>>2857303
I was a biologist for the park service for a number of years. The service is essentially frozen right now because of the Trump administration. There are no non-seasonal hirings occurring outside of maybe law enforcement. As for how hard it is, tons of people apply, a few are chosen, even fewer ever see a permanent job. There’s never enough money to go around so the Parks use that against you, dangling steady employment in front of your face in a dream job. A lot of the upper management at large parks is extremely political. It can be very toxic if you have to deal with them (as I did). If you’re a seasonal on a crew it’s a great way to spend a summer and it can be fun, but go in knowing the pay is abysmal and it will be all but impossible for anything steady.

>>2857308
Thanks for the information.

>>2857305
>brown hands typed this

You're not get hired onto a land management agency right now outside of LEO or Fire.

At least for Forest Service there will still be non-Fed temp summer positions that are gonna be hired on through regional partner organizations. It's not gonna lead into an actual job any time soon but it will look good on an application if this is your long term goal. If you want one of those summer spots call up, or better yet go visit the distracts you want to work at so they can guide you to the right organizations to apply through. The hiring process is starting real soon so go do it quick.

To expand what >>2857308 said about pay. Everyone in the agencies know that pay is fucked in the resort/destination areas, but it can't be fixed by the agencies. Locational pay is set by Office of Personal Management, and it only get calculated for an area once you get to 1500 gov employees in a certain radius. And the radius is small enough that only major cities met that criteria. So the rest of the country all uses one location pay rate called "Rest of US". It would take OPM or an authority higher to change that. So not happening anytime before 2028.

>>2857335
>if there weren't religion I would be gay

>>2857305
>>2857324
You give off thirdie vibes. I don't know why...

>>2857335
You wouldn't do anything.

>>2857303
agree with >>2857308
the way gov works if you symbolically have to get in the cock sucking line, and that starts with seasonal for like 3-10 years depending on how much college or how good you are at cock sucking.
go to usa jobs and fill out positions. if the AI system passes you, phone call the ranger stations, because the people behind are usually good ol boy types (in rural areas away from liberal cities). If you want a better in you go to somewhere people dont want to work at. People do this all the time for 'career advancement'. "oh hey I can become a gs-07 if I spend a year in desert land where the only amenity is sunday night bingo. That's the area to work for.
Fire is 'supposed' to split from USFS and become part of Department of Interior under its own division with BLM and a few others but that is still in limbo. This makes 2 points.
1) in theory this may free up some of the funds for USFS after cause fire was undoubtedly eating the USFS budget for the last few decades.
2) until this change, wildland fire was one of the seasonal jobs to get your foot in the door to other USFS work down the line.
The USFS world isn't huge either so if you're an asshole, others will know. I meet people all the time that knew someone at my last duty station even if it was in the opposite end of the state. The best thing you can do is be consistent and keep your mouth shut on revealing your power level. You'll meet cool people but its not worth losing a career over. However I got away without getting the vaccine.
Also along the lines of what the poster I mentioned said, USFS was getting a substantial budget increase in the last few years, and they kept asking for more. First the Biden administration denied that in 2024, so there was a seasonal layoff panic. Then with Trump in 2025 there was the shutdown. Even if Doge isn't around anymore, USFS both is underfunded and mismanaged.

>>2857314
>>2857308
NPS is still hiring seasonal employees. Dunno about forest service or BLM. And there's always state parks.