ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Western North Carolina forests damaged by Tropical Storm Helene are getting hit again. The Department of Government Efficiency’s mass firing of government employees is having a direct impact on forestland damaged by Helene in late September.

Helene damaged about 822,000 acres of forestland in WNC, and several of the U.S. Forest Service employees who have been engaged in recovery efforts have now been terminated.

“The Agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the Agency would be in the public interest,” according to letters former employees have posted to social media.

According to news reports, the Trump administration has terminated 3,400 U.S. Forest Service workers and 1,000 National Park Service employees.

Some 17 of those people were working in the U.S. Forest Service’s four national forests in North Carolina — Nantahala, Pisgah, Uwharrie and Croatan, said Jenifer Bunty, who was a U.S. Forest Service employee in the Asheville area until Monday.

“There are some days where you feel like you’re like saving the world because you’re talking about things that will impact the next hundred years on this piece of land that means so many things to so many people,” Bunty said when asked to describe her former job.

Bunty said she and her immediate supervisors thought disaster recovery in WNC was critical.

It’s unclear how recovery in an area devastated by flooding and wind from Helene is going to proceed with a smaller workforce.

Attempts to reach U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), U.S. Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Congressman Chuck Edwards (R-NC-11) for comment have been unsuccessful.

“[U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins] fully supports the President’s directive to improve government, eliminate inefficiencies, and strengthen USDA’s many services to the American people. We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of the American people’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar spent goes to serve the people, not the bureaucracy,” a spokesperson for the USDA said in a statement.

Efforts to reach officials in the Department of the Interior and U.S. Forest Service were unsuccessful.

The National Federation of Federal Employees and a coalition of labor unions filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Wednesday, Feb. 12, challenging the “Trump Administration’s orders to gut the federal workforce.”

The complaint challenges the firing of probationary employees, the deferred resignation ploy to pressure employees to voluntarily resign and large-scale reductions-in-force, or RIFs, that violate federal laws, a news release from the NFFE said.

“The Trump Administration’s executive actions to gut the federal workforce are not only illegal, but will also have damaging consequences for federal employees and the public services they provide,” NFFE National President Randy Erwin said in the news release. “The courts must intervene and hold this Administration accountable for violating federal laws before it is too late. Federal workers are your friends and neighbors who have dedicated their careers to serving our country. We cannot let the President disrupt their lives and dismantle critical services relied upon by the American people.”

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, also alleges the Trump Administration is illegally undermining Congress’s authority by eliminating federal agencies and jobs that have been created and authorized by the Legislative Branch. The suit asks the court to declare that the mass firing of probationary and other employees and the deferred resignation program, collectively, are unlawful.

“If this Administration and Elon Musk truly wanted to make our government more efficient, they would have taken the time to understand that these actions will only lead to chaos and poor service for the American people,” Erwin said in the release. “Instead, they are illegally targeting federal agencies, their missions, and workers to pay for proposed tax cuts for the wealthy. These efforts hurt middle class Americans who chose to work in service to the public as federal employees. It is unpatriotic and unacceptable.”

The move comes just a few weeks after President Donald Trump was in Swannanoa surveying the damage caused by Helene.

“I’d like to see the states take care of disasters,” he told the Associated Press at the time. “Let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and all of the other things that happen.”

North Carolina officials have estimated that Helene caused a record $59.6 billion in damage. FEMA has contributed almost $380 million through public assistance grants to the state and local governments, as well as approximately $372 million directly to North Carolinians as of Feb. 11, according to the agency. FEMA’s responsibilities include direct financial assistance to individuals and reimbursements to governments for recovery tasks like debris removal and rebuilding roads.

COMING THURSDAY: 828newsNOW talks with former U.S. Forest Service employee Jenifer Bunty.