How will job cuts to federal land agencies affect Minnesota? Here’s what we know.

Sandee Nezhad spent the last nine years as a U.S. Forest Service employee preparing Boundary Waters paddlers for launch into the wilderness. She went through safety tips and signed off on permits.

Monday she was fired.

“It’s crazy,” she said.

“My supervisor never documented any poor performance.”

Nezhad started as a temporary seasonal worker in the Superior National Forest (SNF) in 2016, and was promoted to a permanent seasonal job last year at the Gunflint Ranger District office in Grand Marais. She also helped at the Tofte office.

Considered a probationary employee, Nezhad is among an unknown number of Forest Service workers who’ve been fired or have resigned in recent days — part of the Trump administration‘s effort to reduce the federal workforce through Elon Musk’s team, which calls itself the Department of Government Efficiency.

Her immediate supervisor abruptly retired, too, and now, Nezhad said, the Gunflint front office that already dealt with staffing deficits has no employees. The front office administrative staff used to have seven or eight people, she said.

“I do the job because it is a service job and I believe in service. It is such a gorgeous area of the world and it needs to be preserved. Now I don’t know what is going to happen. We are peeling back that protection,” said Nezhad, who is in her mid-60s.

The Forest Service, which is within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is firing 3,400 employees, about a 10% reduction of its workforce, according to a Reuters report.

A USDA spokesperson said in a statement that the department “has made the difficult decision to release about 2,000 probationary, non-firefighting employees from the Forest Service. ... Secretary Rollins is committed to preserving essential safety positions and will ensure that critical services remain uninterrupted.”

Here is what is known and unknown about the workforce at federal land-management agencies in Minnesota and the region:

An agency employee in Minnesota who requested anonymity out of fear of retribution said the cuts and fallout have SNF staff “in crisis mode.”

Other forest colleagues are worried they’ll lose their jobs, and some career employees feel pressured to resign or risk losing benefits, the worker added.

The workforce that manages the 3 million-acre national forest “already is 100 employees down” to about 250, said the employee. They include a variety of jobs such as rangers, firefighters, biologists, and visitor services staff.

“We were already hanging on by a thread,” the person added. “Now [Elon] Musk, Trump and DOGE are thinning us even further. … This is huge for the Boundary Waters, recreation, [and] timber and fire management.”

A forest spokesperson declined to comment.

The national forest staff up north already was under a hiring freeze for help this summer, when tens of thousands of people flock to the Boundary Waters and nearby areas.

Before the newest job cuts, the Forest Service nationally was facing an expected $500 million budget shortfall. SNF managers had said 23 seasonal jobs would go unfilled, meaning routine work such as cleaning campsites and trails would take a back seat.

Last fall SNF Supervisor Tom Hall said that the agency would have to scramble to do the basics, like staffing the forest’s five district offices.

The LaCroix district site in Cook, Minn., already was down to one permanent seasonal employee in visitor services. Tofte and Gunflint office hours were cut last August because of a lack of workers. Office workers have a raft of responsibilities, from processing permits to taking payments for timber sales and hunting guide licenses.

Typically, 27 people manage the recreation inside and outside the BWCA in the eastern part of the forest. Late last year, there were only 10 because of budget cuts and a lack of applicants, the agency said last November.

A top official in the USDA said last March that the SNF had the highest risk of wildfire in the eastern United States after an unusually dry winter.

Last year, Hall said the agency continued to fill firefighting vacancies, and was hiring about a dozen new wildfire employees. It’s uncertain where that hiring now stands.

The Trump administration said firefighting positions are exempt from job cuts. An official with the union that represents Forest Service workers said “that is a lie.” He also contended that the probationary job cuts are illegal.

Dennis Lapcewich of the National Federation of Federal Employees-Forest Service Council said some agency workers whose jobs are threatened do secondary work such as helping fight wildfires. “When fire season takes off, they have a red card,” he said. “You are called to duty.”

The National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group, said 1,000 National Park Service (NPS) employees were fired.

Star Tribune questions about job cuts at Minnesota and regional NPS units, from Voyageurs National Park to the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, received limited answers. A spokesperson referred to an agency statement, which said the NPS “is assessing our critical staffing needs for park operations for the coming season and is working to hire key positions.”

Like the NPS, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service also falls within the Department of Interior. That department’s communications office didn’t respond to questions about the status of Minnesota’s Fish & Wildlife Service staff and its operations. The agency has more than 8,000 employees nationwide. The Midwest region includes Minnesota and seven other states. The regional base is in Bloomington, in the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

As a former Forest Service employee, Sandy Skrien is concerned. A Duluth resident, Skrien is the board chair for Northwoods Volunteer Connection, an agency partner based in Grand Marais.

A Forest Service crew leader typically will bring expertise while the group brings a crew of volunteers and gear to various projects like trail-building. Now Skrien wonders, will the SNF even have staff to assist?

“It definitely makes our future uncertain,” she said. “I think volunteer organizations and nonprofits are going to become more important for all these land management agencies.”

Skrien was at the agency in various capacities for 42 years but, “I don’t think we have been through times like this before. I think it is unprecedented. I personally have very little trust.”

Jason Zabokrtsky, owner of Ely Outfitting Co., said he shared the concern about agency staffing levels and “the viability of continuing to maintain and protect the BWCAW.”