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The Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is asking remaining staff to apply for critical vacancies created by the same incentive-driven exits it recently encouraged, as it prepares for further workforce reductions.
NRCS, the second-largest agency within the Department of Agriculture, has lost nearly 2,400 employees since January, representing more than 20% of its workforce. With a hiring freeze in place until at least October 15, the agency expects to fall below its December 2019 staffing levels before resuming any new recruitment. Those levels will then serve as a permanent cap, according to an internal presentation.
Like the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in May, NRCS is now looking to backfill essential roles through internal transfers. USDA had previously avoided mass layoffs after a court blocked planned reductions, but a recent Supreme Court decision lifted that injunction, allowing workforce cuts to resume.
No guarantees, no relocation support for applicants
Leadership told staff the department is “optimizing and reducing the size of its workforce to become more efficient.” It aims to relocate “many employees” out of the Washington region, cut duplicated functions, eliminate unnecessary management layers, and reduce office space.
One NRCS employee said staff felt pressure to apply for vacancies, since jobs could otherwise be cut. “They were very adamant this is separate from any future reorganization actions,” the employee noted, describing the move as having “no guarantee of protection in the future.”
“From the employee perspective,” the staffer said, “I see very few taking this approach seriously unless there’s a work-life balance gain for the employee. Morale is too low to do this for the agency.”
Employees can apply to up to three roles. State-level NRCS leaders or their deputies will make final selections. Those applying to Washington-based roles were warned that they may be subject to future mandatory relocation. The department will not pay for relocation, offer pay retention, or provide grade increases, though it said it will attempt to match current salaries as closely as possible.
Capacity gaps affect core services and programs
The agency is currently looking to fill specialist roles such as soil conservationists. One employee said that after firing recent hires and incentivizing early retirements, “there won't be young people to come up” as more experienced staff leave. They described the transfer push as “a realization that the initial firings were ill-advised at best.”
Another NRCS staff member said they now cover 10 counties, up from four at the start of the Trump administration. Their team has lost its only Geographic Information System (GIS) expert, which is critical to the agency’s mapping work.
The office is approving fewer Environmental Quality Incentives Program applications due to limited resources, they claim. “The land doesn't go away, the work doesn't go away. It will just go to deferred maintenance. Never a good thing.”
