Some of my earliest memories are of camping with my family in the Lincoln National Forest in southern New Mexico. As an adult with the Forest Service, I began to see the fabric that ties nature together with the communities that cherish and depend on it. And those communities have opinions about the way their forests are managed, just like you have opinions about how the agency is managed.

Now, as a leader supporting how we listen to one another—with tools like the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey to aid us in those efforts—I have a front row seat to those opinions, and how our sense of interdependence is closely woven into our ability to meet our conservation mission. In other words, stronger, more resilient conservation starts with stronger, more resilient employees.

As we celebrate Public Service Recognition Week, which celebrates all you do, it also seems like an appropriate time to ask you to share what can make your workplace better. We cannot sustain our conservation mission if we’re not sustaining our workforce. We’re asking you to share through FEVS what you know, how you experience things and what we should continue to work on. In just 30 minutes, you can help shape the future of our work environment and, in turn, the future of mission delivery. In the past two years alone, employee voices just like yours have directly led to major leaps forward including:

• Overhauling our Employee Assistance Program to be more responsive to employee needs at critical times 
• Addressing key challenges such as housing through inclusive, cross-deputy area teams  
• Building a new employee experience program that supports our new hires 
• Revitalizing our leadership development and supervisor training programs to be more responsive to current issues 
• Analyzing workload distribution across agency programs 
• Providing local work environment assessments to explore root causes and set up local action plans 

These are just a few of the real-world examples showing how sharing your perspective through FEVS has affected meaningful change. And what we accomplish internally radiates out to the people and landscapes we serve. Everything from the cities and communities adjacent to our forests to the most remote wilderness area are stronger and more resilient when they have strong and resilient employees serving them.

Thank you for choosing public service, for supporting our amazing conversation mission and for strengthening the fabric of our work environment. Continue being of service to one another by watching for the email and taking the 2023 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey May 8-June 23.