California has so much to lose from Trump’s public land staffing cuts | Opinion

Like many others, my lifelong love of California took root on our nation’s public lands, from the awe-inspiring rivers running through Yosemite National Park to lush watershed of the Klamath National Forest. These are among the natural treasures where our dedicated National Park and Forest Service public servants care for these public lands — which, in California, amount to over 20 million acres.

Yet, alarmingly, scores of these rural public lands workers have been fired in recent weeks. Without experienced leaders managing our public lands, the water flowing down our rivers and through our faucets will be dirtier, and fire risk will escalate.

It is hard to overstate the gravity of recent unprecedented cuts to the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service. The National Park Service fired over 1,000 employees, which amounts to nearly 5% of the total workforce, and the Forest Service fired 3,400 employees, nearly 10% of its workforce. Well-managed forests are the most cost-effective and efficient way to provide abundant, clean drinking water while also maintaining river health and supporting healthy communities across the state.

As the largest land manager in California, the U.S. Forest Service is instrumental in delivering those benefits to all of us: Forest Service lands include 385 watersheds and are the source of nearly half the state’s water supply.

Take, for example, the Tuolumne River, which begins in Yosemite National Park. Right now, it is so clean that San Francisco is exempt from both state and federal filtration requirements before treating and delivering drinking water to over 2 million people. President Donald Trump has stated that he wants our country to have “the cleanest water in the world,” but staff cuts on our public lands move us in the opposite direction.

The U.S. Forest Service also plays a critical role in wildfire prevention. Nearly every person in our state has been touched by catastrophic wildfires in recent years. These fires deliver a one-two punch to our rivers and water supply: first when they incinerate the forests and infrastructure providing water, and second when floods wash ash and debris into rivers, polluting water and damaging infrastructure. Forest Service staff are instrumental in planning and implementing projects to reduce wildfire risk, including thinning forests and managing prescribed burns. In 2025 alone, they treated over 50,000 acres in California and nearly ten times as many across the nation to reduce wildfire risk.

In California, the stakes couldn’t be higher: With nearly 200,000 miles of rivers, California has the most river miles of any state in the United States except Alaska. California is also the nation’s only globally recognized biodiversity hotspot (in many ways due to the diversity of rivers flowing through the state). And Forest Service lands in California include almost 20% of the 574 federally recognized tribes in the nation — the most of any Forest Service region.

The most politically conservative parts of our state will ironically be most directly harmed by the staffing cuts on our public lands. Rural California communities rely on the Forest Service and National Parks not only for clean water and public safety, but for jobs, strong local businesses, natural heritage and beloved fishing and hunting traditions. The nation also relies on them: their recreation-based revenues contribute to the $646 billion recreation economy.

Our public lands and waters should unite us. When it comes to ensuring clean, safe water and public safety, there is no greater investment than healthy forests and rivers. We urge Congressional leaders to invest in our community’s safety and our state’s economic and ecological health, rather than stripping resources and capacity from the agencies that provide it.

Forest Service and National Park Service employees are our best land management experts that keep our homes safer, our water cleaner and our cost of living lower. Healthy rivers are what provide clean, healthy water for people and nature. Stewardship of rivers and the surrounding landscape through wildfire and watershed management on Forest Service and National Park lands is key to protecting our communities. There is no substitute for our federal land agencies to be fully staffed and funded.

This story was originally published March 16, 2025 at 5:00 AM.