The federal workers who fight wildfires have faced a lot of uncertainty lately. The U.S. Forest Service lost more than 10% of its workforce to DOGE firings, and thousands more who took the Trump administration up on its “fork in the road” offer and stepped down.

Some of the fired workers have been reinstated temporarily. Now, the U.S. Forest Service is inviting some of those who resigned voluntarily to return and help out during peak wildfire season. 

These Forest Service workers who keep getting sent home and called back are the same ones who spent the last few years bracing for a possible pay cut while Congress repeatedly kicked the can on making their pandemic raises permanent. 

“Those people kind of have been burned,” said Michael Wara, a climate policy expert at Stanford. “What federal employees that support wildland fire really need are adequate pay and benefits and some degree of stability, and they really haven’t had that.”

Now, heading into the hottest and driest months of the year, the Forest Service is down thousands of experienced firefighters and support workers. 

“It’ll decrease the speed, efficiency and scale that people can operate,” said Lucas Mayfield, president of the advocacy group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters.

The agency’s invitation to sidelined workers may not be well received, he added.

“There are a great deal of negative feelings that wouldn’t make me personally want to jump off the couch” to perform the tough, dangerous work of fighting and preventing destructive wildfires, Mayfield added.