For the love of public lands

Sharing this from a USFS person.

Today, and through tonight and tomorrow, 3400 US Forest Service probationary employees have found out, or will soon find out that they are being terminated from their positions, simply for being civil servants who want to serve the public, including those of you who are cheering on these terminations. Did I mention that a lot of these employees are also veterans? (The federal government is the largest employer of veterans). 3400 families are about to lose a source of income in this imbalanced and inflated economy that we live in. A large portion of those 3400 employees are going to lose their housing because they reside in forest employee housing. Many of these people may have just uprooted their families and moved to a new area, buying a house, and being excited for their new jobs.

These probationary employees are not just people who are brand new to the Forest Service. A lot of these people have years of experience and may have moved into a new position to enhance their trip up the career ladder. These people are automatically put through another probationary period. Now they're going to lose their jobs for simply trying to better their lives.No study was conducted to see who these probationary employees are and what roles they play and contribute to. Blanket, random firings like this are going to throw the whole system into chaos. You might only lose 2 people on one forest, or 200 on another. It's just Russian roulette at this point.Those of you who voted for this chaos will suffer as well. I hope your homes don't end up in the path of any wildfires and get destroyed because of a lack of staffing. While our firefighting crews will not be directly affected by these terminations, they do heavily rely on red card (fire) certified individuals, who normally serve in non-fire related roles as their day job, but carry collateral fire duties to assist during fire season.

Think about your job right now. I know most of you love, or loved your jobs but are now retired. Imagine suddenly having your job snatched away for no reason other than political, insecure, chest puffing. Imagine your livelihood, and everything you worked for being taken away with the flick of a pen. No notice. With less than an hour's notice, it's all ripped away and you're being escorted out of the building. Everything you are working towards is gone. Just think about that. Now, think about how we feel right now, and that fear of losing it all, for nothing more than political posturing. How does that make you feel?To those of you who voted for and are applauding these actions, I hope you don't have any plans to visit any National Forests of National Parks anytime soon. All of these staffing cuts will lead to a lack of services, closures of campgrounds, visitor centers, and other facilities, such as bathrooms. Don't worry though, you can still hike and enjoy the great outdoors. Just be prepared to walk around human $hit piles and garbage because no one will be there to clean it up. Also, don't break your ankle on that part of the trail that's falling apart and won't get fixed because of a lack of trail crews. You might not even be able to get search and rescue personnel to help you because of a lack of staffing. Most of these positions are held by seasonal employees and new employees, who are probably on probation and will be terminated.

Of course, we can just turn over control to the states. I'm sure they'd never take advantage of privatizing services or selling off parts of the land to private ownership, leading to less access. I know I would love to see 20-30 story hotels and condos surrounding these sacred landmarks, while an oil derrick bobs up and down in the background.For all of you people who voted for these wannabe authoritarian, oligarchs, I know you convinced yourself that none of these asinine, illegal, sadistic, chaotic, uneducated decisions would ever affect you, your family, or your neighbors. Well, you should definitely think again. 2 million federal employees serve this country everyday. Do I believe there's problems with the system? Absolutely. Do I believe that we need to seriously change the system? Absolutely. Do I think we should do it on the backs of everyday, working, middle-class, federal employees? Absolutely not. If you think gutting federal employees and applauding it is a great thing, then you are a hateful and horrible person and should really look in the mirror at how ugly of a person you are. You are un-American. Your true hate shines through. You are cheering on an administration that claims to want to create jobs, but has no problem cutting jobs for over 265,000 probationary federal employees. You are cheering on an administration that wants to force people into unemployment, but they also want to pull the safety nets that help these people get back on their feet.Federal workers do not get into these jobs because they expect to make money.

These people have a true love of civil service and serving the American public. Federal employees are as American as it gets, especially in public lands management. We serve because we care. We are Americans. We pay taxes. We pay for these things as well. We voted. Regardless of who we voted for and who won, our voices matter. The president is not the president of just the people who voted for him. He is the president for everyone who lives in this country. HE SERVES US. We do not serve him. Your friends, your family, and your neighbors might be federal employees. Of course, it's not going to affect them because you voted for the guy who was going to "take care of all of those people I hate." You didn't vote for him because you thought his hateful policies would hit close to home. We all have the right to vote, but those votes have consequences. Well, surprise!! I'm one of those potentially affected probationary federal employees. Due to a clerical error, I have somehow been on probation for the past 5 years, in the exact same position on the same forest. Since Trump immediately ordered a hiring freeze, he ended up freezing all hiring actions as well, meaning that my personnel file cannot be updated to convert my status and to show that I am not a probationary employee. Yes, I received one of those emails stating that I am a probationary employee and can be fired. I've been with the federal government for 10 years. I might lose my job because of a clerical error and a half-assed attempt to slaughter the federal agencies that protect you. But hey, none of these problems were going to affect anyone you know or love, because they aren't the ones you hate. Surprise! It does affect the people you know and love. Thank you for wishing unemployment, lack of health insurance, lack of income, and possibly even a lack of basic human needs on me. Tomorrow, I may wake up and find out I lost my livelihood, and a job I love and worked hard to get. But, at least you feel better about your vote. Signed, an American civil servant.

CALL and Email every single congress person and rep you can. !!!!!

TODAY!!!