Employees of the Coconino National Forest were among the thousands of federal workers recently laid off by the Trump administration.
Although the exact number of those impacted locally is unclear, the mass firings have upended the lives of some people in northern Arizona.
KNAU spoke to several now-former federal workers.
Here are three of their stories:
Graham Whitney: My name is Graham Whitney. I'm an avid outdoorsman and a recently terminated employee from the United States Forest Service.
Mikaya Verdin: My name is Mikayla Verdin. I was a forestry technician for timber.
Zane Ondovcik: My name is Zane Ondovcik, and I worked in the Red Rock Ranger District. I grew up in the concrete jungle. My family didn't get a chance to go out much. So when I finally came to Flagstaff, my eyes seriously had been opened. I was really looking for a job that I could work where I could feel my conscience was clean. You know, I was serving the land as much as I was serving the public.
Verdin: I'm from Tulsa, Oklahoma originally. I moved here last May. I felt I was really making an impact on the community here.
There are a lot of benefits of being a federal employee. Student loan repayment is one of the big ones that drew me to it. Also job protection, which is ironic.
Towards the end of January, every federal employee got sent an email offering them a deferred resignation. I think it was two days after I accepted the deferred resignation, I got pulled into an office and fired.
Whitney: Sometimes I've heard our position referred to as kind of the janitor of the forest.
The last I had heard from my supervisors directly was that we were filing paperwork to go forward with my start date on March 23. So I was holding out hope.
A lot came crashing down. I spent the last two years really pursuing this career with the federal government. Maybe I was in a state of denial, but I was definitely kind of holding out some hope that I still had a job.
Ondovcik: It was a termination based on performance.
It made me feel a cognitive dissonance, really, because when I am in the field and I would be talking to folks, so many people would tell me, "Thank you. This place is amazing. Thank you for taking care of it."
And yet, at the same time, my superiors and my superior’s superiors are saying the exact opposite of me.
I work at a pizza place here in town a couple of days a week, whenever I can. That was the income that pushed me over paycheck to paycheck. I was willing to make that sacrifice to serve people and the public and the lands that I care about.
Verdin: That's like a slap in the face, really. I mean, out there, whenever you're marking timber, you're carrying around 20 pounds of paint on your back, hiking for up to 10 miles a day, 10 hour days.
I work really hard for low pay. I get paid just barely above Flagstaff minimum wage.
Where I'm at right now is just getting through my lease. And from there, I don't know where I'll be.
But as far as staying in Flagstaff, if I don't have a job that is in forestry, I can't see myself being here. I mean, that's why I moved here.
Whitney: People don't take jobs with the federal government for the money. A large reason people do the job is because they love it. And they love the mission and the belief behind it.
I'm kind of rethinking my whole career path at this point.
I've been with my now-wife, we've been together almost 10 years, since we were both freshmen at NAU. And we were, frankly, probably ready emotionally to get married a couple years ago.
But I wanted to sort out my career.
And ironically, a few months after we get married, my career is kind of down the drain.
So I'm not going to hold my breath for the day that the Forest Service is hiring people again because I have bills to pay.
So I can't guarantee that I'll find myself back with this agency one day, which is disappointing because I could have seen myself retiring with this agency.
