Now a month into the second Donald Trump presidency, we’ve seen a daily barrage of headlines documenting executive orders, funding cuts and layoffs, though how those are trickling down to the North Coast has been hard to decipher.
Journal attempts to get hard numbers of local federal employees fired and local funding streams frozen or cut have found little success. We’ve confirmed that local employees of the National Parks Service and the United States Forest Service have been fired, though no one seems to know or be willing to say how many. And we know that a variety of local nonprofits have faced funding uncertainty and angst, but whether they have yet seen cuts materialize is likewise unclear.
North Coast Congressmember Jared Huffman hosted a virtual town hall meeting Feb. 24 and painted a dire picture of what is happening in Washington, though he provided few specifics. Inquiries to his office seeking specifics to quantify the impacts of layoffs and funding freezes were not immediately returned.
During his town hall, Huffman lamented Elon Musk’s new Department of Government Efficiency “has been given the keys to government,” saying the firings directed by the unelected billionaire “and his private sector tech bros” have been “thoughtless and cruel.” Questioning the legality of the administration’s actions, Huffman indicated vital local programs have already been impacted.
“We’re seeing in fire country, which I represent, a lot of, a lot of projects that we need that keep us safer grinding to a halt,” he said. “We could lose an entire season of fire safety projects because of these political games.”
Later, Huffman addressed layoffs in the forest and parks services, specifically, saying they are going to have “devastating effects.” Reports indicate 10 percent of employees at both agencies were let go nationwide, though it’s unclear if that’s been the case locally.
“This summer, when tourism is peaking in our national parks, we’re going to have a hard time keeping the restrooms open and the trash cans from overflowing,” he said. “We’ll probably have public safety personnel, like rangers, cleaning out trash cans. We’ll have biologists trying to keep the restrooms sanitary. It’s not sustainable, and we’ll be lucky if we’re even able to keep many of these park units open through peak tourist season if we keep going the way we’re going.”
Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire, who also represents the North Coast, lamented that Trump’s administration is resulting in layoffs at Redwood National Parks of “employees who have given their careers to protecting California’s ancient redwood forests, one of our most iconic resources.” When it comes to fire prevention, McGuire said the state will continue to invest in making the state’s forests and wildlands safe, noting, “We’re investing over $4 billion in vegetation management projects, doubling the number of CalFire firefighters.”
Immediately following reports that layoffs had begun at the National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service, the Journal began making inquiries to determine local impacts, to little avail.
A representative at Redwoods National and State Parks responding to an email from the Journal on Feb. 14 stated that all media inquiries were being handled at the regional office and the Journal‘s questions about the number of layoffs in the North Coast region were forwarded to it. No one from that office has responded.
Similarly, a recording at the National Park Service office in Washington, D.C., referred members of the media to email the agency and a list of questions sent by the Journal to the address provided has not received a response.
A message left for a spokesperson at the Six Rivers National Forest headquarters in Eureka on the same day was responded to by a Forest Service spokesperson at the regional office in Arcadia, California, who asked for a list of questions, stating: “Since HR matters fall under the national office’s purview, we are required to forward them for review.” No one from the agency has responded.
It’s unclear how many people in Humboldt County are employed by the federal government, though the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents employees in 37 federal agencies, reports there are nearly 6,000 in Huffman’s Second Congressional District.
Meanwhile, uncertainty also continues over the local impacts of some of Trump’s executive orders, including those freezing federal grants and targeting transgender people and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs.
The funding freeze order quickly brought chaos to some local nonprofits that receive federal grants when it was issued, though a federal judge issued an order blocking its implementation, at least temporarily. Food for People issued a statement saying “there still may be impacts” to its programs and “uncertainty remains” about whether there will be additional attempts to cut programs for people living in poverty.
Trump’s orders targeting transgender people — including one seeking to prohibit children from receiving gender-affirming care and another seeking to define “sex” as “an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female” — also face legal challenges and their impact is currently unclear.
Tory Starr, the CEO of Open Door Community Health Centers, says the orders are a point of concern for the organization, which depends on federal funding — both through grants and Medicaid reimbursements — to operate. But Starr said the organization is continuing business as usual currently, at least until the Health Resources and Services Administration issues policy guidance on implementation of the executive orders.
That’s the case with the nonprofit’s DEI policies, too, Starr said, adding it’s just currently very unclear how the flurry of executive orders will be implemented on a policy level.
“There is no process,” he said of the orders. “It’s just chaos.”
Starr said Open Door will work to continue to provide patients the spectrum of care they need and to provide its employees with a welcoming workspace no matter what comes. But he said the organization’s most urgent concern at the moment is potential cuts to Medicaid, the federal program that provides health insurance for those with limited income through Medi-Cal in California.
About a quarter of Open Door’s patients are on Medi-Cal, Starr said, so any reduction in Medicaid funding could have a dramatic impact on the nonprofit, which finished 2024 with a $600,000 surplus on a $110 million operating budget.
Many believe Medicaid will be in the crosshairs in the budget deal being put forth this week by Republicans in Congress with a March 14 deadline looming to prevent a government shutdown. Trump has pressured Republicans to extend the tax cuts passed in 2017, but doing so for another decade would cost a projected $4 trillion. The Trump tax policy also overwhelmingly benefits the wealthy, as the Tax Policy Center estimates it will save households with incomes in the top 1 percent more than $60,000 in 2025, while households in the bottom 60 percent will save just $500. Many fear Republicans will propose deep cuts to Medicaid to fund the tax cut extension Trump is asking for.
Christine Messinger, a spokesperson for the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services, said more than 58,000 Humboldt County residents are enrolled in Medicaid for their insurance, so cuts to Medicaid would impact the department’s ability to provide services.
Starr said Open Door operates as an integrated system, drawing revenue for a variety of sources to provide a swath of services to its patients. As such, he said cuts to Medicaid wouldn’t just impact Medicaid patients, but everyone who receives services from Open Door.
About 80 percent of Open Door’s costs are for its workforce, Starr said, noting that any significant Medicaid reduction would result in a staff reduction. He noted that Open Door is currently the fourth largest employer in the county, with more than 800 people on staff, and, as such, an economic driver for the region.
Ultimately, he said, Medicaid cuts would reduce both access to care on the North Coast and the quality of care providers can deliver.
“There’s not a lot of logic in giving the richest people in the country tax breaks and having that borne out by the poorest,” he said.
Thadeus Greenson (he/him) is the Journal’s news editor. Reach him at (707) 442-1400, extension 321, or thad@northcoastjournal.com.
This article appears in ‘Breathing Room’.
