Daines Turns His Back on USFS in Montana

Daines is protecting pedophiles in Washington while the U.S. Forest Service in Montana faces catastrophic cuts that strip our ability to care for the land.

Montanans deserve accountability for what's being lost on our public lands.

I've spoken with former agency staff, with rural firefighters, and with landowners who rely on USFS coordination. They all say the same thing: no one is listening to them. Decisions are being made far from the forest and far from the watershed from an ivory tower in D.C.

The U.S. Forest Service is undergoing what federal officials call a “restructuring." Here in Montana, it looks like abandonment.

The elimination of the Region 1 office in Missoula and the loss of 360 Forest Service jobs across Montana will be a shock to our communities. Daines promised more jobs and this is the exact opposite of more jobs.

Jobs are being lost, families are facing tough choices and the lands that sustain our spirits as well as our Main Street economies in Montana are being ignored and left vulnerable to private control. Our taxpayer dollars pay to manage these lands and we want to get our money's worth.

The cuts coming down form D.C. are part of a national effort to cut about 3,400 USFS positions this year, roughly 10  percent of the workforce. More indiscriminate cuts are planned across the USDA and USFS by mid‑year.

Region 1, which oversaw Montana and northern Idaho from Missoula, is being phased out as part of a plan to “consolidate regional offices nationwide.” It sounds like efficiency, but it's a scam. The Forest Service is eliminating seasoned public employees, people with deep knowledge of forest systems, and replacing them with contract-based “assessments” run by private consultants tied to corporate industry.

Decisions about our forests are increasingly being shaped by timber and extractive interests, not by biologists, fire scientists, or watershed specialists. When forest health is determined by profitability instead of ecology, the consequences are lasting.

This is a coordinated dismantling of public science in favor of political convenience and private gain.

Critical positions are now eliminated. The Division 1 Regional Office workforce once coordinated unmatched wildfire response that was the envy of the world. It's being dismantled.

Folks working in timber management, trail maintenance, and watershed monitoring were not coasting on redundant jobs. These are the people who understand the terrain, who manage access roads, monitor wildlife corridors, and work with local crews when fire season hits.

When a forest district office loses hydrologists, rangers, biologists, and administrative staff, it loses institutional memory and scientific oversight. This is the furthest thing from efficiency.

Public land management in Montana is a generational responsibility. Our forests, streams, and grasslands are complex systems that demand care rooted in science, not slogans. When we remove local expertise and dismantle the federal infrastructure that holds these lands together, we do lasting harm.

Montana knows how to care for this land. The current administration does not. Daines remains silent, focused on his donors and political games.

The Forest Service was built to serve the public good. Its destruction serves no one but those hoping to privatize, deregulate, and extract. We must say so, and we must fight for what we know is ours to protect.

This land belongs to Montanans, not lobbyists. I will protect it. Fire Daines. Vote Reilly.