Posted on 02/21/2025 11:17:50 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
SEATTLE (AP) — The termination letters that ended the careers of thousands of U.S. Forest Service employees mean fewer people and less resources will be available to help prevent and fight wildfires, raising the specter of even more destructive blazes across the American West, fired workers and officials said.
“I’m terrified of that,” said Tanya Torst, who was fired from her position as a U.S. Forest Service partnership coordinator in Chico, California, on Feb. 14. Torst, whose probationary period was set to end in March, worked with groups to bring in nearly $12 million for removing dead trees and other fuels in the Mendocino National Forest.
“This is 100% a safety thing,” she said of her concerns, recalling the deadly Paradise blaze that killed 85 people east of Chico in 2018. “That’s why I’m speaking out.”
Melanie Mattox Green, who was fired from her land management and environmental planning job at the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana, said their fire-prevention efforts prioritized areas where towns border forest lands. Staffing cuts put those towns at risk, she said.
“If a fire breaks out now without these projects occurring, that fire is going to be far more dangerous to our local communities,” she said.
The cuts also mean fewer people will keep trails free of fallen trees and other debris, she said. Maintaining trails is critical in remote areas that firefighters access by foot.
“Without those trails being cleared, it means that now firefighters cannot easily and more effectively get to these fires to fight them,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
let the state hire them
I guess we now have a working list of possible suspects in any future arson investigations...
More AP Leftist nonsense.
Sounds like a threat to me.
Once again, the butt-hurt AP is searching high and low for any propaganda that is negative to Trump’s actions. The AP doesn’t like being called out as the partisan organization that they are and have been for decades.
It’s also a call out to the Lefty terrorists to intentionally set fires.
“…according to fired workers.”
I’m shocked.
They are a one trick pony. They couldn't do non-partisan fair journalism if their life depended on it because that ain't in their DNA.
Good. California forest need to burn
AP - according to fired workers.
AP can go jump in a lake, or better still, The Gulf of America.
Right….. Tonya Torst a female and probationary employee, likely in her 20s is out there clearing trails.
No buying it. What she is doing is wasting a slot that could have gone to a person physically equiped to actually do such work, so ya, fire her, the position is useless with her in it.
Tugging at the heart strings (don't kill Bambi!) aided by the lackey press.
“””Tanya Torst, who was fired from her position as a U.S. Forest Service partnership coordinator in Chico, California, on Feb. 14.”””
Or as MAGA would describe her job, “Tanya sat on her butt and has never fought a fire”
Re: 2 - uh yes, but the state typically does not do fuels mitigation on Federal land.
Geeez I wonder who was president when those massive most destructible fires happened in California. I’ll give you a hint it wasn’t Trump. You didn’t do your job so you are fired. People died and property worth in the billions was burned to cinders! And to top it off there was no water in the Reservoir. That alone is a crime! You’re fired!
Apparently they haven’t been clearing forests of deadwood anyway, thus the LA fires.
How more police will cause fewer criminals to end up in jail, according to criminals.
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