signed two letters to agency leadership asking to adjust the hiring policy. We asked for exemptions for seasonal positions funded by external grants and for seasonal avalanche forecasters. A letter we signed on avalanche forecasters helped raise the profile of NWAC’s request for exemptions. We’ve also shared our concerns directly with staff from Washington’s congressional delegation and have had multiple meetings with Forest Service partners to discuss the implications of the freeze.
While the decision to not hire seasonals is a big one, we’re confident that we can weather the storm together and build toward an adequately funded Forest Service. Looking ahead, we’ll continue to work with our partners at the Forest Service to ensure that the hiring freeze is implemented with the least amount of impact to outdoor recreation and sensitive public lands.
We’ll keep you updated on next steps, including opportunities to advocate for additional Forest Service funding with Congress. In the meantime, share your support for increased funding for the Forest Service with Congress using our action form.
For the greatest impact, we recommend personalizing your letter to Congress with how this hiring freeze will impact the places you love.
