Terminated Forest Service employees to join Colorado lawmakers at Trump’s Joint Address to Congress on Tuesday

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump is scheduled to give his first joint address to Congress since taking office in January. 

In addition to lawmakers from both chambers, guests of senators and representatives will be in attendance. Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper and Rep. Joe Neguse have invited three former Forest Service employees who were among the 3,400 nationwide cuts the Trump administration made to the federal agency in February.

Jamie Werner, who most recently served as a program management specialist with the White River National Forest Supervisor’s Office in Glenwood Springs, will join Bennet, according to a news release sent by the senator’s office on Monday. 

Mikayla Moors, who previously held seasonal positions with the National Park Service and started as a forestry technician with the Region 2 Timber Strike Team for the Forest Service last May, will join Neguse, an aide from his office confirmed on Monday. 

On Tuesday, Hickenlooper announced that his guest would be Amelia Huffman, a U.S. Navy veteran and most recently a public affairs employee in the Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grassland

The layoffs were among those ordered by Trump’s Feb. 11 executive order, which had the goal of “eliminating waste, bloat and insularity” at federal agencies. The order instructed departments to work with the new Department of Government Efficiency — led by Elon Musk — to increase federal efficiency and productivity. As a result, tens of thousands of federal workers have lost their jobs. 

The Forest Service cuts targeted probationary employees — which includes both new hires and recently promoted employees. 

Werner managed several projects for the Forest Service, including the development of the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument and plans for Sweetwater Lake. Werner was awarded the Regional Forester’s Award for the agency’s Rocky Mountain Region or Region 2, which includes Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and the majority of South Dakota and Wyoming. 

Werner joined White River National Forest’s Glenwood office last year from the nonprofit sector, including the National Forest Foundation, a congressionally chartered nonprofit partner of the Forest Service. As a recent hire, this marked Werner as a probationary employee. 

“I, like so many others I know, joined the Forest Service to serve the American people, to steward the public lands we all care so much about, and to contribute to the economic, physical, and mental well-being of our local communities,” Werner said in Bennet’s news release. “Even if I hadn’t been fired, it is infuriating and heartbreaking to see my colleagues essentially be told that not only does their important work not matter, but that they’re not even doing it well, and have had their lives and livelihoods upended as a result.”

Moors spent the last summer as a forestry technician, traveling the Rocky Mountain Region to help understaffed Forest Service districts. The position allowed her the leg up to apply for a position as an administrative support assistant for the Bureau of Land Management. She had begun training for the new job when the new administration sent an email revoking the offer. 

According to the Neguse aide, Moors was just three months away from completing her one-year “probationary period” when she was let go as part of the recent series of mass terminations conducted by the Trump Administration. 

“I wholeheartedly believe in the land management agency missions because, for me, caring for the land and serving the people, there is nothing more important in my life,” Moors said in an interview with the Summit Daily in February. “I found a calling for public service. I just couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. This is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

After four years in the military service, Huffman began a job in Fort Collins with the U.S. Forest Service last year. 

“Transitioning from military service to civilian life can be challenging. These jobs in the public lands sector provide an opportunity for veterans to stay connected to their sense of purpose and duty. We’re able to continue serving, not just in an abstract way, but in a tangible, real-world manner by conserving the land we once fought to protect,” said Huffman in a statement.

Neguse, Hickenlooper and Bennet have been critical of the Forest Service layoffs, calling attention to the danger that these cuts could pose for Western Slope communities. Colorado lawmakers have warned that the layoffs could have detrimental impacts on local economies, wildfire risk, and forest and watershed health. 

Joined by fellow Colorado lawmakers — including Reps. Brittany Pettersen and Jason Crow — they sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, urging her to reinstate the employees. Bennet introduced a budget amendment that would reinstate not only the Forest Service employees but also those fired from the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management.

“The decision to terminate these employees at our already understaffed land management agencies reveals a complete disregard for the importance of public lands in the West and the value of these employees’ contributions to our local communities,” Bennet said in a statement in his latest news release.