Bailey Langley had been working at what she describes as her “dream job” for nearly a year when it ended with a single phone call and email.
In the Trump administration’s attempt to reduce the size of the federal government, Langley, a 23-year-old Pendleton resident who worked in public affairs for the Umatilla National Forest, claimed she was informed on Valentine’s Day that she was fired right away.
After graduating from Oregon State University in July 2023, Langley began working for the Umatilla as an intern. She reported she was recruited as a permanent employee in April 2024.
It would have been April 2025 when her one-year probationary period finished.
In the 2024 election, Eastern Oregon voted heavily for Trump.
The federal government owns and controls a large portion of the land in eastern Oregon.
Nathan Morga, who was also employed in April 2024, refers to his role as the NEPA writer at the Walla Walla Ranger District office of the Umatilla National Forest as his “dream job.”
The 1969 federal statute known as the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, mandates that federal agencies conduct environmental impact assessments of their operations. An environmental evaluation examining the potential impacts of a timber sale is a common example for the Forest Service.)
Similar to that, Morga’s employment ended with a phone call followed by an email.
However, two days after Langley found out her employment was terminated immediately, Morga received a call from the Umatilla’s supervisor on Sunday, February 16.
Republican senators fear that red states will be severely impacted by Trump’s cuts.
Morga, 39, has worked for the federal government in different capacities than Langley.
According to him, he served in the California National Guard for three years and the U.S. Air Force for four years on active service.
According to Morga, his military involvement has left him physically and mentally disabled. He claimed he intended to complete his career on the Umatilla after three years of employment with two other federal agencies, the federal fisheries agency in Long Beach, California, and the National Weather Service in Alaska.
He and his spouse, who have two middle-school-aged kids, purchased a house in Walla Walla last year and were integrating into the neighborhood, as Morga described it.
According to Morga, he and his colleagues discovered a few weeks ago that probationary employees would probably be more at risk as a result of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut the federal government’s personnel and overall size.
These are usually personnel who began their employment less than a year ago, however certain federal employees who have been with the government for a longer period of time may also be placed on probation if they have transferred to a new agency or national forest.
Morga expressed his hope that being a crippled veteran will have an impact.
However, he received a call from the forest supervisor on Sunday.
According to Morga, he was requested to bring his personal belongings and complete documentation at the Walla Walla district office.
Deedra Fogle, director of human resource management for the Forest Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, sent him the following email, among other things:
Based on your performance, the Agency concludes that you have not shown that it would be in the public interest for you to continue working for the Agency.
However, Morga said that his most recent performance evaluation demonstrated that he was performing his duties effectively.
He claimed that reading the email was devastating.
“I don’t know how else to put it,” he continued. I’m still thinking.
Morga expressed his hope that the National Federation of Federal Employees, which represents the majority of Forest Service employees, will take legal action to assist him get his job back.
He said, “But I don’t have a lot of hope.”
The federation is one of multiple unions joining forces in a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration’s federal employment cuts.
With a master’s degree in public health, Morga claimed to be a civil servant rather than a federal bureaucracy, living paycheck to paycheck like many employees.
An urgent email
According to Langley, she was assigned to jury duty on Thursday and Friday, February 13 and 14. According to her, coworkers informed her that they had heard that all probationary employees were being let go when she visited the Umatilla supervisor’s office on Thursday.
She was on jury duty the following day when her supervisor called to inform her that she received an urgent email.
According to Langley, the email told her that she was being let go.
According to Langley, she was given two hours to tidy up her desk and complete the documentation related to her firing.
The reference to performance as the basis for the firings was the subject of a complaint made by forest supervisors in the Forest Service’s Region 6, which includes Oregon and Washington, to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, of which the Forest Service is a component, she said.
According to Langley, the supervisors voiced their displeasure since workers with excellent performance reviews were being let go.
She claimed to have heard that representatives of the agriculture department argued that the terminations were lawful due to improper evaluations of probationary staff.
According to Langley, she is attempting to adapt to the abrupt change in her life and profession, even though she expects to someday return to her position with the Umatilla.
“I’ve just been trying to process everything over the past few days,” she added.
She assisted in educating locals about the ongoing endeavor to draft new long-term management plans for the three Blue Mountains national forests—Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman, which is headquartered in Baker City, and Malheur, which has its headquarters in John Day—as part of her job in public affairs.
According to Langley, she has learned that roughly 20 workers on the Umatilla were let go, some of whom were asked to clear their desks on Saturday, February 15.
Whitman-Wallowa National Forest
An employee from Baker City, the location of the forest’s headquarters, claimed that, similar to Langley, they received an email on Valentine’s Day informing them of their termination.
Due to a possible class-action lawsuit brought by unions on behalf of employees, the Wallowa-Whitman employee asked to remain anonymous. The worker stated that they did not wish to influence the legal challenge.
The worker, who has been at the Wallowa-Whitman supervisor’s office at the David J. Wheeler Federal Building in Baker City for almost two years, was hired as a permanent employee about a year ago after working as a contract employee for the first year.
The worker claimed that since the Trump administration offered federal employees a severance package that included money and benefits until September if they retired, coworkers have been worried.
A week or so earlier, staff members discovered that Forest Service representatives had been requested to create a list of probationary workers.
On Valentine’s Day, a supervisor called the employee regarding an important email that had been sent.
According to your performance, the employee was fired right away, according to the email.
No information was provided on the employee’s failure to meet expectations.
According to the worker who asked to remain anonymous, all of their performance reviews were far above satisfactory.
According to the worker, it seems that at least 30 of Wallowa-Whitman’s around 200 employees were let off.
The majority of the 2.4 million acres of the forest are located in the counties of Baker, Grant, Union, and Wallowa.
The future of the worker, who relocated to Baker City in order to work for the Wallowa-Whitman, is questionable.
While seeking employment, the individual is interested in volunteering.
The worker spent three days a week in the federal building and two days at home.
The employee stated, “You don’t expect it to happen to you until it happens to you.” Those who have children are beyond my comprehension. It’s disastrous.
The employee attended a protest in La Grande on Monday afternoon where topics included the Trump administrator s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) campaign in general, as well as the recent firings of federal workers.
Pendleton saw a similar demonstration on Monday.
Randy Erwin, national president of the National Federal of Federal Employees, said in a press release: Federal workers are your friends and neighbors who have dedicated their careers to serving our country. We cannot allow the President to interfere with their lives and destroy vital services that the American people depend on. If this Administration and Elon Musk truly wanted to make our government more efficient, they would have taken the time to understand that these actions will only lead to chaos and poor service for the American people.
Federal employees in northeastern Oregon
Larger government jobs in Northeastern Oregon include the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service.
The two organizations oversee half of the two million acres in Baker County.
According to the Oregon Employment Department, there were 190 federal employees in Baker County in December 2024, the same as in December 2023.
The numbers for additional counties:
Umatilla: 500 (up from 470 in December 2023)
Harney: 220 (same as in December 2023)
Grant: 200 (down from 220 in December 2023)
Union: 200 (down from 210 in December 2023)
Malheur: 190 (same as in December 2023)
Wallowa: 90 (up from 80 in December 2023)
Morrow: 50 (same as in December 2023)
Other federal agencies employing residents in the region include the Farm Service Agency, the National Weather Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
–By Jayson Jacoby
2025 the Baker City Herald (Baker City, Ore.). Visitwww.bakercityherald.com. Tribune Content Agency, LLC is the distributor.
