By Billy Arnold
Jackson Hole News&Guide
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

JACKSON — Warning that future cuts to the federal workforce are inbound, the Trump administration is, once again, asking U.S. Forest Service workers in Jackson Hole — and elsewhere in the United States — to resign.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, USDA is being transparent about plans to optimize and reduce our workforce and to return the Department to a customer service focused, farmer first agency,” a U.S. Forest Service spokesman said in a statement to the Jackson Hole Daily on Thursday. “We’re giving employees the opportunity to take control of their next step in federal service before any changes take place.”

The new resignation offer comes after a season of upheaval for Forest Service employees, and other federal workers in Jackson Hole, where 97% of the land is administered by the federal government. That includes Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, the Bridger-Teton and Caribou-Targhee National Forest, and the National Elk Refuge, which is overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have used three main tactics to shrink the federal workforce: offering employees a chance to resign, firing them by deeming their performance unsatisfactory — a tactic that was deemed illegal — and planning large-scale department-wide cuts, known in government circles as a “reduction in force” or “RIF.”

In the Teton region, about 40 people were fired on the Bridger-Teton, and nine were let go on Caribou-Targhee’s Teton Basin Ranger District east of Teton Valley, Idaho. Four people were fired in Teton Park, and another seven in Yellowstone. 

Many of those workers have received reinstatement offers after a federal appeals board reviewed the firings and after a federal judge deemed the move illegal. Trump is appealing the decision.

Bridger-Teton and Caribou-Targhee National Forest employees received an unsigned email from Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins’ office Tuesday. The email once again offered foresters a chance to resign, and informed them that cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Forest Service, are still being planned. On Wednesday, they received a second email with instructions for resigning.

“If you choose to remain in your current position, we thank you for your renewed focus on serving the American people to the best of your abilities and look forward to working together as part of an improved and streamlined federal workforce,” the Tuesday email read. “We cannot give you full assurance regarding which positions will remain — or where they will be located — after USDA’s restructuring, but should your position be eliminated you will be treated with dignity and will be afforded the protections in place.”

The email gave Forest Service staffers until April 8 to accept the resignation offer, which would require employees to sign a contract and give them a 15 day window — between April 15 and 30 — to leave.

In exchange, the administration is offering pay and benefits through September 30.

In January, the Trump administration first asked federal employees to resign in the now-infamous “Fork in the Road” email, which closely mirrored an email Elon Musk used to downsize the workforce at Twitter. The offer expired Feb. 12, after a judge allowed the effort to continue, but extended the deadline six days.

While some western Wyoming residents have told the Jackson Hole News&Guide, the Jackson Hole Daily’s sister publication, they support the cuts, there have been multiple protests in Jackson backing federal workers. Town halls with conservative Wyoming lawmakers have been contentious. Federal workers unions that represent Jackson Hole firefighters and foresters have urged employees to keep their jobs and questioned whether there would be funding through September.

Other watchdogs that track the federal budget say they haven’t seen that funding allocation.

“I haven’t seen any funding for how the Forest Service, or any agency, would handle the costs of early retirements or resignations,” said Randy Rasmussen, the director of public lands and recreation for Backcountry Horsemen of America. That’s a watchdog group that promotes equine recreation.

Spokespeople for Wyoming’s Republican Sens. John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis and Rep. Harriet Hageman were not able to answer a question about the budget before press time.

It’s not clear how many Bridger-Teton and Caribou-Targhee employees accepted the first resignation offer.

Spokespeople for both agencies, and the U.S. Forest Service’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., did not respond to a request for that information, and provided only a statement about the resignation program.