The Trump Administration's DOGE-driven purge of federal workers is leaving Oregon’s National Forests with fewer caretakers.
Liz Crandall has worked with the U.S. Forest Service for almost 9 years. Since 2023, she’s been in a 2-year probationary position as a Field Ranger/Forestry Technician on the Deschutes National Forest. She said the job pays just over $20 an hour.
“I don’t care if I’m never gonna be rich. That’s okay," she said. "I love my job. I love taking care of the land. I love talking to the public.”
Over the weekend, Crandall got a form letter, signed by her supervisor.
“Reading the description of why I was being terminated was pretty—surreal,” she recounted. “It literally said, ‘based on your performance, you have not shown that your job is in the public interest anymore.’ My job as a Field Ranger is public facing!”
Tuesday, Feb. 18, was Crandall’s last day at the Bend-Fort Rock Ranger Station. She said there was a sense of shock and sadness as she and 15 other employees who were also terminated from their jobs on the Deschutes National Forest said goodbye.
Other forests experience firings
Crandall said she learned from colleagues that 25 employees working the Ochoco National Forest, northeast of Prineville, also lost their jobs over the weekend. Employees of the Willamette National Forest have reportedly been released from their jobs, though the total number impacted has not yet been confirmed.
“We’ve been told not to talk about it to anyone," said one terminated employee, who spoke to KLCC on the condition of anonymity due to fears of reprisal.
Federal workers at other forests in the region were also let go. The National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), a union that represents workers from the U.S. Forest Service, put the total number at 3,400. The union said the fired employees were all on probationary status, and claims the workers were "illegally terminated."
DOGE, which stands for "Department of Government Efficiency," is an entity named by President Donald Trump and led by billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Despite its name, it is not an actual department in the federal government. DOGE has been criticized by many Democrats—and a few Republicans—for the major changes it is making to the federal government, including massive cuts to the federal workforce. Supporters of DOGE say it's an overdue effort to streamline government services.
What's a probationary employee?
Probationary hire is practiced within the federal workforce as a sort of “trial period” for new employees or employees moving into a new position. Probationary periods typically last for one year but can extend to two or even three years, depending on the agency and position. A probationary employee typically has less protection against losing their job than an employee who has completed the probationary period.
Crandall said the letter she and other probationary employees received included the following reason for their dismissal: “The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest.”
Crandall said the mass terminations at Bend-Fort Rock came as a surprise to everyone. She and colleagues didn’t hear about terminations of probationary employees until Friday, Feb. 14. The next day, Crandall got a heads-up call from the forest supervisor of the Deschutes National Forest.
“She was very upset and made it very clear this was not their decision,” she said. “This was something [coming] from way higher up in the new administration. Then she told me, ‘you are being terminated and your off-boarding day is Tuesday.’"
Crandall said some of her colleagues were still getting termination notices on Monday, which was Presidents Day, a federally recognized holiday.
Before being terminated on Saturday, Crandall served as a Field Ranger in a Dispersed Recreation Program on the Deschutes National Forest. She said her work was “always about the Forest Service mission of caring for the land and serving the people.”
Crandall previously served on the Umpqua National Forest and the Willamette National Forest.
“I patrol dispersed areas to, first and foremost, make sure terrain, campsites and visitors are safe,” she noted. “I’ve called in over 100 abandoned campfires since I started in 2016.”
USFS helps with fire mitigation
Central Oregon is booming and every year, more people come. One reason is the accessibility of the natural world. Crandall said more people means more fire risk and that’s what a lot of her forest service work centered around.
“Our fire fighters can’t patrol everywhere. They have their zones and they’re really awesome at fighting fire actively all the time--- but they can’t be everywhere, right? So that’s where we come in,” Crandall said.
“We help with fire mitigation by enforcing camping limits and keeping check on timber sale areas where a trail might run through,” she said. “We basically help with safety, fire and camping. Or did, anyway."
In the job she just lost, Crandall worked with people of all political backgrounds and she added that everyone respected one other.
“This may sound cliché but losing this job felt like losing my family,” she said. “We all got along that way.”
Crandall said she doesn’t have enough financial resources to stay afloat for more than a few months. She’s actively searching for a new job in other natural resources/recreation/outdoor professions.
“But the fact is, thousands of us just got fired at the same time—from the same types of agencies,” Crandall said. “So, I think it’s ‘gonna be pretty competitive going for the nice jobs out there.”
