Forest Service Website Blames 'Radical Left Democrats': What We Know About This Latest Dumpster Fire
So the government shuts down on October 1st, and what’s the first thing you see when you go to the Mt. Hood National Forest website? A nice picture of a lake? Trail conditions? Nope. You get a big, angry red banner screaming about “Radical Left Democrats.”
Seriously.
“The Radical Left Democrats shutdown the government,” it read. “President Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open…”
This wasn't some rogue webmaster. This was the official message, pushed down from the Department of Agriculture, plastered across the homepages of our national forests. The digital equivalent of your park ranger jumping out from behind a ponderosa pine to yell about partisan politics. Meanwhile, the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management managed to post simple, useful messages about service interruptions. You know, like adults.
This whole situation is just confusing. No, 'confusing' isn't the word—it's schizophrenic. Because while the political hacks in D.C. are turning the Forest Service into a mouthpiece for a Twitter feud, the actual people who work for the agency are out there performing minor miracles.
A Glimmer of Hope Before the Inevitable Dumpster Fire
The Tale of Two Agencies
Just a few days before this digital meltdown, Hurricane Helene decided to rip the guts out of the Southern Appalachians. It tore Interstate 40 to shreds, collapsing entire sections of the road into the Pigeon River Gorge. This isn't some scenic byway; it's a major artery for commerce and travel, with 25,000 vehicles a day suddenly going nowhere.
So what happened? The same U.S. Forest Service whose website was about to be hijacked for political messaging sprang into action. They worked with the North Carolina DOT to figure out how to rebuild the damn thing. They needed three million cubic yards of rock and soil. Instead of trucking it in from God knows where, they identified a site right there in the Pisgah National Forest.
The result? They saved taxpayers nearly $100 million. They shaved up to three years off the construction time.
Think about that. While one part of the Forest Service is being forced to post partisan garbage, another part—the part with botanists, hydrologists, and actual goddamn engineers—is saving the state of North Carolina a hundred million bucks and preventing years of traffic nightmares.
This is the part that drives me crazy. It reminds me of trying to get a simple permit from the city. You get bounced between three different departments, each one telling you the other one is responsible, and you just want to scream. Except here, one department is trying to put out a fire while the other is pouring gasoline on it.
The USDA spokesperson, talking about the collaboration, said they wanted to support the repair process "while also protecting the natural and cultural resources of our forest." That's what they should be doing. And they did it. They're even adding 1,000 acres to the national forest and building wildlife crossings as part of the deal.
It’s an incredible story of competence and inter-agency cooperation. It’s the kind of thing that makes you think, hey, maybe government can work.
And then you look at Alaska.
This Isn't Reorganization, It's a Controlled Demolition
"Improving" by Closing Everything
At the exact same time the North Carolina team was being lauded for its success, the Trump administration was quietly gutting the Forest Service up north. Under the guise of a "national reorganization," they announced plans to close an unknown number of offices in Alaska.
The agency has offices in 14 different towns, from Anchorage to Yakutat. Now? Nobody knows what’s staying. The research stations, like the Juneau Forestry Science Laboratory? Shuttered. Consolidated into a single location in Fort Collins, Colorado. Because offcourse, scientists studying coastal rainforests in Alaska will be much more effective working from landlocked Colorado. It makes perfect sense if you’ve had a recent head injury.
This is on top of the Department of Government Efficiency (a name so Orwellian it hurts) firing 3,400 Forest Service employees earlier this year, over 100 of them in Alaska alone. And the proposed budget calls for another 34% cut.
When asked for details, a USDA spokesperson gave the most perfect, content-free PR statement I’ve ever seen: “Some aspects of the reorganization will take place over the coming months, while others will take more time. We will continue to provide updates as the reorganization moves forward.”
Let me translate that for you: "We have no idea what we're doing, or we do and it's too politically toxic to admit, so please stop asking."
They followed it up with this gem: “We recognize this may be difficult, but we are hopeful that affected employees will remain with us through this transition...”
Hopeful they’ll remain with you? You’re closing their offices and firing their colleagues! That ain't hope, that's delusion. They’re closing the Pacific Northwest headquarters in Portland, too, which oversees 24 million acres. The reason, according to Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins, is to bring the agency "closer to its customers." By moving headquarters from the Pacific Northwest to hubs in places like Utah and Missouri. Right.
Then again, maybe I'm the crazy one here. Maybe there’s a master plan I just can’t see.
A Civil War Inside a Single Agency
Just Trying to Keep the Lights On
So you have this agency that’s simultaneously a model of efficiency and a political dumpster fire. An organization being systematically dismantled by the same administration that uses its website for partisan potshots.
And through it all, the work continues.
In New Hampshire, where drought conditions are creating a massive wildfire risk, what’s the Forest Service doing? They’re staging a wildfire response helicopter at a municipal airport. Proactively. They’re working with local fire departments on a statewide fire ban. They’re doing their jobs.
A helicopter sits on a tarmac in New Hampshire, ready to fight a fire. A team of specialists in North Carolina figures out how to rebuild a highway faster and cheaper. And in D.C., some political appointee is typing up a message blaming the "Radical Left" for everything.
It’s not one Forest Service. It's two. One is staffed by professionals trying to manage 193 million acres of public land. The other is a ghost in the machine, a political entity that only cares about the next news cycle. They're closing offices, firing people, slashing budgets, and all for what? To bring the agency 'closer to its customers,' and honestly... I just can't square it. One of these agencies has to win, and I think we all know which one has the political momentum.
So, Which Agency Do We Get to Keep?
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