For Immediate Release
February 24, 2025
Contact:
Erik Molvar, Western Watersheds Project, (307) 399-7910
Western Watersheds Project joins legal challenge against federal mass-firings
SAN FRANCISCO – Yesterday, Western Watersheds Project joined three unions in a lawsuit challenging the mass-firing of thousands of federal workers across a variety of government agencies, including the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, National Science Foundation, and Bureau of Land Management.
“Regardless of how you feel about federal agencies, random mass-firings of government employees will never increase government efficiency or improve the competence of land and wildlife management,” said Erik Molvar, a wildlife biologist and Executive Director of Western Watersheds Project.
Agencies within the Department of Interior were already chronically understaffed prior to the recent spate of job cuts, and unable to perform even basic, legally-required oversight of public lands. A report by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility shows that almost one-fourth of Bureau of Land Management lands leased for livestock grazing have never had their legally-required assessment for whether they are meeting land health standards. Furthermore, an analysis by Western Watersheds Project found that more than half of grazing leases on Bureau lands were being renewed without any changes or environmental review, even in National Monuments, sage grouse priority habitats, and where failing land health standards, due to inadequate staffing.
“Federal land and wildlife agencies are already understaffed, and the Trump administration’s recent hatchet-job on federal employees is resulting in chaos that will reduce federal oversight over lands that are supposed to be managed for the public interest, with conservation of lands, wildlife, and watersheds an important focus,” said Molvar. “We are concerned that these new job cuts will result in less federal oversight over public lands, allowing loggers, grazers, and drillers to get away with serious land abuses.”
The organization also raised concerns that cuts to the National Science Foundation will hamper the production of new scientific studies that shed light on the environmental impacts of livestock grazing, logging, mining, drilling, and other profit-driven uses of federal public lands. Western Watersheds Project relies on primary science funded by the National Science Foundation to hold federal agencies accountable to their legal obligations regarding responsible land management and rare species protections.
“The Trump administration is like a clown car with a drunk driver mowing down people on the sidewalk,” said Molvar. “Somebody’s got to stop them, and WWP is proud to support the unions in their effort to protect workers and the environment from this rogue administration.”
In addition, Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, VoteVets,and Main Street Alliance also joined the lawsuit. Western Watersheds Project is a unionized nonprofit conservation group dedicated to protecting and restoring wildlife and watersheds throughout the American West.
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