Jamie Werner got the call from White River National Forest (WRNF) Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams on Sunday of President’s Day Weekend in February that she was among the recent new Forest Service employees being fired “for performance-based reasons” under the Trump Administration’s federal government downsizing.
It wasn’t a huge surprise.
Of the 15 WRNF workers who got the same call — a directive given to the soon-to-resign Fitzwilliams from newly installed Trump officials in Washington, D.C. — hers was the only desk job.
The rest were “boots on the ground” workers, such as recreation specialists, natural resource managers, biologists and hydrologists who are in the field managing the most-visited national forest in the United States.
“I cannot underscore enough the importance of the boots on the ground people who are out there managing these public lands, day in and day out,” Werner said.
Protesters rallied in front of the WRNF Supervisor’s Office in Glenwood Springs last week making many of the same points.
“These people represent the future of the Forest Service, and regardless of how this shakes out it’s hard for me to imagine a future where there’s the incentive for people to become civil servants,” said Werner, who did not attend the rally.
The Glenwood Springs resident was in her first year with the local Forest Supervisor’s Office, working as a program management specialist coordinating high-priority recreation and infrastructure projects.
Among them were the recently designated Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument and overseeing the Environmental Impact Statement process to develop a recreation management plan at Sweetwater Lake in northeast Garfield County.
Before joining the USFS last year, Werner worked for the nonprofit National Forest Foundation on projects including restoration of the Hanging Lake Recreation Area following the devastating Grizzly Creek Fire in 2020 and subsequent burn scar flooding the following summer.
She was recently awarded the Region 2 Regional Forester’s Award for her work.
While the prospect remains that she could be reinstated as the staffing cuts are further evaluated, Werner has been vocal in support of retaining critical workers who manage the lands that are important to the well-being of the Roaring Fork Valley and other parts of the WRNF, both recreationally and economically.
On March 4, she was invited by U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, D-Colo., to share her story during a Democratic Caucus press conference in Washington.
Hers is one of the many stories being shared by now-former Forest Service employees — including more than 100 in Colorado and around 3,400 nationally — about the work they felt they were performing diligently.
In addition, both Fitzwilliams and Deputy Supervisor Heather Noel opted into the deferred resignation buyout program offered to federal workers by the Trump Administration.
That further concerns Werner, who said the loss of veteran leadership, along with up-and-coming workers, squeezes the agency from both ends.
She worries the impacts could be felt across the board, from the way recreational amenities and natural resources are managed on the WRNF, to wildfire mitigation and response.
Among the probationary employees let go in Colorado alone, 67 were cross-trained to participate in firefighting operations, especially with the initial attack before outside federal resources can arrive, Werner said.
Trump officials maintain that public safety positions, including firefighters, were not among the cuts.
“Wildland firefighting positions are considered public safety positions,” the USDA Press Office said in a written response to several questions posed by The Sopris Sun to the local Supervisor’s Office about how the cuts might impact firefighting capacity and other WRNF operations.
Those questions were referred to the Washington press office.
“USDA has been actively working with OPM [U.S. Office of Personnel Management] on its wildland firefighting positions,” the statement read. “Protecting the people and communities we serve, as well as the infrastructure, businesses and resources they depend on to grow and thrive, remains a top priority for USDA and the Forest Service. We are incredibly proud of our firefighters, and we will ensure they have the training, tools and resources they need to work alongside our state and local partners, as well as private landowners, to continue the work to protect lives and livelihoods.”
At the same time, “Secretary (Brooke) Rollins fully supports the president’s directive to improve government, eliminate inefficiencies and strengthen USDA’s many services to the American people,” the statement read.
It also cited temporary Inflation Reduction Act funding under the Biden Administration as one reason for the release of 2,000 “probationary, non-firefighting employees” whose retention was not supported by long-term funding.
Third District Congressman Jeff Hurd, R-Grand Junction — who was elected last November to replace former Rep. Lauren Boebert after she moved to Colorado’s 4th Congressional District and was subsequently elected there — addressed the federal workforce reduction during a telephone town hall meeting with constituents on March 11.
Hurd said he shares constituent concerns about the way cuts have affected land managers on the ground.
“I support the efforts to find efficiencies,” he said. “We just need to make sure that it’s being done in the right spots. It’s not the land managers on the ground in western and southern Colorado who should be cut. It should be the bureaucrats in Washington who should be getting cut.”
That concern extends to potential impacts on firefighting capabilities, Hurd said. “While it is my understanding that firefighters have not been cut, some support staff has been cut,” he said. “That is concerning to me. We have six national forests here in the 3rd District, and especially with the dry winter we are having, it’s absolutely critical to have those resources in place.”
Hurd said he has formally asked the White House to take his and Colorado constituent concerns into consideration as staffing cuts are reevaluated.
He is also co-sponsoring legislation to ensure that any probationary workers who were fired and are reinstated do not lose their time earned toward seniority.