Right? Their investments in you and others like you have paid off tremendously

I also think many districts of the FS need to treat entry-level and seasonal employees like what they are, the backbone and future of the agency, rather than easily-replaceable glorified janitors. (But that's a bigger issue of government workplace culture...)

This is why I think it was a bad idea for the Forest Service to get rid of temporary seasonals last year (and of course, a bad idea to lay off probationary employees earlier this year). The lack of developed talent is an unrealized deficit that will be felt in the coming years

figured out that I could get paid to tell stories about our public lands - I just had to, you know, tell them over and over and over and over again in public.