Ketchikan residents joined others around the nation in protesting the Trump Administration’s mass firing of federal employees on Wednesday. As of Feb. 19, current and former U.S. Forest Service employees said that 11 people had so far been fired from the Ketchikan Misty Fiords Ranger District and over two dozen Ketchikan and Prince of Wales residents employed by the Forest Service had been terminated in total. They join many others across the Tongass National Forest that were let go in recent weeks. Forest Service representatives for the Tongass were not able to confirm an exact number of terminated employees at this time.
Brooke Rollins was appointed by Donald Trump to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the umbrella organization for the U.S. Forest Service. In an email, USDA spokesman Larry Moore said that “Secretary Rollins fully supports the President’s directive” to cut federal jobs.
Roughly three dozen people gathered on the busy corner of Tongass Avenue and Jefferson Way to show support for their coworkers and neighbors and oppose President Donald Trump’s policies. People held up signs against the wind and rain as passing cars beeped their horns repeatedly. “Good (expletive) job, guys,” one person yelled out their car window. “Keep it up.”
Here’s what demonstrators had to say:
- “Firing the federal workers was illegal and wrong and its inefficient and will be more costly in the long run.”
- “I was fired. It was said that I didn’t meet the satisfactory and that my position wasn’t critical, and we all have performance evaluations that state otherwise.”
- “Who is going to be looking at all of the cabins across the Tongass National Forest to let you know that it’s reserved or not? Who is going to take care of the wood? Who is going to take care of the portapotties? Who is going to take care of the trash on the trails? If a tree falls down, who is going to be responsible for that? The stream restoration! Who is going to help monitor the stream restoration to make sure salmon are having healthy streams to come back to? Who is going to do healthy forest evaluations for logging companies?”
- “We’re out here because the federal government is illegally firing employees on probationary periods under the pretense of ‘performance’ when – to a ‘T’ – all the ones I know were good performers. They weren’t provided the evidence as required in [the Code of Federal Regulations] for their termination. This is just the first step. You only have to read Project 2025 to know that they’re coming for all of us. Trump may have disavowed that a few months ago, but it’s pretty evident what’s happening now. So we’re all terrified.”
- “Make America Great Again? We are actually understaffed from the 1980s. We had more employees back then. We are already understaffed. Our federal spending is miniscule – like, we’re making such little money to go out there and do this and we just do it because we love it.”
- “What the U.S. Forest Service does for this community is something that a lot of people apparently don’t understand. They’re calling us parasites, saying that we’re all lazy, which we’re not. We work low paying jobs, not because we’re getting rich, but because we care about the resources that we protect, and we care about the people that we serve.”
- “Employees here were responsible for maintaining the trails and maintaining the cabins, and without the employees here today, that wouldn’t be possible.”
- “At the [Ketchikan Misty Fiords Ranger District] alone, 11 employees were fired illegally. Our whole mission statement is to give back to the people, right? We’re supposed to protect the forests and the resources for future generations, and they’re taking away the boots on the ground work.”
- “We need to know that as working people, we have each others backs. We need working class solidarity right now. Our rights are being stripped away. I’m here as a queer person to say that enough is enough. Whether you’re queer, straight, whatever, right? This is government overreach. All of it is (expletive). Pay attention and speak up.”
- “If this intersection here in Ketchikan is a decent sample size, we’ve got nothing but honks and cheers and pumped fists, not a single middle finger, not a single disparaging action. All support. This is the people talking here.”
- “Short-sightedness will not make America great.”
- “We’re out here to protest the recent mass illegal firings that have been perpetuated by our current administration. Our local employees here were responsible for maintaining the trails and maintaining the cabins. We make Ward Lake the best place ever to be. I mean, it’s essentially our community’s window into the Tongass National Forest, and without the employees here today, that wouldn’t be possible. So we’re here to support them and resist the capture of our executive branch.”
- “This service is supposed to be non-partisan, because we’re here for everybody, regardless of your views.”
- “Its not just the Forest Service. Its [the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]. Its the Environmental Protection Agency. Its the Bureau of Land Management. Its aviation. Its healthcare. There are so many people in this country who who are civilian servants, and they want to serve the people, and they’re all under attack.”
- “It’s not about the money for these guys. It never was.”
Fearing retribution from the federal government, many demonstrators did not want to be identified by name in this story.
