Resistance and Resilience

Inspecting the Upper Truckee River Restoration Project behind my home in Lake Tahoe.

My blog this month is taking a sharp swerve because, frankly, so has the risk to life as we know it. We are living in a time of unprecedented danger in our country. The menace comes from deep within, and we as a society may face the greatest existential threat we will experience in our lifetime.

I have always considered myself a proactive environmentalist, having chosen a career working within the deep state of the federal government. I am incredibly fortunate to have spent my entire hydrology career stationed in Lake Tahoe with the US Forest Service. As another hydrologist once said to me when I told them where I worked at a regional conference I attended during my first year, "Oh wow! You got a job in a hydrologist fantasy land." 

It took a couple more years for me to truly grasp what she meant. Lake Tahoe has the most well-funded and cutting-edge watershed restoration and monitoring programs in the entire US Forest Service and probably anywhere in the world. My job was fascinating and fulfilling, and I am very proud of the legacy I left behind—a legacy I can literally see every day I ski, paddle, peddle, and dog walk outside my front door. 

The impact of the White House, through the DOGE and Office of Management and Budget (OMB), working feverishly to implement the blueprint of Project 2025, has created so much chaos, uncertainty, and fear that it is difficult to follow, much less understand what is happening. It is even more difficult to grasp the potential impact these actions will have on our individual lives and society in the next year or even the next twenty.  

Although there are many issues I am deeply concerned about, the one I have personally chosen to engage in is the threats to public lands. I have decided to jump into this front of the Resistance because I know something about what is happening at the ground level and understand the potential consequences. 

When I talk to my colleagues working in the Forest Service today, it breaks my heart. The past two months have been a living hell for them, and the disruption to their lives, families, and livelihoods is likely to be catastrophic. They have been told their work is not valued, many will no longer have a future working in the federal government, and those who remain will be doing their job to implement Whitehouse priorities following the Project 2025 blueprint. They have also been given essentially a gag order. They are not allowed to talk about what is happening regarding agency reorganization and reductions with the media, congressional representatives, or the public. (Washington Post, March 27, 2025)  

Their work has been put on pause. USFS staff at all levels are not allowed to make decisions or take actions related to hiring, purchasing, contracting, grants, agreements, or working with partners unless those actions are requested and approved at the highest level in Washington (under the oversight of DOGE/OMB).  Consequently, basically, nothing is getting approved.  

Their careers, as they knew it, are about to end or be forever transformed in a way that is almost incomprehensible. They know the administration plans to make massive reductions in the federal workforce and are also looking hard at opportunities to sell off public lands and privatize operations on those they can't sell. (Mother Jones, March 8, 2025)

BLM land, SF of the American River Lisa Dearing Photography

Most of the people I worked with in the Forest Service chose their careers because they are passionate about their role in the stewardship of public lands. The pay is not great, but retirement and health benefits are decent. Working every day to make large swaths of public lands resilient to climate change and human impacts while providing high-quality outdoor recreation opportunities to people from across the political, cultural, and economic spectrum is noble work. 

Not that working for a large federal bureaucracy does not come with some serious frustrations.  A simple AI definition of bureaucracy is "a system of administration, often characterized by many rules and procedures, that is used to manage large organizations or governments."

I spent much of my career figuring out how to navigate the Gordian knot of rules and procedures (both federal and state)  efficiently so we could get more work done on the ground. While I  never experienced fraud and abuse during my career in the Forest Service, I certainly saw many opportunities to reduce wasteful spending and improve efficiency. As I rose up the ranks of middle management, I implemented many actions to do just that as part of a continuous improvement process implemented by the US Forest Service (primarily during Democratic administrations) that aggressively sought ways to improve technology and procedural guidelines.  

What terrifies me most as I am writing this today is the total lack of evidence that DOGE, the appointed Cabinet Secretaries that oversee federal land management agencies, or the newly hired agency chiefs have the intent, integrity, or knowledge to improve the function of the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park System, US Geological Service, or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, essential to the long term protection of our public lands. (Ezra Klein Podcast, 2025).

Following the illegal firing of probationary employees, which is currently working its way through the courts, the White House has continued its assault. As directed by the White House, the first Phase of Agency Reorganization and Reduction Plans was completed on March 13, 2025. Almost no information has been revealed to the media or, apparently, congressional representatives regarding what is in this Phase I plan or who created it to meet the broadly stated DOGE goals of an 8 to 50% reduction in staffing and funding for federal land management agencies. From my conversations with several colleagues still working in the Forest Service, they also do not know who worked on the plan, which apparently did not involve staff input at the Forest, Regional, or National Level. Phase II of these plans is due on April 14, and full implementation will be completed by September 30, 2025.   

Folks, if you haven't figured it out already, this process being implemented by the White House through DOGE and OMB  is frankly downright bizarre. 

The threat to our public lands has never been greater, and the potential for irreparable harm is often what keeps me up at night.  

BLM and USFS Land in the Eastern Sierras Lisa Dearing Photography

It is difficult to know exactly how to react and what to react to because of the intentional level of chaos and uncertainty created by DOGE and OMB. But for anyone who values public lands, if you are not actively becoming part of the Resistance, you are part of the problem. 

If public lands are not your hot button issue, compared to attacks on civil rights, social security and medicaid, Department of Education, or the myriad of other assaults, I respect that, and applaud you taking up the Resistance where and how you are most moved to do so. 

For this blog focused on the public lands issue, I would like to share my current Resistance plan of attack below:

1. Stay informed and contact congressional representatives, making it a weekly practice. 

2. Engage with the community to amplify, amplify, amplify. Do so respectfully, from an informed position, and if possible, designed to not increase polarization. 

3. Join organizations that effectively capture the critical issues and lobby congressmen across both parties on these issues. (I have been a long-time member of the NRDC and Nature Conservancy and recently joined the Outdoor Alliance.)

4. Contact City Councils and Boards of Supervisors to adopt Resolutions expressing concern for and opposition to the local impacts of federal staffing and funding cuts. (Inspired by recently adopted resolutions by the Town of Truckee, I am leading an effort to propose similar resolutions for the City of South Lake Tahoe, Placerville, and El Dorado County.)

Many frightening things are happening with this current administration. I am speaking about the public lands aspect because of how close it is to my heart and my knowledge of what is at stake in mountain communities like mine.  Our Federal lands make the United States unique in the world, providing an incalculable richness to American life. My personal path to resiliency, has been shaped by a deep connection to wild places, and I fervently believe maintaining the resiliency of the human species is closely tied to maintaining the resiliency of the natural ecosystems in which we live.

Federal public lands should continue to be managed by the federal government. Efforts to

USFS land along the Upper Truckee River, post restoration

improve efficiency and reduce waste have and should continue, but they should be done intelligently, follow the law, involve federal employees in the process, and treat these civil servants with respect. 

Lastly, while integrating your small but collectively significant acts of Resistance into your weekly, if not daily, life, make sure to maintain your resilience. Regularly taking a ski, paddle, pedal, hike with friend(s) and/or dog(s), or picnic with the family, somewhere outdoors has immense power to calm and strengthen. I hope to see you out there, and to join arms in the Resistance.