I communicated with you April 2 on the need for a Strategic Hiring Assessment and Strategy, with follow-up direction to be issued within 30 days. This letter outlines national direction based on the results of the assessment.

While we were able to complete the assessment in 30 days, it has taken more time to analyze and develop strategic hiring direction that responds to the results. I am grateful to all our leaders who have continued to steward our work and continue to deliver on our mission.

The key finding of the assessment is that our agency is not attriting staff at the historic rate of nearly 9%. In fact, we are well below 5%. On one hand, we should celebrate that our staff are staying because they feel connected to the mission, they feel heard, and they are committed to improving our nation’s forests and grasslands. To stay within budget and continue to deliver on our core mission, we must implement tighter controls on both internal and external hiring.

We recognize career advancement opportunities are very important, so we will immediately resume internal hiring. While we will resume internal hiring, we must recognize the interconnectedness of our positions. For non-fire positions that remain in the system but have not reached the stage of a tentative job offer, each region/station/deputy chief area should work with a Human Resources officer to prioritize these jobs to advance a prioritization process with strict criteria and centralized approval for any external hires. In addition, all Forest Service units should complete workforce planning in the coming weeks, a process that the agency estimates will take about five weeks. Guidance on that was issued by Business Operations on June 20. This will allow us to project and prioritize our workforce needs in relation to our expected budget for FY2025.

For the pending external hires, we will move forward with 157 of the tentative job offers. These include line officers, law enforcement officers, resource assistants, some hard-to-fill mission critical positions, Pathways Recent Graduates, Presidential Management Fellows, and some positions under specific non-competitive hiring authorities. Remaining positions in the tentative offer stage will not move to final offer. Each unit with a pending tentative offer will work with their HRO on next steps. Our Human Resources Management leadership team will also be developing frequently asked questions and additional details around implementing these changes, which will be forthcoming soon.

The Office of the Chief will approve future hiring of external candidates using a set of criteria. We will focus on the highest priority positions needed to protect public health and safety, to fulfill critical mission deliverables, as well as positions that are highly specialized and/or have been demonstrated to be very difficult to fill internally. The criteria will also apply to the conversion of individuals from student employment programs into permanent Forest Service positions. National Leadership Council leaders will be working with our Business Operations deputy chief and our Human Resources teams to more fully develop these criteria and incorporate them into the hiring process.

When filling future positions using Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Inflation Reduction Act, Disaster Supplemental or other temporary funds, positions should be filled as temporary or Term unless otherwise approved by the Office of the Chief.

Deliberate conversations will continue regarding non-fire retirement covered "fire positions" (for example airworthiness positions or aviation inspectors) to ensure critical services are evaluated and staffing is in place in preparation for the peak of wildfire activity. As was stated in the April 2 letter, this does not impact ongoing Fire hiring.

If you have questions or need clarification, please contact your local Human Resources Officer [internal link] or email Field Service Operations.

We are at our best when we face challenges together. We are leaning heavily on our core value of interdependence, as we steward the whole, sharing leadership across the agency to navigate these changes while supporting our workforce. We will continue to tell the story at every opportunity of the value of our nation’s forests and grasslands and the need to continue to invest in them and in the Forest Service. As always, I am grateful for all of you and the amazing work our employees do to serve the American public.

Thank you for all you do.

Editor's Note: This is a digital copy of the letter that was sent to the  Forest Service NLC on June 27.

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