DENVER (KDVR) Colorado’s senators and U.S. representatives issued a joint statement Friday, urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reinstate the roughly 3,400 United States Forest Service employees who were reportedly laid off en masse this week.

Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, and U.S. Representatives Joe Neguse, Brittany Petersen and Jason Crow sent the statement to the Department of Agriculture’s secretary decrying the reported mass layoffs. The group said the terminated jobs include positions responsible for wildfire mitigation, range and timber management, habitat conservation and outdoor recreation management. It’s unclear how many jobs in Colorado were impacted.

“We write with significant concerns about the decision to fire 3,400 US Forest Service (USFS) employees in accordance with Executive Order 14210: The Department of Government Efficiency ‘Workforce Optimization Initiative,’ and urge you to immediately reinstate them,” wrote the lawmakers.

“The USFS is already critically understaffed, and further employee cuts will have real and immediate consequences for Colorado’s economy, rural communities, and wildfire resilience,” they added.

The order told agency heads to “promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force,” and said that all offices that have functions not mandated by statute or other law will be prioritized for the layoffs.

The order further clarified that this includes all diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; all “initiatives, components, or operations that my Administration suspends or closes” and all employees who are not typically designated as essential as provided in contingency plans, such as ones made for a government shutdown.

Legislators note potential impacts to Colorado

The Colorado lawmakers noted that the USFS has about 35,000 employees and manages over 190 million acres of forests and grasslands. The Colorado State Forest Service has reported that approximately 65% of Colorado’s forests are under federal ownership, with the primary land manager being the USFS, which manages about 11.3 million acres of Colorado land.

“Using visitation data alone, national forests produce nearly $400,000 in economic activity for every USFS employee,” the legislators’ letter states. “These employees also live in and contribute to many of our country’s most rural communities, keeping downtowns vibrant and critical services intact.”

The legislators said that the USFS is chronically understaffed, and the agency’s workforce is “nearly 30% less than it was three decades ago,” and noted that the country’s population has grown by over 100 million residents, and visitation to national forests has also reached new heights, prompted by the pandemic. Wildfire risks have also increased, the lawmakers wrote.

“Agency employees have entered public service despite low pay, the frequently seasonal nature of the job, and limited housing in the remote areas they serve,” the legislators wrote. “With the rising cost of living across the state, Colorado communities are already challenged with limited USFS staff to confront land management challenges. Combined with the existing hiring freeze, yesterday’s staff reductions will stretch the agency to its breaking point and place an enormous burden on Colorado communities.”

Exemptions sought for firefighters, public safety personnel

Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse, who spent much of the summer seeking federal help for Colorado’s wildfire efforts after the Alexander Mountain Fire sparked in late July 2024, sent a letter also signed by Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat from California, asking the Department of the Interior to authorize hiring freeze exemptions for wildland firefighters and wildland fire units, wildfire mitigation personnel, public safety personnel and seasonal staff within the USDA and DOI.

“These positions are critical for ensuring the safety and security of our communities, particularly as we head into peak wildfire months,” the representatives wrote.

Neguse noted that record-breaking wildfires have been reported across the country year after year, most recently demonstrated by a series of wildfires in the Los Angeles metro area and San Diego County, California. The fires decimated communities and caused millions of dollars in damage to public infrastructure. An exact figure on the damage caused has not yet been released.

“Our nation continues to face record-breaking wildfires year after year, impacting states over the course of the entire year, as wildfire season is no longer limited to the summer months,” Neguse and Huffman argued in their letter. “More and more communities now live with the threat of wildfire, and the cost of destructive wildfire continues to rise. Pausing the hiring of wildland firefighters and wildfire mitigation, support and operations personnel could seriously impact our ability to conduct necessary wildfire mitigation and suppression work.”