When it comes to Forest Service Job Corps, we have 60 years of successes to celebrate. And we have something unique to offer the whole agency: our students. Our work is training and education, and our students learn best when they get the chance to perform paid work in a real work setting. Our work not only changes lives—it changes trajectories for entire families. I invite you all to take on a student for a work-based learning assignment. They’ll learn and gain career skills while delivering our Forest Service mission.

Like the rest of the agency, Job Corps has been grappling with a variety of issues that make our jobs more complex, including budget and staffing. Leadership in difficult times matters. How do we, as leaders, respond to challenges? How do we provide hope, sustain resilience, care for the caregivers and balance our dedication to service with our duty to our employees?

I do not have a one-size-fits-all answer to these questions, nor do I believe one exists. These are complex issues requiring complex solutions. What I do believe is that we must face these challenges together. One of our agency’s strengths is that we come together to get the work done, even in the face of adversity. Throughout the Forest Service, staff cover for one another when someone takes time off. When I’m able to solve a problem by working with my peers, I feel a shared sense of success that draws us together. My weaknesses are complemented by another’s strengths; together, we can arrive at a solution more quickly and effectively.

On the other hand, just as we come together with “our people” to surmount challenges, it’s often easy to frame “other people” as the problem, the source of our challenges, or even as our enemies. It may feel good, but it’s wrong. We must resist the pull to scapegoat others. There is a quote I think of often, “we must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately,” and, to me, that reminds me that we are entirely interdependent. We all need each other, whether we are in the office or the field, and we must act as one team, one community, to deliver not only our individual work but to meet the needs of the American people and our partners. No matter where we sit, we have one mission: We are one team.

In difficult times, as Chief Moore has noted, we must come together. We must rely on everyone to play their roles, from our employees to our partners, to our volunteers and even the people we serve. My own commitment as a leader is to treat our partners as partners in service.

By providing hands-on opportunities to students, we also cultivate the next generation of Forest Service employees. Students are already contributing to our work: This summer, over 1,000 Job Corps students served on fire assignments—on the fireline, in dispatch centers and in fire camps across the country. They are the leaders of our future who will ensure our agency continues to serve for the next hundred years.

Like many of you, there are days I feel frustrated by systems and challenges, and on those days, I go home to a supportive family, a safe neighborhood, a roof over my head, and food on the table. Looking at our students’ lives offers me perspective. Those things I take comfort in are privileges that many Job Corps students never had. If they can come to us and succeed after sleeping rough, living through trauma, and overcoming addictions and violence, I can overcome my own perceived inadequacies to deliver a safe learning environment and a chance to change their lives.

That’s when our agency truly shines, when we come together for the benefit of others, whether that benefit is immediate or long-term, to students and visitors or in the form of contributions to science or when we respond to devastating wildfires or natural disasters. In challenging times, it can be difficult to see, but, together, we do amazing work.

I encourage you again to look around when you face these challenges of staffing shortfalls and make use of all our existing resources. You can accomplish mission-critical goals and grow our next generation of environmental leaders by providing hands-on experience to Job Corps students. You'll find investing in these students an incredibly rewarding experience that delivers dividends.

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