The Forest Service will focus hiring on its ‘highest priority positions’ amid tighter budgets

With budget battles still to fight on Capitol Hill, the U.S. Forest Service will continue to hire for its highest priority positions, albeit cautiously. 

Forest Service Chief Randy Moore told the agency’s National Leadership Council last month that, following the findings of a strategic hiring assessment, workforce attrition was “well below 5%,” which signaled the need for more measured hiring plans.

“On one hand, we should celebrate that our staff are staying because they feel connected to the mission, they feel heard, and they are committed to improving our nation’s forests and grasslands,” said Moore. “To stay within budget and continue to deliver on our core mission, we must implement tighter controls on both internal and external hiring.”

Moore said that the Forest Service will move forward with 157 tentative job offers already made to external candidates and will continue to prioritize internal hiring to promote advancement for agency employees, but will focus future outside hiring on "the highest priority positions". 

Those positions include public health and safety roles, those needed to fulfill critical mission deliverables and highly specialized or difficult-to-fill jobs internally. Moore said the Office of the Chief would approve external hiring based on criteria, including converting permanent Forest Service positions from current student employment programs. 

Any roles hired from funding appropriated through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, Disaster Supplemental or other legislation will be deemed temporary unless approved by the Office of the Chief. 

But those limitations do not include hiring for firefighters, where the Forest Service has been actively trying to fill and retain dwindling numbers of federal wildland firefighters. 

The Biden administration sought to shore up wildland firefighters numbers in 2022 by authorizing pay raises of $20,000 per year or 50% of their base salary, whichever was lower, in the infrastructure law, and Congress extended those raises through at least fiscal 2024. 

The Forest Service asked for $8.9 billion in funding in the president’s fiscal 2025 budget request in March. 

The House version of the Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, released on July 11, includes $8.4 billion for the Forest Service, with a projected 3.5% cut from fiscal 2024 levels, but a 4% increase for wildland fire management.