The National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in Carr, Colo., is at risk of losing heat and power as its remaining employees rush to prepare for the animal's breeding season.
A federal maintenance worker in the southern United States can't make payments to do routine water testing for dangerous contaminants.
And rangers at one national park are funding meals for search-and-rescue volunteers out of their own pockets.
These are just a few examples of the immediate impacts of federal spending cuts on the U.S. Department of the Interior, which encompasses 433 national park sites, around 70,000 employees and 11 bureaus, from the U.S. Geological Survey to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Interior Department is reeling from the firings of probationary employees and President Trump's Feb. 26 order issuing a 30-day freeze on government payment cards. Now, the threat of deeper job cuts looms, as the Trump administration has ordered federal agencies to submit plans for wide-scale reductions in force — even as many agencies move to reinstate fired probationary employees in response to court orders.
Employees working for different parts of the Interior Department say they have been scrambling to keep the lights on, complete functions like environmental impact assessments that are required by Congress and keep Americans safe.
"There's no thought of 'How do I reduce cost and increase efficiency while ensuring that congressionally mandated things are being done,'" a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee said. "They don't care. There's no thought that the laws that were passed have any bearing on the current administration."
NPR spoke to 18 current and former employees at the Department of the Interior and its sub-agencies, from scientists to supervisors to maintenance workers, about the ongoing challenges of continuing to do their work amid chaos and uncertainty. Many requested anonymity, fearing reprisal from the Trump administration for speaking out and impacts to their future job prospects.
"Under President Donald J. Trump's leadership, we are eliminating wasteful programs, cutting unnecessary costs, and ensuring every dollar serves a clear purpose," said J. Elizabeth Peace, an Interior Department spokesperson, in a statement to NPR in response to a list of questions about the impacts of the spending freeze and job cuts described in this story.
Many Interior employees are used to scraping by on what they describe as a shoestring budget. That includes what the National Wildlife Refuge Association called a staffing crisis for federal jobs dedicated to wildlife conservation and close to a 6% decrease in jobs across the Interior Department during the first Trump term.
But the employees say the current atmosphere is different. They're consulting with lawyers and union representatives to fight moves they see as disorganized, potentially illegal and deeply harmful to future generations.
"It's very stressful. I wake up every morning thinking, 'What is today going to bring?'" said one U.S. Geological Survey worker. "And I think the science community as a whole has taken a lot of big hits between the mass firings of people who are just starting their careers, people who are doing great work ... you're losing a lot of knowledge."
Payment card spending capped at $1
Trump adviser Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of companies including Tesla and SpaceX, is spearheading efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to drastically downsize the federal government by slashing agencies' headcounts, budgets, programs and real estate footprints.
One of Musk's targets is 4.6 million government-issued payment cards, which are used by federal agencies to pay for needs ranging from hotel stays for FEMA employees during disaster responses to computers and protective equipment for the Department of Defense.
The General Services Administration, which issues many government purchase cards, has capped card spending at $1 to comply with Trump's spending freeze order. Despite the order's call for exceptions for "disaster relief or natural disaster response benefits or operations or other critical services as determined by the Agency Head," Interior employees say the spending limit combined with restrictions on travel is affecting critical Interior Department work across the nation, particularly in far-flung regional offices that have unique needs.
The $1 cap is affecting "the literal nuts and bolts" of the agency's work, according to a second U.S. Geological Survey worker.
For example, USGS and its federal, state, local and tribal partners operate more than 10,000 stream gauges across the country that monitor water flow, which is critical for flood warning and managing water use. That equipment is often located in remote areas and needs constant monitoring and repair. "We can't anticipate what's going to break next," the second USGS employee said.
The effective spending freeze means most USGS workers can't go to the closest hardware store to buy supplies, but instead have to rely on the single person in each region authorized to make payments, who may be located far away.
It takes federal maintenance workers a full day to travel to one power plant in the Pacific Northwest. Now, they can't drive there to make repairs, or pay for the necessary equipment, according to an employee working for an Interior Department agency.
The payment bottleneck is also affecting routine water safety testing for dangerous contaminants in the South, where a federal worker was unable to pay for that testing at a local government office that does not accept online payments, according to emails shared with NPR by the worker.
Meanwhile, rangers at one national park have personally paid to feed volunteer search and rescue teams and haven't been able to buy propane for heaters at high-traffic ski and sledding areas, according to a National Park Service employee.
A manager in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told NPR that payments to contractors who help do environmental permitting that is required by law to protect threatened animals and habitats are also being disrupted.
"Bottom line is, this will make us less efficient and be costly to conservation of the land, listed species, data and the taxpayers," a U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist said. "It's a plan that lacks thought, and like most things this administration has done, is clumsy and counter to what their goal is, to save money and make the government more efficient."
Firings jeopardize endangered species conservation
On Valentine's Day this year, the Fish and Wildlife Service's National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center found itself leaderless, and down two additional staff who keep the largest captive population of this endangered species alive.
"It's putting the entire recovery program in jeopardy," said another USFWS biologist in Wyoming who worked on ferret recovery before getting fired last month.
Many such programs are now at risk. The USFWS oversees the recovery of over 1,600 species listed under the Endangered Species Act, and more under consideration for listing. In February, about 420 probationary staff were fired, and nearly 300 more took the Trump administration's "fork in the road" resignation offer, gutting capacity in many of those programs.
Tessa Corsetti was a probationary USFWS biologist working on long-term conservation strategies for bats in Maine. She was fired last month, along with several others in her roughly 15-person office. "It felt like somebody was trying to do surgery with a machete," she said.
This week, some fired Interior probationary staff started being offered their jobs back, in compliance with recent court orders. But even if they all return, the disruptions of the past month could have lasting consequences for some endangered species.
It's unclear how many workers will take back their old jobs. One fired employee expressed hesitation to feel anything positive, given the impending reduction in force.
Steeper staff reductions are coming
Late last month, some divisions within the Interior Department were asked to draw up plans for cuts of up to 40%, according to multiple Interior officials.
The impacts could be far-reaching at the sprawling department, whose work ranges from managing federal lands and fisheries to conservation to oil and gas leasing to relationships with Native American tribes.
Some parts of the agency are pushing back and trying to blunt the impact of involuntary reductions through federal programs offering early retirement and buyouts, Interior employees told NPR. Recent all-hands meetings across the department have been canceled at the last minute as managers say they don't have any information on what might happen in the coming weeks and months.
Job cuts at the Bureau of Indian Affairs are on hold, according to one of the Interior officials, because of concerns over legal obligations the U.S. government agreed to when it signed treaties with tribes. Tribal nations have already sued the federal government over probationary firings at the Bureau of Indian Education, alleging the government failed to consult with them as it's required to do.
One employee at a Department of Interior agency said there are plans to possibly consolidate and restructure IT teams, which could involve relocating staff to Washington, D.C. Employees are pushing back, given the vast network of expensive and antiquated IT infrastructure across the country that's critical to the functioning of key systems.
"Finding someone equipped to manage decades-old systems will not be easy," the employee noted in a conversation with NPR. "If these systems go down, essential services, especially those supporting rural communities, could be severely disrupted."
There is also confusion over how the Interior Department will evaluate performance as part of planned reductions, because the department's leadership canceled all active performance plans in late February, according to an email shared with NPR by Interior employees.
"We worry that this makes us vulnerable to termination based on shifting standards," one of the Interior employees who received the email said.
"Everyone is super anxious," said one of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services employees. "No one knows what they're being judged on; it's super random," they said.
Disrupting the pipeline of future scientists
The Interior Department also employs thousands of scientists who study everything from U.S. lands and climate change to conservation and natural disasters. They fear for the future of their work and the careers of young scientists who are just getting started.
New employees hired in recent years, those still in probationary periods, were the first to be cut during Trump's second term, according to one manager at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Even if they're reinstated, it will be difficult to recruit going forward, the manager told NPR.
"This younger generation of scientists, in 15 years there's going to be nobody to step into the shoes of the federal science community ... they've all been let go," the manager said.
One government scientist studying climate told NPR they fear their entire field is "on the chopping block," threatening the U.S.'s position as a global leader in climate science.
The climate scientist and a U.S. Geological Survey worker, both of whom are studying the impacts of natural disasters, said the U.S. will be less prepared for catastrophic storms and dangerous weather patterns going forward if their work is restricted or eliminated.
"We have an obligation to the people of the United States to help them prepare and rebound after natural disasters," said the USGS employee, who has lived through the aftermath of a dangerous hurricane and seen firsthand what it takes to rebuild.
"I've spent my whole life working towards being a scientist," the employee continued. "It's who I am."
Have information you want to share about the ongoing changes across the federal government? Reach out to these authors: Jenna McLaughlin is available through encrypted communications on Signal at jennamclaughlin.54, Shannon Bond is on Signal at shannonbond.01, and Jonathan Lambert is on Signal at jonlambert.12
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