Federal layoffs harm natural resources

A lot has changed in the federal government since Jan. 20. One topic that has been in the news recently is the attempts to cut spending and costs, fueled by the near-constant updates about the actions taken by the Department of Government Efficiency. Alongside the plans to sell properties, mass layoffs have been planned and executed. Of these many layoffs, shocking cuts withing the Department of the Interior (DOI) leaves thousands of National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employees out of work.

Reducing spending on the federal level to reallocate resources and money to places with more demonstrated need can be positive. However, what gets cut and what stays should be considered responsibly, and potential impacts should be extensively measured before layoffs are enacted.

The DOI is an executive department that manages federal lands and natural resources, as well as conservation efforts across the nation. Its subsidiaries include the NPS, the USFWS and the BLM, among others. These different organizations are crucial when it comes to ensuring that public lands and wildlife in America are protected and tourist attractions such as national parks, monuments, forests and grasslands are clean and open for enjoyment by the public.

A majority of the job cuts were levied on probationary workers — workers who have recently been hired, made a lateral movement or been promoted to a new position. Across the government, probationary periods are often one or two years long, but many of those impacted are career federal employees or have years of work under their belt. These employees may have moved upward or laterally onto a new team and started a probationary period despite this experience. These cuts, accompanied by a federal hiring freeze, have put both park operations and conservation efforts in jeopardy.

Over 1,000 NPS employees were fired throughout the month of February, sparking protests across the country last Saturday. Thousands of people gathered at over 140 sites all over the United States to stand up against threats to public lands. Decreased levels of NPS staff will cause hours to shorten, campsites to close and opening days to move back as different parks struggle to get their lands ready and keep them maintained through the busy season this summer.

Another key organization that is facing staffing shortages in the USFWS. The USFWS works on conservation initiatives to protect and enhance fish, wildlife and plant populations as well as their habitats. This includes fighting against invasive species, climate change, habitat destruction and the illegal trade or transport of plants, animals, and fish. While the USFWS only lost around 370 employees in the layoffs, many of them were deemed critical to the Service’s mission. According to the National Wildlife Refuge Association, a non-profit that advocates for the National Wildlife Refuge System, the firings seemed to target biologists and natural resource professionals at a high rate. Firing these scientists directly impacts the USFWS’s ability to enact science based conservation efforts.

These cuts within the USFWS hit close to home with us Bennies and Johnnies (especially with the fishing and lake enthusiasts among us), as 14 federal employees who were working on controlling the invasive sea lamprey population in the Great Lakes were fired. These employees were all classed as probationary. With the loss of employees, the fishery commission believes they will need to cut their efforts to stay in budget and avoid overworking employees. A large-scale reduction in the sea lamprey control program could lead to hundreds of millions of dollars of economic loss each year due to fish consumed by the lampreys, not to mention the long-term damage that would be dealt to the populations of native fish.

As students who enjoy over three thousand acres of land between our two campuses, these issues should be very important to us. CSB+SJU ranks No. 1 in the state of Minnesota and No. 28 in the country for total acreage on campus, and No. 1 in the state for acreage per student for colleges with more than 100 students enrolled. We are privileged to have these natural resources at our disposal, and once we leave school, the access to these resources falls into the hands of the DOI and the NPS.

When the NPS is strong, we can continue to enjoy the outdoors at state and national parks once we have left campus, but if the NPS suffers we may see our way of life change after college.

On campus, there are many organizations aimed at helping students enjoy the natural resources on our campuses. Outdoor U provides education on the outdoors through classes, events and initiatives within the Abbey Arboretum. This includes opportunities to volunteer on conservation initiatives with the Abbey Conservation Corps. Outdoor U also oversees the Peer Resource Program, which hosts events and trips to help with personal development and team building, and The Outdoor Leadership Center, which provides outdoor equipment for students as well as programs that allow students to enjoy the outdoors. Students interested in growing food can work with the Full Circle Greenhouse. The Full Circle Greenhouse operates two student-run greenhouses, one on each campus, that provide produce to campus dining facilities.

Discussions about federal budget cuts seem poised to continue for some time, with lawsuits over the legality of various layoffs already progressing as the weeks go by. However, it’s important for CSB+SJU students to experience the green spaces on campus no matter the outcome of these ongoing debates. We are in a unique position on our joint campuses in terms of natural resources, and we should appreciate them for all they have to offer. Perhaps it can provide us with more perspective about the importance of protecting public lands nationally