Photo by Joe Friedrichs
Fired Forest Service Staff Near the BWCA Returning to Work, For Now
By Joe Friedrichs
SUPERIOR NATIONAL FOREST – Employees of the U.S. Forest Service will be returning to work following a ruling last week from a federal board saying fired probationary employees need to be reinstated.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced this afternoon (March 11) that it will comply with a March 12 deadline issued by the Merit Systems Protection Board to temporarily reinstate its fired probationary employees. This includes Forest Service employees who were fired in recent weeks from Superior National Forest. The entire Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is located within Superior National Forest. Officials from the Forest Service told Paddle and Portage March 6 that fewer than 10 employees were fired as part of the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce.
The order from last week required the workers to be reinstated for 45 days. It also includes a “phased plan for return-to-duty,” which means the employees will be returning to work. It does not say what happens after the 45-day window expires.
The entire statement issued today from USDA reads:
“On Wednesday, March 5, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) issued a 45-day stay on the termination of U.S. Department of Agriculture probationary employees. By Wednesday, March 12, the Department will place all terminated probationary employees in pay status and provide each with back pay, from the date of termination. The Department will work quickly to develop a phased plan for return-to-duty, and while those plans materialize, all probationary employees will be paid.”
Larry Moore is a communications coordinator for USDA based in Washington. In an email sent to Paddle and Portage March 11, he said, “We do not have forest-specific information to provide at the moment, so I will point you to the press release issued today from USDA: https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/03/11/usda-status-update-probationary-employees. That is all the information we have available at this time. Thank you for your understanding.”
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