National Park and Forest Employees Fight Power with Passion

With all the focus on public employees and budget cuts, it’s worth remembering the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service employees who work physically and emotionally demanding jobs and like other public employees have for years been in the crosshairs of political and fiscal fights. Despite serious risk to their careers, they have stood up for their values. Many rangers and government scientists think forest management decisions are being driven by dollars and political influence rather than what is really best for the forests. But especially since park and forest service jobs are constantly being slashed for budget reasons, and since local officials have much control over these employees, speaking out can be dangerous. The groups Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics advocate strenuously both for the rights of individual park and forest service employees and for larger values around public commons and natural resources. They’ve often defended employees against retribution from higher-ups. PEER describes its mission in part as forcing agencies to "deal with the message, not the messenger."...more

The discretionary spending part of the federal budget is about to take a big hit. That will include all the land management agencies and we can expect to see more articles like this.