Oregon lawmakers worried Trump's order hampers wildfire hiring

This story has been updated

Thousands of jobs in the Northwest are in flux this week following President Donald Trump’s 90-day hiring freeze of civilian federal workers.

Seasonal firefighters and park rangers hired each summer won't have a clear answer on the status of their jobs until the executive order is clarified, officials said.

The order, issued Monday, said “no vacant positions existing at noon on January 22, 2017, may be filled and no new positions may be created, except in limited circumstances.”

The statement came as agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management prepare to hire a small army of seasonal employees for an array of jobs on public lands.

Five Oregon lawmakers wrote a letter to the White House on Friday expressing concern that enough seasonal workers would be hired in time to fight forest fires.

“Without staff in place to prepare for the wildfire season, which is starting earlier and earlier every year due to climate change and years of severe drought conditions across the country, our forests and communities are put in harm's way,” lawmakers said in a letter to the president. “Seasonal hiring will be starting soon and uncertainty about how to proceed could have serious impacts on public safety.”

Thousands of employees impacted

The Forest Service hired about 11,000 seasonal employees in 2015 — about 6,200 of which were firefighting-related, the Missoulian reported. Department of Interior hires "thousands" more for firefighting-related jobs, but an exact number wasn't immediately available, National Interagency Fire Center spokeswoman Jessica Gardetto said.

In the Pacific Northwest, the Forest Service and National Park Service previously announced plans to hire 1,250 people this summer for recreation, visitor services, and engineering.

All of those jobs are up in the air following the announcement.

Firefighting jobs may be exempt

Gardetto said the order’s exemption of jobs “necessary to meet national security or public safety” could apply to firefighting.

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"We typically start seasonal wildland fire hiring in the winter months, so at this point, we are not sure how this will affect us," Gardetto said. "We are awaiting further guidance on this issue."

As for jobs that don’t meet the national security or public safety exemption — a seasonal ranger at Crater Lake National Park, for example — the future is unclear.

Exacerbating a problem?

The freeze comes at a time when national parks and federal lands in Oregon and nationwide have seen a steep increase in crowds without any increase in staffing at federal agencies.

“(National parks) cannot continue to be hampered by low staffing, and that’s exactly what will happen with this hiring freeze,” said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of National Parks Conservation Association, in a press release. “Park rangers are already forced to do more with less because they don’t have enough staff to handle record-breaking crowds.”

Babete Anderson, National Press Officer for the Forest Service, said only that the agency was “waiting for further clarification and direction.” Questions to the National Park Service were not immediately returned.

Signing the letter to President Trump were p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Palatino}span.s1 {font-kerning: none} Sen. Ron Wyden, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Rep. Peter DeFazio, Earl Blumenauer and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici.

Zach Urness has been an outdoors writer, photographer and videographer in Oregon for eight years. He is the author of the book “Hiking Southern Oregon” and can be reached at zurness@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.

Text of the order:

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release, January 23, 2017

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: Hiring Freeze

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order a freeze on the hiring of Federal civilian employees to be applied across the board in the executive branch. As part of this freeze, no vacant positions existing at noon on January 22, 2017, may be filled and no new positions may be created, except in limited circumstances. This order does not include or apply to military personnel. The head of any executive department or agency may exempt from the hiring freeze any positions that it deems necessary to meet national security or public safety responsibilities. In addition, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) may grant exemptions from this freeze where those exemptions are otherwise necessary.

Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in consultation with the Director of OPM, shall recommend a long-term plan to reduce the size of the Federal Government's workforce through attrition. This order shall expire upon implementation of the OMB plan.

Contracting outside the Government to circumvent the intent of this memorandum shall not be permitted.

This hiring freeze applies to all executive departments and agencies regardless of the sources of their operational and programmatic funding, excepting military personnel.

In carrying out this memorandum, I ask that you seek efficient use of existing personnel and funds to improve public services and the delivery of these services. Accordingly, this memorandum does not prohibit making reallocations to meet the highest priority needs and to ensure that essential services are not interrupted and national security is not affected.

This memorandum does not limit the nomination and appointment of officials to positions requiring Presidential appointment or Senate confirmation, the appointment of officials to non-career positions in the Senior Executive Service or to Schedule C positions in the Excepted Service, or the appointment of any other officials who serve at the pleasure of the appointing authority. Moreover, it does not limit the hiring of personnel where such a limit would conflict with applicable law. This memorandum does not revoke any appointment to Federal service made prior to January 22, 2017.

This memorandum does not abrogate any collective bargaining agreement in effect on the date of this memorandum.

DONALD J. TRUMP

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