As the US Forest Service has lost internal capacity to get projects planned, awarded, and managed, it has become increasingly reliant on 'partners' - NGO agencies - to do a lot of the work Forest Service employees used to do.
Until she was fired as a part of sweeping workforce reductions being carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency, Tanya Torst was the Northern California Partnership Coordinator for the US Forest Service. Her job was to work with organizations like the Mule Deer Association, California Deer Association, Cal Trout, and 'Patriot Restoration Ops' (a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting veterans in transitioning from military service to civilian life) to get wildfire hazard reduction projects done around Northern California communities.
We talked with Tanya about how the firing of staff like herself is affecting the Forest Service's ability to get work done. Most of the projects she worked on implementing are now on hold, and the partner organizations face having to lay off employees and contractors who were engaged in doing this important work.
We also talked about the value of diversity in large, complex organizations. As a business consultant who had worked primarily in private industry, Tanya brought a unique perspective to her new job, trying to get things done within a large bureaucracy staffed largely by people without a business background.
Tanya has a MBA from Chico State, a Master's Degree in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management from Marylhurst University.
Video shot and edited by Kevin Curran.
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