ADAMS — The energy at the Columbia Plateau Conservation Research Center is more subdued than normal.

The mood among personnel at the research station home to both United States Department of Agriculture and Oregon State University Extension scientists has been “a bit disheartened” since multiple USDA employees have been — or are expected to be — let go during a nationwide series of layoffs, according to Francisco Calderon, director of OSU’s side of the station, the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Center.

“They were our friends and coworkers, you know, and now we walk past empty offices,” he said. “It’s not a good thing.”

Federal workers who lost their jobs during the wave of layoffs in mid-February were probationary, meaning they had been hired within the past few years and were relatively new to their roles. Employees who move into new roles within the organization also begin on probation.

Probationary employees have to meet set standards in order ensure their performance is satisfactory. This group of employees tends to have the least worker protections due to their status.

In addition to losing employees at the USDA agricultural research station in Adams, the U.S. Forest Service lost dozens of employees across Northeastern Oregon and about 2,000 workers nationwide. A USDA spokesperson said much of the funding for these employees had come from temporary funding through former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

“It’s unfortunate that the Biden administration hired thousands of people with no plan in place to pay them long term,” the spokesperson said.

The sudden loss of workers in areas critical to Eastern Oregon, including research and forest trail maintenance, has left some people and organizations in the region reeling.

Agricultural research may suffer

Calderon with OSU said the impact is not only on personnel; the growers they help and the center’s research projects are going to be negatively impacted by the loss of USDA employees. The two organizations are co-located at the station because much of their work is complementary. Together, he said, they form a “collaboration that’s more than the sum of its parts.”

Their work is done to benefit mostly dryland wheat farmers in the area; research projects are informed by an advisory committee. Current research that may be affected by losing contributing scientists focuses on research such as herbicide resistant wheat, water use efficiency and cover cropping.

Another concern is funding may also be at risk. Grant funds often have specific requirements, or provide money for a specific position, and losing the scientists who help meet the grant standards means the funds supporting a project won’t be released.

Liaison advisory committee chairman Clint Carlson, a wheat farmer in Ione and past president of the Oregon Wheat Growers League, said while the immediate impact on farming in the region will be minimal, the eventual effects could be concerning.

Discoveries can’t happen if the scientists, and the expertise and funding they bring with them, aren’t around anymore. Carlson attributed better growing practices and outcomes to research over generations and said while farmers can figure a lot out on their own, scientists have the knowledge, tools and time to dive deeper into questions and solutions to move the field forward.

“Without that kind of research that’s ongoing every year, every 10 years, every generation,” he said, “ we wouldn’t be where we are now.”

Forest service fights internal fires

One of the biggest USDA losses in Eastern Oregon came from Forest Service employees in their probationary period. The three national forests in the Blue Mountains — Wallowa-Whitman, Umatilla and Malheur — cover about 5.5 million acres, more than twice the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.

The USDA spokesperson said released employees were probationary and non-firefighting. However, direct firefighting employees are not the only ones whose work stops wildland fires. Some of the direct services provided by non-firefighting Umatilla National Forest employees include timber management and fire suppression support.

One former Forest Service employee, Anna, worked in timber management before being laid off just 52 days before her probationary period ended. Anna did not give her last name, but said during a fire, there are many ways that non-firefighting personnel lend a hand. Some non-firefighting personnel could get red cards — officially known as incident qualification cards — to let them help during a fire, she said.

“With us being gone, even though we’re not directly firefighters, we would still inevitably help because that’s what we did last summer,” Anna said. “We helped out where we could. So that’s a loss for the wildland fire departments for sure.”

According to retired North Fork John Day Ranger District recreation wilderness manager Curtis Booher, the team of five or so field workers at the district were let go, too, leaving the Ukiah area without wilderness, off-highway vehicles, recreation and campground, and pack stock program support. Booher retired from the district in October 2024, but stays connected to the team of people he was overseeing.

“ I spent my career in civil service, state level, federal level. There are always improvements to be made, always,” he said. “There are things we’d all like to see, but to cut field level people and field level services to the public is about the cruelest thing I can think of.”

‘Everybody’s affected’

Booher also said he can’t imagine what the impact of these losses will be on the community moving forward.

“ Everybody’s affected. I can’t think of one single thing in recreation or access to public lands that would not be affected,” said Booher. “ The difference will be felt in June and May and even before that as the district ranger tries to prepare for their season without resources.”

Booher added the people still with the Forest Service are good at their jobs, but he’s disappointed in the situation. He said people are making decisions from a remote location without having any idea of the local needs.

“ The people who are neediest, the people who do the most work, the people who represent the agency are the people getting fired,” he said. “It’s just terrible.”