How Forest Service Staff Cuts Threaten Local Wilderness

Thousands of National Forest Service workers across the nation lost their jobs over the weekend.

Locally, this directly impacts the Leavenworth Ranger station. National Federation of Federal Employees Local Steward Ranchel Granberg says a majority of forest rangers in Leavenworth lost their jobs. The Leavenworth station is responsible for the Enchantments - one of the premier hiking destinations in the Pacific Northwest.

The Trump Administration cuts are targeting probationary employees who either just started working with the forest service, or they have taken new roles within forest service as of recently.

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Forest Service Cuts Leave Firefighters Without Critical Support

While forest firefighters were not cut, their support staff has been significantly reduced.
"The militia are folks like me who step up when the regular day-to-day firefighters are completely overwhelmed," said former lead wilderness ranger Gregg Bafundo of Tonasket. "That militia is gone."

Kate White was one of the Leavenworth rangers. White, who lives in Leavenworth, lost her job in a two-sentence email citing poor performance despite satisfactory performance reviews and even a few awards from the forest service and partnering agencies.

"It said that my employment was being terminated effective immediately due to poor performance and not being in the best interest of the public," White said during a rally in Wenatchee's Memorial Park Monday. "Most of the people I know that were let go through this that I've worked with for the better part of a decade - I've never known any of them to have poor performance."

Bafundo echoed that message.

"This year I was involved in the search for the two naval aviators who crashed in the William L. Douglass Wilderness," Bafundo said. "I was on the team that helped locate that aircraft. I've been terminated for actions like that. If that's poor performance, I'd like to see the kind of performance we're getting out of DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency)."

Cuts Threaten Wilderness Cleanliness and Water Safety

Not only has White personally put out dozens of illegal campfires in the Enchantments Wilderness Area, but she's worried about the amount of improperly located human waste rangers picked up each season.

"All the folks who were in charge of the human waste management in the field.... have unfortunately been let go," White said. "As rangers, we would personally pick up 1,000 piles of human waste that we would dispose of that was improperly left behind by visitors."

White is concerned about the watershed that leads into local water supplies.

"Those watersheds up there lead into the municipal watersheds in Leavenworth," White said. "There will be some short-term impacts very soon, but there will be long-lasting impacts as well."

Bafundo says the impact of forest service cuts will be wide-ranging if they continue.

"We're talking about people who support the logging industry, we're talking about people who support the hunting and fishing industries," Bafundo said. "We're talking about real day-to-day work that impacts American people's lives."

The Washington Department of Natural Resources estimates over 242,000 acres have been burned in the state on average over the past five years.