Forest Service

House Appropriators, Federal workforce, Congress Debt Limit

The federal workforce is growing, as House appropriators consider agency spending cuts

Despite a growing federal workforce, current budget deliberations in Congress could cause the pendulum to eventually swing back in the other direction.

Workforce

(USDA/Forest Service photo by Mark Pieper)

Forest service, Firefighter on a maintenance prescribed burn at Bitterroot National Forest

Forest Service lifts hiring pause on non-fire workforce, but plans to only fill ‘highest priority’ vacancies

Hiring/Retention

A firefighters works to stop a wildfire in Gouveia, in the Serra da Estrela mountain range, in Portugal on Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. Authorities in Portugal said Thursday they had brought under control a wildfire that for almost two weeks raced through pine forests in the Serra da Estrela national park, but later in the day a new fire started and threatened Gouveia. (AP Photo/Joao Henriques)

Despite massive bipartisanship, a pay raise for federal wildland firefighters is still at risk

Pay

The Forest Service introduces minority students to woodland firefighting

Workforce

15 weeks until federal firefighters face ‘pay cliff,’ warn Forest Service, Interior officials

Pay

USDA

The Forest Service claims progress in the effort to control western wildfires

People

It’s not just low pay causing retention issues for federal firefighters

Hiring/Retention

For USDA, advancing DEIA means making long-term, internal changes

Workforce

Air Force will no longer shoot down Facebook foes

Federal Newscast

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack talks with Forest Service firefighter at the Del Rosa Fire Station during a tour of the Del Rosa Fire Station to promote wildfire fighting money included in the infrastructure bill passed last November Friday, Jan. 21, 2022 in San Bernardino, Calif. (Terry Pierson/The Orange County Register via AP)

Forest workers want a little help finding their roots from their agency

Federal Newscast

Practice makes perfect: firefighter Nick Vallardo trains with an engine crew as they prepare for the coming wildfire season. (Lisa Cox, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)

CDO Council pilot fights wildfires using interagency data to target fuel sources

All About Data

Under infrastructure law, federal firefighters to see increase in pay

Agencies hope to resolve growing recruitment and retention challenges for federal firefighters with a pay raise and new guidance for career paths.

Pay

In this photo provided by the United States Forest Service, firefighters battle a wildfire, Monday, Aug. 23, 2021, near Greenwood Lake in the Superior National Forest of northeastern Minnesota. The fire has burned more than 14 square miles and promoted a new round of evacuations of homes and cabins on Monday. (United States Forest Service via AP)

Forest Service publishes a plan to mitigate the risk of wild forest fires

Wildfires and forest fires have become almost a year round phenomenon. It can’t continue, so the U.S. Forest Service has a new strategy.

Management

In this May 14, 2021, photo provided by the High Desert Museum, U.S. Forest Service firefighters carry out a prescribed burn on the grounds of the High Desert Museum, near Bend, Oregon. The prescribed burn is part of a massive effort in wildlands across the West to prepare for a fire season that follows the worst one on record. (Kyle Kosma/High Desert Museum via AP)

Biden expands pay, hiring for federal firefighters, but union warns it’s not enough

Workforce

The Biden administration recently announced a series of steps it would take to improve pay and expand capacity for federal firefighters, but a federal union worries they’re not nearly not enough to support intensifying fire seasons that grow longer each year.