Lanny Flaherty fears that the recent firings of at least 30 employees from the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest will leave the forest more vulnerable to lawsuits seeking to restrict cattle grazing on the forest.

Whitney Tayer is anticipating a “terrifying” wildfire season if the federal government doesn’t take steps to replace fired employees who, though they don’t work in the fire division, are certified to battle blazes when needed.

Austin Hawk wonders whether the Forest Service will have to close campgrounds because it has no one to maintain them.

The three are among the probationary employees on the Wallowa-Whitman who were fired last week as part of the Trump administration’s shrinking of the federal workforce.

Lanny Flaherty

Flaherty, 40, lives in La Grande.

He worked as a seasonal employee for the Forest Service for many years and was hired full-time as a range ecologist in November 2023. His probationary period was two years.

Flaherty said he led the range monitoring program for the La Grande and Whitman ranger districts, basically the southern half of the Wallowa-Whitman.

He spent his summers gathering data about the condition of cattle grazing allotments to ensure that they complied with federal laws, primarily the Endangered Species Act and fish that are protected under that law.

During an interview Thursday, Feb. 20, Flaherty said the data he collected, which he compiled during the winter when allotments are neither grazed nor easily accessible, served as the foundation for Forest Service decisions to allow grazing on public land.

Public allotments are vital for many cattle ranchers in Northeastern Oregon, including Baker County, where agriculture is the largest industry.

Flaherty said he worries that if the Wallowa-Whitman doesn’t have trained workers to study allotments, then groups that oppose livestock grazing on public land might have more success in the courts in trying to reduce, or eliminate, grazing.

He believes that a lack of monitoring data would make Forest Service decisions to allow grazing “much less defensible” in court.

Flaherty also worries about the agency’s ability to fight wildfires.

The 2024 fire season was the worst on record in Northeastern Oregon, based on acres burned.

Although Flaherty’s job was range ecologist, he was also, like many Forest Service employees, certified to fight fires.

Indeed, Flaherty said he was on a fire assignment in Louisiana when he learned he was being fired.

He said he spent “40 to 50 percent” of his work time on fires, including as a member of a national team that studied fire behavior.

He said he’s more concerned about his former co-workers than about himself.

“This is about so many passionate and dedicated employees who were cast aside for no reason,” Flaherty said. “There’s no plan for how this agency is going to move forward. It’s really tough. It feels to me like the Forest Service is being set up to fail. It’s going to be damaging for the American public as a whole.”

Whitney Tayer

Tayer started work March 25, 2024, as a NEPA coordinator on the Whitman district, based in Baker City.

(NEPA is the National Environmental Policy Act, a 1969 federal law that requires federal agencies to study the potential environmental effects of their actions and to write a report available to the public. Tayer compiled reports from Forest Service employees to create these reports, typically environmental assessments or environmental impact statements for projects such as timber sales.)

Tayer and her husband moved from Halfway, where she taught fifth grade at Pine Eagle School for three years, to Baker City, where they bought a home.

Tayer, 38, who said she was notified on Sunday, Feb. 16, that she was fired, said she has yet to apply for another job.

She said she learned, though, from other employers that the recent Forest Service firings have put a significant number of people into the job market.

Tayer said she might have to return to teaching.

Tayer, who is a member of the National Federation of Federal Employees, said the union is collecting data about how many employees have been fired.

She said the latest total she heard is 3,400 Forest Service employees nationwide, and at least 30, but possibly as many as 36, on the Wallowa-Whitman. The smaller number is about 17% of the forest’s workforce, she said.

Tayer said her chief concern about the firings is how it will affect the Forest Service’s capacity to fight fires.

“It’s going to be a terrifying fire season, I’m afraid,” she said on Feb. 20.

Austin Hawks

Hawks was four months from finishing his two-year probationary period as the front desk clerk at the La Grande Ranger District office in La Grande.

Many agency workers have a one-year probationary period. Hawks said his was two years because he qualified as a disabled worker due to multiple sclerosis.

The disease forced him to stop teaching agriculture classes at Eastern Oregon University (through Oregon State University), which Hawks, 44, said he had done for about a decade before taking the Forest Service job in the spring of 2023.

Hawks, who is married with three kids, ages 14, 11 and 8, said he relished helping people who came to the La Grande District office to buy firewood cutting permits or ask about places to visit on the 2.4-million-acre Wallowa-Whitman.

“I loved talking to people,” he said.

Hawks said his multiple sclerosis symptoms were much less severe once he started the Forest Service job.

He’s not sure about his job prospects now.

“I’m pretty discouraged,” he said on Feb. 20.

Hawks said his disease makes a return to teaching impossible.

He said it’s “heartbreaking” to imagine the potential effects of the firings on the Wallowa-Whitman and the people who visit it every year.

Hawks said he worries that visitors will have trouble getting permits for firewood and other forest products. He also fears that the agency will have to close campgrounds due to a lack of maintenance staff.