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How are the mass federal layoffs affecting the Gila National Forest?
A waterfall on the west side of Mogollon Creek in the Gila National Forest. About 40% of the crews that oversee the 3.3 million-acre forest in southern New Mexico were laid off, says a former field lead for a trail crew.
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Around 40% of the crews that oversee the 3.3 million-acre Gila National Forest in southern New Mexico were laid off, according to Justin Schatz, a former field lead for a trail crew there.
He and his entire crew of seven people — who were tasked with maintaining 1,700 miles of trails — were among those laid off.
“I make under 40K a year, I am renting out a small apartment, and I dedicate most of my time to protecting our public land,” Schatz said.
That small apartment is in Silver City, a town with a population of roughly 9,000 people, some of whom also work — or worked — in the U.S. Forest Service.
“Many of us are talking about having to relocate to another town because we just don’t know how to kind of make ends meet in a small rural town in New Mexico. There’s just no jobs,” Schatz said. “There’s the mine, there’s Walmart, and that does not pay well, and that’s not exactly the healthiest life.”
He finds himself angry watching tech mogul Elon Musk, who is running the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is leading the cuts, brag about finding fraud in government when the mass firings are affecting everyday people in the town he lives in.
“It just infuriates me what is happening because he is ruining so many lives and so many people who have given their entire lives to better the lives of their communities,” Schatz said.
Schatz added that many government jobs require a niche set of skills, and it will be difficult to find another employer where he can remain in a similar line of work.
“The question that many of us have faced is ‘What now?’,” he said. “How can we apply these skills that we have mastered over years to any other job? We just don’t know what we are going to do.”
Schatz worked for the U.S. Forest Service for just over a year.
