US Forest Service

US Forest Service workers feel caught in limbo, as federal court orders move them back and forth between hired and fired. Some employees and business owners are certain about what they need to do.

A governmental watchdog agency has ordered the US Department of Agriculture to temporarily reinstate nearly 6,000 probationary workers who were fired suddenly last month.What that means for the hundreds of Montanans fired from the Forest Service is still unclear.

Business owners and community members are taking a stand alongside recently fired federal employees, including the estimated hundreds of Montanans let go from the US Forest Service.

The dust is settling around a sudden move to reduce the federal workforce that included the Trump administration firing hundreds of U.S. Forest Service workers across the state of Montana.

Federal and state land managers in Montana are not yet fully staffed with their usual number of seasonal firefighters. During its hiring process, the U.S. Forest Service has faced the same workforce shortage pressures affecting the private sector.

A Montana Air National Guardsman was one of three Americans who died in a large air tanker crash while fighting brush fires in Australia earlier this…