The Forest Service lost 16% of its staff. Its $10.8 billion repair backlog didn't move.
Summary
In the first half of 2025 the U.S. Forest Service lost 5,860 employees — 16% of its workforce and the largest headcount loss of any USDA agency — according to the USDA Inspector General. The infrastructure they maintained didn't shrink to match: the agency's own FY2026 budget filing puts its deferred-maintenance backlog at $10.8 billion, and an internal report found trail miles maintained fell 22% in a single year.
A workforce cut faster than any other agency's
lost 20,306 employees agency-wide between January and June 2025, mostly through the administration's deferred-resignation buyout program. Sixteen agencies absorbed that cut unevenly — the 's own table shows rates from 7% to 67% depending on office. The Forest Service's 16% attrition rate wasn't the highest percentage in the department. What it was is the biggest single loss: 5,860 people, more than double the next-largest agency's headcount drop.
View data as table
| Forest Service | 5,860 | 16% of 35,550 employees |
|---|---|---|
| Natural Resources Conservation Svc. | 2,673 | 22% of 12,058 employees |
| Animal & Plant Health Inspection Svc. | 2,105 | 25% of 8,435 employees |
| Agricultural Research Service | 1,647 | 23% of 7,190 employees |
| Farm Service Agency (county offices) | 1,082 | 7% of 15,837 employees |
| Farm Service Agency | 806 | 24% of 3,402 employees |
Those aren't interchangeable federal jobs. An internal Forest Service Trail Program Status Report, first obtained by The Washington Post in December 2025 and drawing on accounts from nearly 300 district-level workers, found some ranger districts lost up to 100% of their trail crews. One district recreation program went from 20 staff to six, with that remaining crew overseeing more than 200 miles of trail. The report's own words: "unpassable trails, unsafe bridges, and negative environmental impacts." Nationally, it found maintained trail miles down 22% and miles meeting Forest Service standards down 19% year over year — both the lowest levels recorded in at least 15 years.
The backlog the survivors inherited
The $10.8 billion backlog was already there before the cuts. It isn't evenly spread: roads alone account for $5.98 billion, more than half the total, with bridges adding another $987 million and buildings — 65% of them over 50 years old — contributing over $2.6 billion more.
View data as table
| Roads | $5.98B | |
|---|---|---|
| Buildings | $2.6B+ | 65% of it in buildings over 50 years old |
| All other assets | ~$1.2B | trails, recreation sites, dams (residual) |
| Road bridges | $987M | |
| Total | $10.8B | as of Q1 FY2025 |
None of this backlog shrank because the workforce did. The FY2026 request proposes routing Land and Water Conservation Fund dollars toward "priority" deferred maintenance — a mechanism for choosing which parts of a $10.8 billion hole get filled first, not a plan to close it. Meanwhile the agency that inspects the bridges, clears the trails, and inventories the buildings is 16% smaller than it was at the end of 2024.
The takeaway
- The backlog didn't shrink; the staff did. $10.8 billion in deferred maintenance is a number set before the 2025 attrition — the workforce built to work it down is now 16% smaller.
- The Forest Service absorbed 's biggest single loss. 5,860 employees gone in five months is more than double the headcount lost at any other agency, per the department's own inspector general.
- The strain shows up first where staffing is thinnest. Trail crews cut by up to 100% in some districts translated directly into 22% fewer maintained miles in one year — the lowest level in at least 15 years.
The $10.8 billion backlog figure is the Forest Service's own estimate as of Q1 FY2025 and predates any FY2026 spending; it is not adjusted for inflation or partial-year maintenance spending since. Trail-maintenance figures are drawn from an internal Forest Service report not yet published in full; they are cited here via the news organizations that obtained and quoted it directly.
Sources
- Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Agriculture Staffing Levels (OAI Report 25-064-01, Dec. 17, 2025) — agency-by-agency headcount and attrition data for Jan. 12-June 14, 2025, including the Forest Service's 5,860-employee, 16% loss. oversight.gov
- Forest Service, FY2026 Congressional Budget Justification ("2026 Explanatory Notes — Forest Service") — the $10.8 billion agency-wide deferred-maintenance estimate and its roads/bridges/buildings breakdown. fs.usda.gov
- Our Public Lands and Waters (Substack) — summary and direct quotation of the internal Forest Service Trail Program Status Report, first obtained by The Washington Post, on 2025 trail-maintenance decline and district-level staffing losses. ourpubliclandsandwaters.substack.com
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The U.S. Forest Service manages 193 million acres, 370,000 miles of road, and 158,000 miles of trail — the infrastructure of the national forest system. Through the first half of 2025, that system lost 16% of the people who maintain it. The USDA Office of Inspector General counted 5,860 Forest Service employees gone between January 12 and June 14, 2025 — more people than any other agency lost, in percentage or in raw headcount. The backlog they were hired to work down didn't get the memo: the agency's own FY2026 budget filing to Congress puts deferred maintenance across all its assets at roughly $10.8 billion, as of the first quarter of the same fiscal year.